CXXI.
Twist and let go, just like opening the handle of a door.
She inhales sharply as Kikyo throws Cloud flames in their direction, tugging on the Mist flames flickering inside her body –and she knows what they see, knows that they see her and Shouichi dissolving into a hundred tiny little butterflies again as they make their escape–
"Going somewhere?"
Yuuto.
Yuuto.
Her butterflies twist and tumble and fall apart as sea snakes tear into them with vicious glee and suddenly her brother is there, gray eyes flashing with pain and anger and a murderous intent so heavy that it wraps around her neck and chokes her. For a terrifying, dizzying moment, she can't breathe anymore –something tangible-intangible constricting tightly around her throat as her lungs burn and–
And this time, it's Shouichi who saves her, tackling her to the ground just in time so that another wave of sea snakes barely miss biting off her head.
"Drop the act, Stella," her brother hisses. "You think that wearing my sister's face will make me hesitate? I advise you to think again."
But.
But she's not.
She's not Stella.
(Not anymore, and she can now say those words with firm conviction. She is not Stella. She is not a ghost.)
"But I'm Setsu–"
Open the doorway. Step through. Step through, quickly, before it's too late.
She reaches out with her Mist flames and opens that doorway in the back of her mind, flitting into the Mist and dragging Shouichi along with her, and then they appear at the end of the street in a thunderous storm of lilac butterflies swirling through the air.
The space they had formerly occupied is now riddled with Mist-snakes and Cloud flames in a brilliant inferno, a conflagration of burning will.
She suppresses a shiver at the thought of being caught in it. If she had been a single second slower–
"This way!"
She stumbles, as Gokudera grabs her arm and sets her in front of him on his motorbike. With Shouichi sitting behind them, it's a tight fit all around –but considering the situation, comfort is the least of their priorities at the moment.
It takes a heart-stopping moment before she finally grasps hold of the flickering Mist inside herself and throws it over them as a minor concealment illusion.
She weaves the layers of deception one on top of another as quickly as she can, doggedly working through her exhaustion because she knows that this is a battle they cannot afford to lose, not with the Tri-ni-sette at stake.
(Just what is the Tri-ni-sette, anyways? Stella had known, but she was not Stella. She only had a vague intuition guiding her along now, a not-quite sixth sense telling her that the Tri-ni-sette was power and balance and life; that Byakuran absolutely must not be allowed to get his hands on it because he was a demon and he would use it to–)
"Trying to run away? Why are you hiding now, Stella?"
He tears it.
He tears it apart by focusing his own Mist into a needle-thin point and plunging down. The topmost layer is the first to break, along with the second, and he keeps forcing his Mist down down down and poisoning her own, undoing her illusions and unraveling it all and letting it fall apart and she can't keep them together–
How can he do this so easily?
(You are weak. This strength you have is mine. You live on borrowed strength, child. Without me, you are nothing.)
An echo of Stella's words amidst the tumultuous waters. She shivers involuntarily at the icy words.
And.
"Oi, get yourself together!" Gokudera snarls at her, startling her with the sheer ferocity of his tone. His hands clench tightly on her shoulders. "What the hell do you think you're doing, spacing out like that?!"
Too late.
It's too late.
Her illusions shatter and break, and the butterflies quietly scatter to the four corners of the wind.
CXXII.
"Ehh, he's seriously going to try and fight Kikyo and Torikabuto at the same time? What an idiot."
"Now, now, Bluebell-chan," Byakuran patted the little girl's head absentmindedly, staring intently at the projection screen in front of them, where Gokudera had brought out the Sistema CAI again. "It's not like he's left with any other choice, is there?"
Bluebell puffed up her cheeks.
"Well, he's still an idiot. There's no way any of them are strong enough to fight two of us at the same time."
"Of course not."
Gokudera is talented, Gokudera is good, but Gokudera still isn't quite strong enough to fight two Funeral Wreaths simultaneously and still come out on top. Setsuko stands behind him, throwing illusions left and right and countering Yuuto's sea snakes to the best of her ability –a small frown of concentration etched onto her face, gritting her teeth… but no matter what she does, no matter how hard she tries, it's obvious that her performance is waning.
Rapidly.
It's very… un-Stella-like. He of all people would know how stubborn that girl was, that refusal to bow or show weakness. Even when he had killed her, she still dared defy him with a blood-flecked smile.
What was it that she had said again?
"You will never complete the Tri-ni-sette, Byakuran."
…
His lips twitched, and Byakuran laughed.
CXXIII.
It's Daisy who saves them.
Or rather, it's Tsuna who throws Daisy –the green-haired man crashing into Yuuto head over heels and throwing Kikyo off balance entirely– that saves them. Blood stains the ground in a heavy pool; Gokudera stumbles and she catches the crook of his arm before he can fall over (it's a close call –for a moment, she thought the two of them would topple to the ground together). He mutters something under his breath and attempts to shove her aside and stand on his own, but the effort is half-hearted at best.
Because.
Because there's so much blood.
Setsu has never liked the sight of blood, and so she very carefully does not pay attention to her left arm, where Yuuto's sea snakes had–
Right, not thinking about it.
…
… Still.
Yuuto.
It's Yuuto.
The one who had attacked her so relentlessly, who had aimed to kill –it wasn't Aconito, it was Yuuto. She would know –there was still a faint thread of something else in the mask that her brother held, something that she was fairly sure was Aconito-Torikabuto, but it hadn't been Aconito who tried to kill her.
It had been Yuuto.
… Why…?
She doesn't understand, and it's frustrating. Yuuto is her brother, and she just doesn't –she only wants to stop him, she doesn't want to hurt him, not like… not like how he wants to hurt her. To hurt Stella.
(Stella and Setsuko are one and the same, yet completely different entities at the same time. She would know, better than anyone else could ever hope to even begin understanding.)
"Why do you hate me?" She asks, and it's a question that receives no answer as Yuuto simply waves his hands and sends another tide of snakes towards her again. Tsuna counters by covering them all with his mantle box-weapon, casting a worried look over his shoulder at them.
"Are you guys alright?"
"Don't worry about us, Juudaime!" Gokudera is quick to answer, and Shouichi follows the boy's lead with a quick nod. She simply smiles –a small, helpless little sort of a sad smile– but Tsuna seems to understand. Somehow.
(Hyper intuition.)
When the mantle disappears and they ready themselves to face their opponents again, something is… different.
Light.
A soft, warm light.
Rainbow…?
(Arcobaleno.)
CXXIV.
Yuni is the Sky Arcobaleno.
(Reborn shooting Byakuran's hand to keep the white-haired man away from the sweet little girl is only further proof of this undeniable fact, this immovable truth before their faces.)
The battle comes to a standstill when the white-clad girl announces that a fight for the Tri-ni-sette invalid, when she declares her own resignation from the Millefiore –after she revealed the light of the pacifiers that she carried in her arms. Pacifiers that she had taken from Byakuran.
"They don't belong to you." Calm blue eyes, shining with a wisdom beyond her years. "Byakuran, the Tri-ni-sette is not your plaything."
Setsu isn't quite sure what to think of Yuni.
Part of her admires the girl's resolve –that willingness to sacrifice her famiglia for the sake of keeping the Arcobaleno pacifiers away from Byakuran– while the other part of her is simply appalled by it. Yuni is willing to let her famiglia die at Byakuran's hands.
It… doesn't sit well with her.
Even though she knows that this is the best decision, when looking at the grand scheme of things.
Everything begins to border on chaos once again as Tsuna reaches out and takes Yuni's hand, giving her the protection of Vongola. The Funeral Wreaths are quick to obey Byakuran's orders of seizing the green-haired girl –unharmed– but this time their goal isn't to defeat the Millefiore soldiers; their goal is to escape.
Escape, and keep Yuni safe.
… It's much harder than it sounds to do so.
CXXV.
(It's hard, seeing her like this.)
"Kufufu. Having trouble, are we?" He laughs lightly and allows none of his inner turmoil to show, idly taking note of how her eyes widen with something akin to surprise at his sudden appearance in front of her.
(He tells himself it doesn't hurt. Why should it hurt? He knows perfectly well that she is not…)
It's easy enough to wind an arm around her waist and tuck her close to his body, spinning to the side and letting the sea snakes bury themselves into the asphalt ground harmlessly. It's not as easy to ignore the way she tenses against him as if to pull away, before letting him carry her along.
"… Mukuro?"
It's the same voice. Younger and edged with fatigue, slightly hoarse, but… it's still the same voice.
(It doesn't hurt.)
You foolish girl is what he wants to say to her, but what comes out instead is a teasing, "Aren't you glad to see me?"
She blinks wide grey eyes at him. Such a lovely shade of gray.
"Why… why are you here?"
Why did you come?
(For you. Because I made the mistake of staying away before, when I should have…)
"Why shouldn't I be here?" he muses aloud in response, keeping an eye on the battlefield. The Decimo and the rest of his merry group are close to the teleportation device now –she needed to be with them. With them–
"I'm not Stella."
–and right now Byakuran was bearing down on them, reaching out for the young Sky Arcobaleno–
He looks her straight in the eyes and laughs lightly.
"I know."
He takes a single step backward, falling into the Mist –open the doorway, step through– and for a moment, his mind is filled with the image of that startled surprise spreading across her face, that relief.
And when he steps out of the Mist and directly into Byakuran's path, feeling the hand tear through his body as he engulfed both of them in a torrent of flames–
…
Somehow.
Somehow, it didn't quite hurt so much anymore.
CXXVI.
Although they have escaped successfully, Setsu can't help but wonder.
She wonders if she would have escaped with the rest of them if it hadn't been an illusion of Mukuro stalling Byakuran for them, but Mukuro in the flesh standing there to face certain death.
She doesn't know what her answer to that would be.
(And she isn't certain if she wants to know.)
CXXVII.
"But I'm Setsu–"
Liar.
…
"Why do you hate me?"
Because you're a monster.
…
"I'm not Stella."
(The blue-haired man laughed.)
"I know."
…
Liar. Liar. LIAR.
…
(Where do the lies end and truth begin? Or is there even any truth present at all? What is fake and what is real?)
"Hurry up, Torikabuto."
A stumble.
He stumbles over thin air as he makes to follow the other Funeral Wreaths trailing after Byakuran –It'll take awhile to get the device up and running again; be ready– and Yuuto grits his teeth when his body suddenly spasms involuntarily; convulsing–
"Stay down, Aconito." He hisses, clutching at his head. Control. He needed to stay in control– "Stay where you are, where you belong. I will not allow you to devour me, not like Stella did my sister… sTAy DeAD, aCoNItO."
…
…
…
(Yuuto does not see the white-haired man smile, nor does he see the scowl on the demon mask momentarily shift into a grinning leer.)
CXXVIII.
"Setsu?"
Sousei hates himself for how his hand hesitates before gently resting itself on his sister's shoulder –Setsu, not Stella– but he can't help it. He knows, but… but it's not so easy to make the distinction. To believe that this is real, that this isn't another of Stella's…
"I'm okay, onii-chan." The little girl smiles, and it's such a sad, tremulous little smile. "I'm okay."
"You're not," he exhales lowly. "Yuuto… he's not… it's not what you…"
It's complicated.
"… Please tell me why, onii-chan?" She asks, gray eyes blinking slowly. Gray eyes. "When I was with the Varia, they never… I've always assumed… why did Yuuto…?"
"They didn't tell you?"
He's not surprised. Knowing Squallo, that damned Varia swordsman…
"Tell me," she says again, and this time it's not a question. It's a plea, and that is what makes Sousei finally cave and tell her the story as he knows it from beginning to end. How Stella came forth and Setsu withered silently. How Yuuto met Eleanor, and Stella took her away.
He tells her how she died, and Setsu listens quietly to all of it.
When he is finished, she stands up and gives him a gentle hug.
"I'm sorry, onii-chan. Sorry for making you suffer through this. I'm sorry…"
His arms reach up and embrace her in return.
CXXIX.
She is with Sousei when the Funeral Wreaths attack.
Luckily, it isn't hard to find them after they have left the base –Sousei knows the layout of the underground base well, and this knowledge is put to use as they wait at the end of the street for the others to come.
"Where's Superbi?" is the first question out of her mouth when she sees the group running over.
The lack of response to that query is more telling than words could ever be.
"Don't." For a moment, she considers disobeying the Sun Arcobaleno. "Squalo knew what he was getting himself into when he volunteered to stay behind. Have faith."
CXXX.
"Well? Come in. You're being chased, aren't you?"
Extra.
Bonus: Halloween Omake.
…
There lives a ghost.
In the old house over the hill, there lives a ghost. A ghost that longs for vengeance on the ones who wronged it in life –a ghost that holds nothing in its chest but a malicious hatred for the entire world; a hatred darker than the blackest night.
There lives a ghost.
…
…
"This is stupid."
"Shh!" Tsuna panicked immediately, limbs flailing wildly and brown eyes widening as he quickly glanced around for a certain baby hitman to appear, "D-Don't say that, Yuuto!"
"Well, someone has to point it out," the illusionist-in-training rolled his eyes. "I mean, really. We're dressed up like thieves, armed with rotten eggs and toilet paper, and our goal is to vandalize that abandoned house at the end of the street. Tell me, how this not stupid?"
"Haha, don't be like that, Yuuto." Yamamoto reached over and slung an arm around his fellow baseball player. "C'mon, admit it. Don't you think this is actually kind of fun?"
"This is stupid," Yuuto repeated himself, but this time it was in a rather resigned sort of way. "This is really, really stupid. Why in the world are we even doing this again?"
Gokudera glared at him from where he had been concentrating on hiding behind a trash bin.
"Shut up. Reborn said there's a ghost living there in the house –just think! A real UMA!"
"… What?"
"The kid's story was pretty interesting," Yamamoto grinned cheerfully, obliviously. Yuuto valiantly resisted the urge to face-palm. "I dunno if there are really ghosts in this world, but you have to admit –strange lights and suspicious howls sound rather–"
"Shh!"
There.
There it was.
Goosebumps broke out across the skin on his back when the dark window of the creepy-looking house suddenly flashed green and purple smoke clouded the broken glass, seeping out through the edges of the window frames and slowly dissipating into the night air.
Yuuto swallowed roughly.
(He wasn't… he wasn't scared, but… something like this; it wasn't natural. Definitely, definitely not natural.)
… This was so stupid. Why in the world did he even agree to come? He should've taken up Setsu's offer to go over to a friend's house and help them cook, or simply stay at home with Sousei and read a book or two–
"There! Look! That must mean that the UMA has…" Yuuto tuned out Gokudera's excited ramblings. In all honesty, the silver-haired boy seemed the most excited about this venture out of the four of them. Yamamoto seemed happy enough to go along with the flow, while Tsuna seemed to share similar apprehensions to him.
… Oh gods, were he and Tsuna the only sane ones in this group?
…
Curse Reborn and his harebrained schemes.
Why oh why did he agree to come?!
"To catch the UMA…" Gokudera reached into the bucket and took one of the rotten eggs, carefully taking aim and–
BOOM!
"HIEEE!" Tsuna's shriek sounded directly next to his ears as the window shattered. Gokudera froze, the egg still clutched in his hand. The smile on Yamamoto's face was a tad more rigid now, and Yuuto…
All he could remember now was the ghost story that Reborn had been telling them earlier today.
…
There lives a ghost.
In the old house over the hill, there lives a ghost. A ghost that longs for vengeance on the ones who wronged it in life –a ghost that holds nothing in its chest but a malicious hatred for the entire world; a hatred darker than the blackest night.
There lives a ghost.
A spirit that sits quietly in solitude. Watching. Waiting. It sits and waits until the night of All Hallow's Eve, the moment when its hatred burns brightest and strongest.
It is said that if one comes and destroys its dwelling at this time, the anchor that ties it to this mortal plane, then the ghost will pass on and all will be well.
If not, then:
A curse.
The ghost will curse any and all who dare cross its path with the miasma that curls from its vengeful memories, a poison that leeches life from the living to prolong its existence.
…
There lives a ghost.
…
…
Miasma.
Purple mist.
There was a gaseous purple mist that was billowing out through the windows, melting everything within reach and rapidly approaching their position–
"RUN!"
Never again, Yuuto firmly decided, fighting back the urge to cry hysterically as he ran. He wasn't quite entirely successful. Why did these ridiculous things always happen around him?!
Next time, no matter what Reborn 'advised' them to do–
Never again.
…
…
…
(The violet haze eventually cleared, revealing the charred ruins of what had once been a simple house.
Setsu coughed.
"Chrome, where on earth did you find that recipe? I don't think baking a cake warrants blowing up an entire house. I know that Kokuyo Land doesn't have any ovens, but I really doubt there are any other abandoned houses equipped with ovens that we can use to experiment."
The blue-haired girl fiddled her fingertips together as the Mist shield around them flickered and faded, the purple gas having finally disappeared.
"U-um… I got the recipe from Bianchi."
The smaller girl shook her head in amazement, letting out a low whistle.
"And Ken actually ate the earlier test trials you made here?"
"Yes…?"
"… Wow.")
.
…
.
Author's Notes:
Halloween omake. :3 Poor Yuuto lol. xD Just in case it wasn't clear enough –Reborn set up the boys to go 'redecorate' a 'haunted' house in the neighborhood, where Chrome had been trying out Bianchi's cake recipe the past few days. That's where all the strange phenomenon comes from. :D
…
Whew. It's been awhile since the last update, hasn't it? Aaaaand continuing on with the story here. :3 Originally, I was aiming to end the Future arc in this chapter, but obviously that isn't happening. Maybe in the next chapter. We're almost there, aren't we? :D
… Y'know, I think I've finally managed to confuse myself with the pairings now. xD Eh, I'm probably going to leave it open-ended again in the end, I think. :D Unless I get convinced otherwise, of course. ;3
10/31/14 Story stats rundown:
Onwards Till Dawn was updated last week.
Incandescent was posted. First non-OC-centric story! :D
Drown is still in-progress. I have random scenes for the next chapter of it typed up here and there, but I'm not sure when I'll be getting around to finishing the entire chapter.
I'm half-done with a couple drafts for some prompts from Diamond Dust, even though I haven't actually finished any yet. The second story for Diamond Dust will probably be a GokuderaxOC ficlet or a KusakabexOC one, but don't take my word for it. Chances are, it'll be something else entirely, knowing my record. xD Still accepting prompts over there!
QUESTION(1): Any changes in thoughts on Yuuto?
QUESTION(2): Chrome/Mukuro, Yuuto, and Setsu. Who do you think will be the Mist Guardian in the end? Any particular reasoning for it or just a random guess? :3
Leave a review, please. :D And till next time, everyone! Happy Halloween!
-XxZuiliu