Katekyo Hitman Reborn
My Fate is Certainly Uncertain
Chapter 24: The man behind the lenses.
Overall warnings: Swearing, disclaimers and other things. You know, the finer things in life.
[Written to: Spending All My Time - Perfume (Which is, a wicked song and video, BTW. Please check 'em out.)]
~o0o~
"Armamento de Guerra."
This was the first thing the man named Genkishi ever said once he had donned on the armor. The aura that swirled around him that varied in several shades indigo definitely felt like it was there as a warning. I knew, that in his mind, he was the type of man who would not give up as easily as some others would - perhaps like younger Lambo. Yes, he would be selfish enough to run away, being at the age where he didn't understand anything. But the two both possessed the representation of a bull.
Whereas Lambo liked to physically go all out, making himself physically like a cow - why you ask? Honestly, I think it's a phase. - and Genkishi, does similar things in his appearance, even if it was a little toned down than our beloved crybaby. His horns grew out of his helmet and reached up high to touch the sky. He smelt of terror.
"His words are considered divine revelation." He whispered, looking down at us, the ones who stood in his way. That's the way he thought, I guess. His words were laced with an extremely strong loyalty, something that you could compare to Gokudera's. And in the back of my mind, I was deeply concerned for their safety. Lal, especially. Not only was she someone special to Reborn, but Basil and the others love her. She was a sister, to them, of a sort. To me, I respected her stance on the world.
"They cannot be undermined. Cease your futile resistance and die a quick death."
And I wondered who on earth would Genkishi commit himself to? And why? It's not often you see something like this, for a person to follow someone elses 'divine revelations' without a word at a wimbs notice. You would probably have to save their life to get someone to do that, like Gokudera thinks.
"This is bad." Reborn whispered and I nodded. I gave Tsuna a nod and made my way next to him as Genkishi continued to talk. I pulled Al along by his fingers and tapped the back of his hand twice.
"By now, you pests should have noticed the power differences between you and I. I said the same words with your guardians…..but they ignored the difference in ability and died tragically." He gripped his sword and waved it in front of his face. "You can't be that foolish Vongola."
The air around us changed, and I felt one less presence. And, being the overpowering power of Genkishi felt the fluctuation as well.
"Where!? Where did he go!"
Behind you.
Genkishi swung his sword left and right, before jabbing it into the shadow that suddenly appeared behind him, ramming it into the wall. The shadow limped, but everything about it collapsed, and Genkishi gawked at the fallen material at the end of his weapon.
"What!" He yelled.
"Behind you~"
I guessed that Al must have had some metal sheets, or something hard underneath his shirt sleeves, as time and time again, every time Genkishi fought along with him in the air, Al was able to deflect his long-assssssss word.
But then, Genkishi changed. His entire body morphed into a skeleton. I didn't know what the heck was causing him to be able to do something like that, but I didn't want Al anywhere near him.
"Hurry shortie!" He yelled, pushing off another attack.
I went to help Al. Fight as he did, I could seriously feel a stinging pain in his arms. They were getting irritated, like when you get a rash in a place you just can't reach. Before he spotted me, he swung down his sword at Al, who raised his hands to protect his head, as he was lower than Genkishi was when they floated in the air. His body was forced to the ground and I came up behind him. I came up behind him and tucked my arms under his armpits and around to grab the back of his helmet.
My flames engulfed us both, as I didn't know what else I could do. Certainly, his body weight outweighed mine. I could absorb his flames, but I'd never really dealt with many mist users, other than Mammon, and we didn't fight for that matter, just exchanged money and bank details.
In a massive circle, I forced them to encase both of us. And after that, I'm not quite sure as to what happened. I'm still trying to remember.
~o0o~
"What's happening?" Tsuna yelled, as the grey flames engulfed the two characters that were flying high in the hanger. The flames weaved around the pair. He knew that they belonged to Phillipa, because she was the only person who he knew with those types of flames, but even then he wasn't sure. There were no mouths, whatever those where.
The flames swirled around in several gradients of grey that covered and clogged the mist flames that tried to reach out, that tried to escape.
"What's happening?" Reborn asked, as Al got to his feet, swaying slightly, the vibrations from the impact still tingling in his feet. "You know her better than anyone here, what the heck is happening to my daughter?!"
"I don't know."
"What do you mean, you don't know?!"
"She doesn't like to use them!" He yelled. "She hates not knowing what they are, so she tries not to use them often! She's never gone this far before!"
She doesn't like her powers? Spanner muttered, inside his own mind. His laptop was open and working away as the young Vongola charged his flames up. But they're….interesting…
~o0o~
I couldn't explain it in normal terms. Normal would be impossible for me, since I'd never known what 'normal' was, ever in my life. You could feel the heat from the outside burn into your skin, but never in a pain inflicting way. Like moisture being absorbed like a sponge, I think what I was trying to do was to absorb everything I could.
Out of body would be too weird to state it like that, even for me. I certainly knew that if I was out of my body, I'd be dead! And I didn't feel like I was dying. Not with all of this warmth around me. It tickled the ends of my toes and hands, and even though I could still feel the back of Genkishi's body against mine, I went into a trance and saw everything he ever knew.
Who he was.
How he got here.
Why he was here.
What he did what he did.
His fight with Squalo.
His disease.
That man that saved him from his fear of death, the one with the whitest hair I had ever laid eyes on.
And his memories with a girl named Yuni, with an orange pacifier-an arcobaleno. It was interesting, since I hadn't met the Sky arcobaleno yet. I'd met everyone else, and Reborn never talked about it. But I felt the same droning tinge of the pains he felt every day. When he drank his coffee. When he took a walk under the sun. When he touched his curls, one's that he had ever since his birth, before he had been cursed by that body. It was the downright truth that he missed his Sky.
That, and I couldn't hold my grip much longer.
~o0o~
Explosions came from within the orb in the sky, and after two seconds, a fiery, indigo flame shot out of the grey orb's side, hitting the wall. I don't remember being pushed away by Genkishi, but definitely, hitting the back of the wall woke me up from my daze. The whiplash from the impact travelled down my spine and the air that whizzed and whipped my face as I fell was cold. But my fall wasn't hard.
"Now Tsuna!"
Al's big form covered my body as Tsuna's X-burner burned the air, radiating orange alighting the metal walls of the hanger. The heat was overwhelming, and I couldn't imagine how Al was taking it, since he covered me fully.
It lasted for a total of twenty seconds. My head still felt dizzy when Al got up, and it still did when he pulled me up. Reborn jumped over to me. My legs felt like jelly right then and it was just plain lucky that he was there to catch me.
"Are you okay?!" Reborn asked, obviously worried to death about me. His bottom lip quivered through his cool posterior, and the twitch in his finger made me extremely nervous. "What happened up there?!"
I leaned on Al for support. "N-No freaking idea. I j-just saw all of these images and then BOOM! I'm being t-tossed to the side and into a very hard wall. Are you sure that's not concrete it's made out of?" I leaned away from him and tried to stand on my own two feet. I still felt a little lightheaded, but not enough to make me collapse. I could do that later, not in an environment like this. "W-Where's Tsuna, is he okay?"
"I'm fine!" He called, rushing over with Spanner hot on his heels - as fast as he could with his limp -, carrying his baby with him wherever he went. "What about you?"
I nodded. "J-Just a little s-s….shaken." I swore in my head for not being able to speak properly. Fucking stutters. Not now. "R-Reborn….do you know s-someone named Yu-Yuni?"
"Yuni?" He said, cocking his head to the right.
"Yes."
He stayed very silent in the time before he talked next, which was never a good thing. His aura would always change to serious, even if he liked to cosplay now and then, or cause pain to others.
I tilted my head up at the damage that Tsuna's X-Burner caused. I was happy that he had come this far, from not being able to control his flames at all, not even knowing that he possessed any to firing one heck of a cannon. It was such a sight to see, and I felt excessively happy for him. He wouldn't feel the same way for a long time like me, I think, but I let it fill me up for now. I didn't want to get back to the dizziness.
And then I saw the white light.
'Up there!" I shouted, pointing to the hole in the roof. "Well done Starfish, you made yourself a short cut!"
"That's…" He looked up where I was, and his orange glazed eyes widened, still working with his flames. Tsuna didn't want to turn them off right now, incase someone else came along. But he wasn't sure how long he could keep this up. And neither was I. But we had Al. He wouldn't let us get hurt.
"You coming Phillipa?" Spanner asked, putting on the harness. He gave the end of the rope for Tsuna to hold and held it out open.
I went to get myself clipped up, but Al held me back, and then rather abruptly, chucked me onto his back.
Oh, now was the best time for a piggyback ride. All thumbs up here.
"Let's go." Al said, already jumping upwards. "Quickly now."
Luckily, the ground that we landed on was still stable, and not collapsing in on itself. But when we landed, I couldn't help but keep my head up to stare and gawk in awe at the immenseness of the machine. I hadn't before seen anything like it.
The others arrived three seconds later, with the same looks on their face as mine.
"This was our goal…" Tsuna said blankly, as he too stared up at the machine with wide eyes.
"Yeah, this is one of Shouichi's devices." Spanner said, getting up from his sitting position in a large groan. His body ached still, not only from the most recent fight with , but the one with Iris too. We were very lucky to have come across him.
"So if we destroy this thing, we will be able to get back to the past?"
"I don't know Tsuna, that doesn't sound like a good idea. I mean, we don't know what it even does yet."
"Either way, at the very at the very least it definitely is related to the reason for us being stuck here."
Tsuna's simmering anger boiled, and his gloved hands tightened. "That's more enough of a reason."
"Wait."
From the corner of my eye, I looked towards the left to see three brightly haired figures walk towards us, out of the automatic doors. I immediately took notice of the Cervelo. Oh dear, whenever that bunch was about, my job was sure as fuck to get harder, even if I prayed it wouldn't.
"Vongola. I never expected you to defeat the Phantom Knight, Sawada Tsunayoshi."
He was just as what Genkishi's mind portrayed him to be. Tall. Had glasses - thick rimmed ones. Dusty red hair that was probably brushed when a full moon came. Dressed in full white clothes that rustled whenever the wind came in contact, it only made his hair and his very annoying attitude stick out more.
"Shouichi…" Spanner whispered.
Tsuna's flames turned on quicker than a tv panel. He was obviously aggravated at his presence.
"Shouichi! Shouichi Irie!"
"Don't you dare!" A Cervelo shouted. "Don't you dare step closer!"
"Or we will flick the switch on your friends." The other one said, pulling out a remote from her skirt pocket. The walls behind them lowered and a cylinder, glass cage came out, with everybody that we had separated from in it. They were out of it, all slumped, either lying on the ground or leaned against the walls of their see-through prison.
"Hgh!"
"Their little rampage left quite the damage around the base, so they needed to calm down. Do not worry, it's sleeping glass in there." He pushed up his glasses. "For now, if you behave."
My nose twitched.
"So if you try anything funny, and I'll use a different kind of gas on them." He gestured at the remote that the Cervelo was holding, and then glanced over his rims at Al and I. "That warning extends to you two as well. You move, they die."
Soon enough, right on time, Gokudera and the others were waking up. Outside the glass, we couldn't actually hear what they were saying, but you could easily tell how upset they were. Their rings and weapons were gone and we, well, we're out here being held at ransom. Not the best look.
"Give up." The Cervello snapped. "You won't be able to break through the glass with your bare hands."
"Your lines are in our hands." Irie told him."You better not try anything funny. We need to talk and need some quiet. Pipe down in there, would you?"
Obviously, Gokudera disliked the idea, and went to attack, but realised that he was without weapons.
"There is no point in resisting. Your rings and box weapons have been confiscated."
"What!"
"How can this be!?"
Lal, however, was yelling at us.
"She says go for it." I whisper, reading her lips. "Destroy the device with your own hands."
Al gripped my shoulder in response and whispered lowly - "Enough love, it's a delicate situation."
Shouichi sighed. "Honestly, your ignorance astounds me. I'll show you."
Out opened the machine, with it's wide doors and the bellowing mist that flowed as it opened.
"Due to the ten-year bazooka, contains the future versions of you replaced!"
It was almost breathtaking, as the bodies lined up in a circle in the air. All I really could do was look at them, everybody I knew, ten years into the future, just…..there. Well, everybody that travelled here with me.
But I was not there.
And neither was Al.
"The future versions…."
"That's right." Irie nodded, him too looking at the machine. "Of course, you can only see their holograms. In reality, your future version have been reduced to molecules and are stored within the device. I shouldn't need to explain to you what would happen if you destroy it."
"Shouldn't they have gone to the past, if they got shot by the ten-year bazooka?" I asked.
"Exactly. Glad you caught on quickly. Usually, everything in the ten-year bazooka swaps places with their elder counterparts. However, this device has prevented your future versions from travelling to the past , and instead have kept them safe, here. If your future versions were to return to the past and interfere, it would disturb the 7³ policy."
The what?
At that second, I heard a hitch in Reborn's throat.
He knew something about this.
"The 7³ policy…." Tsuna muttered. "How do you even know about the ten-year bazooka?!"
"So the one who used the ten-year bazooka to send us here, was you."
"Precisely." He replied. "Ten years ago, I had access to technology from this time and used the ten-year bazooka on you. For example, I fired the 7³ policy to immobilize the arcobaleno."
It was hard to spot, but Reborn's mind was now set directly at Shouichi Irie. He wasn't too fond of him, for starters, but Reborn wasn't steady.
Things weren't okay.
"I see." He replied, not knowing exactly how to respond to this news. "That's why I felt like I was paralyzed."
"B-But why?" Tsuna asked poignantly, his flames finally dying. "Why would you go so far to bring us to this time?! Answer me!"
"You want to know?" He replied, deliberating the idea of actually doing so in his head. But something felt off, and Reborn picked it up as well. "Of course you do. "
"Master Irie, you shouldn't say…."
"No, I'll answer him. For Lord Byakuran to take over the world and build a new one, he needs the Vongola rings."
Tsuna blinked. "The Vongola rings?"
"There are many powerful rings in the world, but the Vongola and the Mare rings are in a class all of their own. The seven Vongola rings. The seven Mare rings. In addition, there are seven Arcobaleno pacifiers. These sets of seven, totaling twenty-one, this is known as the 7³. And the ore which makes up the 7³ was the foundation in this world."
That was some pretty unbelievable news. This meant that the rings had to kept separate from each other to keep the balance of this dimension.
"That's…."
"Whether you believe me is your choice or not. But the Arcobaleno, who became part of the 7³ to carry out their mission to protect it, certainly will not deny it."
My eyes widened as confusion filled everybody's minds. I glanced at Reborn, and then up at Al, who had the same soreness of knowledge in his gut that I did. For a large amount of power shouldn't be left on a group. So why did they take the mission? Did Reborn really have nothing else in his life other than that?
"Huh! What does he mean, R-Reborn!? Are you and the other's related?!" Tsuna turned to Shouichi, when he didn't get a reply from Reborn. "I don't understand at all. Explain yourself!"
"That's enough talk."
With the wsssk! of his cape, Shouichi turned his back to us and walked away.
"I'll leave the rest to you."
"Yes Sir."
"N-No way!" Tsuna shouted.
I felt Al's breath leave through the beak of his mask, as a rattle; the Cervelo on the left turned to face us, obviously taking the reigns off of Shouichi.
"Sawada Tsunayoshi. Hand over the Sky ring, or your friends die. They won't be able to survive one breath of this gas." She held up the remote, and Tsuna started to struggle with him mittens. This wasn't turning out to be a good situation.
"Wait Irie!" Reborn called, finally deciding to speak up. "We're not finished here. Something in your life sounded off."
"Stop trying to buy yourself time. It's useless. You have no choice."
"We're not negotiating here." The other Cervelo said, the one on the right.
"Hand over the Sky ring before we count to three, or we'll kill all of your guardians."
"W-Wait!"
There wasn't a lot of time to think. They weren't giving us time to think, and there was no thoughts in their minds for a compromise. They simply put their only card forward and now started the clock.
"Three."
"Ahngh…"
"Is it possible for us to do anything?" I asked Al, as Tsuna continued to panic.
"Two."
He shrugged sadly.
"Wait, please!"
"One."
Bang!
The Cervelo's tanned hand shook against her own will, when the two shots that were fired, broke the tension of the air. The remote slid out of her hand and toppled to the floor, clacking.
I don't think I expected this.
"Master….Irie…?"
Behind them, stood the red head who blindly turned a back to us before. But now, he stood with a gun in the air, making use of him aim. Like the remote, the two Cervelo's knees bent and they toppled to the ground, unconscious.
"Don't think too badly of me." He asked, his gun smoking from the barrel. "I'm just putting you to sleep for now."
Everyone around me gawked at the sudden change. They either couldn't believe it or were too shocked to make a sound. I too was included in the group, as well as Spanner, who neither could believe what the heck just went down.
Shouichi dropped his gun to the ground, not confident in holding it anymore and unzipped the top of his pearl white jacket. He didn't like to wear it, as it tightened around his already sore body, and I was pretty much in the same boat. So at that moment, I slipped mine off, revealing a midnight black singlet. A basic in my wardrobe.
"It's so hot…." He whispered, relief filling his lungs as well as air. "I'm drained! You and your family had me worried there, Sawada Tsunayoshi."
He smiled, despite the shock and his knees gave way. "O-Oh dear, My knees are buckling now that all the tension has gone…" Shouichi scratched his head. "I'm impressed that you made it all the way here….."
"And what, you thought that we would be done for?" I asked sarcastically. "Well, we actually almost did….."
"Yeah, you almost were." Al whispered, to me alone.
Shouichi looked up at us, with a new focus. "I've been waiting for you. I'm actually on your side."
My eyes widened. "You little shit."
"Eh!"
"What!"
"HIEE!"
Al sniffed. "What a turn of events…."
"O-On our side?" Tsuna repeated, just as confused as he was before.
"Uh-uh. Yep."
"Well isn't that convenient." I murmured, and then in a louder voice, I addressed him. "If you're on our side, please explain the situation to us now. We still don't have a lot of time, and who knows when the other black and white spell teams will swoop down on us."
He cringed inwardly, his foot kicking away the gun, which I wasn't happy about. Idiot, you didn't put the safety on! "I-I'm sorry...I'm not good at this kind of thing…."
"Obviously."
"Let him have a little dignity before you chew on him." Al whispered, and I complied, nodding.
"Sorry, I do that a lot, apparently. Please, continue." I sniffed. "Tsuna?"
"What do you mean you're on our side!" He asked. "You are a leader in the Millefiore! Our enemy!" Tsuna looked down at his feet.
Reborn looked up at him and tried to comfort him. "Calm down Tsuna."
"But!"
He itched his hair in frustration and panic. He stuttered out his next sentence, trying to make us believe him. "I-I know it'll be impossible for you to b-believe me right away, but I want you to at least hear me out!"
"Do it Starfish." Al said.
"Go on." I called.
"My actions were disclosed to Byakuran through my subordinates and by constant camera surveillance." He breathed out, and talked with more ease. "But now, now that you guys have messed up the place, I can talk to you more openly….I've been waiting a long time for this moment….."
"Huh, you were?"
He nodded at Tsuna's question. "It was our goal to meet you in this place, under these circumstances."
"Our….Goal..?"
"Hibari's, I'm guessing?" I asked. "Since, he apparently knew the attack was going to happen before word got out?"
Shouichi's stomach was beginning to cramp up and I decided to back of for a little bit, since my eyes felt heavier as well as my legs, ever since that mind-thing happened.
Taking a back-seat break was good once in a while.
~o0o~
"They're so loud." I whisper, awaking to loud screeching sound that could be mistaken for a bird of prey, when in fact, it was just a pair or teenage boys. How typical.
Al helped me up and gave me a little support. "I know, just deal with it for a while. They'll cool off eventually, if Tsuna doesn't interfere." He gestured with his head to one of the stretchers that was empty. It was Ryohei's, I think. Past-Ryohei had turned up in the time that I was unconscious.
I must have fallen asleep.
"Oh, Sasagawa, you came too!" Yamamoto had just woken up, which was a relief. I was happy that that asshole Genkishi didn't kill him, because it was me that fought before he did and if Al hadn't zapped him away, things might have ended differently.
"Yeah, though I don't know what's going on."
"I said I'd explain it to you later!"
"I won't understand later! Do it now!"
"There's no way your slow head will be able to process it"
"What do you mean, won't be able to process!"
Al decided, instead of Tsuna, that he should bump his big, fat ego into the argument. "Calm down, calm down ladies. Your hormones are showing, and if you're not too careful, grey hairs will start to grow."
I t'ched in disgust as they gawked a comeback that I didn't listen out for." You just love to watch them suffer, don't you?"
"No, no. I would never."
Tsuna, our little Starfish, watched fondly over everybody as they talked with each other. I think he was just plain happy that everybody wasn't hurt too badly. His cliche trait of worrying over everyone like an overprotective mother of a single child, I guessed that the trait would probably follow him throughout his life.
Kusakabe stopped the chatter of the room with the clearing of his throat. This was a man that only wanted attention when he needed to get something across, so it would do everyone kindly if they listened. Which they did.
"With Sasagawa's arrival means that the Vongola rings have been assembled."
"That's right!" Shouichi squeaked. "That's why he was brought here. In order to defeat Byakuran, we'll need all of the Vongola Guardians and the Vongola rings, and they'll need to master their respective box weapons."
"Yes…" Tsuna quietly said, the status and leaderly issues of being a boss were coming back to him.
"However, you still don't have a box weapon. Here," Shouichi walked to the edge of the wall, where the machine was, and placed his bare hands on the metal surface. A fair, pale light began to emit itself from within the metal. "I shall pass it on to you."
He turned around.
"Here, take the power that the Vongola boss from this era has given to you." He gave Tsuna the orange box that came out of the light, and nodded. "Good luck."
"...Thanks…"
I tapped on Tsuna's shoulder asked if I could speak to Giannini.
"Sure." He took out his headpiece and gave it to me to use. "Here you go."
"Thanks Starfish. Giannini, you still live?"
"Yes, yes!" I heard him say, over the intercom. "What is it that you require Phillipa?"
"I was just wondering, do I have a box?"
There was a pause.
"Yes, you do actually! But, we don't have it, so Dino probably has it."
Of course. The one person who I haven't met in this time yet.
The one person I'm too anxious to see.
"...Alright, thanks G."
"No problem."
I sighed when I gave back the head piece and sat down on the ground, crosslegged. The floor was pretty cold, and it felt very nice against my skin.
'Aaa, Phillipa! You can't lie down there!"
"It's just for a minute.." I mumble, falling asleep again.
For a minute, She says. Ha.
~o0o~
Her father was a busy man, and she knew that he tried his best to see her. But she knew that he also sometimes, on purpose, didn't always want to see her. On her nightstand, at her home in Italy, She had a picture of her parents when she was born. That lady, the one who was holding her - hair pinned back, face sweaty and tired rings of purple under her eyes- he told her,'That's Mommy! She's so cute, right! Just like you!'
Libby didn't have much memories of her. But she loved it when her father could manage to spend his busy time.
Two weeks ago, before all the fighting started in Italy, and when her father had let her stay outside for an hour or two, Libby would explore. There was nothing better than getting your nose right in there. Smelling everything you can, climbing the trees, picking the flowers, touching the sky and running in bare feet so much that the mud that you step in gets everywhere and ruins your sunday whites. The sunny days were the best, when she could stay out for the whole day and play on Cavallo Alato, or Carley, as Libby had dubbed the sky Pegasus. They'd go on rides with Carley, and her father would hold her small body as they flew in the air.
So you could imagine her annoyed state when he'd sent her away to France, while apparently he had 'business' to attend to. Taking trains wasn't to her liking, as the motion sickness had her lightheaded, but it was better than flying in an aeroplane. The nature outside varied to what she usually saw. Uncle Squalo told her to suck it up, since there wasn't any other choices. She couldn't come along with them.
It sucked.
~o0o~
Wee, my TARDIS dress is almost done! Don't know where I found the time to write this chapter and sow it! I'll put it up on Deviantart soon. ;) I'm also trying to write longer chapters for you, so tell me how it goes.
Thanks to everybody who keeps supporting my work, I do it all for y'all!
Replies:
Akayuki Sawada: Yeah, I wouldn't want to be in his line of sight when he get's like that. But there's nothing he can really do for now, being a hologram.
LeoInuyuka: *Pats shoulder, when in fact, she has no idea what to say.*
Chibianimefan26: Well yes, mentally he is an adult. So I'm not surprised.
natachoco: Mmmm Sarcasm….*gurgles like Homer Simpson*
Guest: Did I just offend you with your own faults? Well done.
I Am Alys: Hello. I Am Verdigurl ;) Well, let's see, I'll do what I can. I can promise you some, while others I know won't happen. However, you definitely will not be let down. You have my word. :D
Mari92: Well hello there, back at chapter five~ I'm glad - or maybe I shouldn't be, since you're on the torture part - that you're into my story!
Peace out
-Verdigurl