Chapter 23: Day 2 onwards with Hidden Malice (part 2)
A/N: I just realised but I'd forgotten why the story is named 'Protecting, Vice Versa' owo;;
But it's okay! Sometime later I guess I'd remember it XD! For now, enjoy the plot twist coming by the end *hearts*
DISCLAIMER: Nothing but the storyline belongs to me. Katekyo Hitman Reborn belongs to Amano Akira.
"MUHUHUHUHUHU-"
"KUFUFUFUFUFUFU-"
"Mukuro-sama. Iguras-kun." Chrome bought back the two from their relentless battle of their laughing.
The usually timid girl snapped, her one visible eye declaring an aura of seriousness.
"Since morning started, we have done nothing but two mock battles, and the rest of the time all that the two of you have done are your useless pride-based battles! It is afternoon now!"
She breathed, and turned away furiously, continuing her solo practise, choosing not to mind the two male illusions.
Iguras and Pineapple-head looked at each other, noticing that what Chrome said was really true. They had forgotten their original purpose, to save Vongola's comrades.
Iguras laughed nervously. "I used to be your enemy, but you come to me to save your allies? Hahahaha-"
"Kufufufu, your family was tricked by our current enemy and you're still saying that? Oya oya, are you a traitor of Gole Fenice-"
"OF COURSE NOT! MY BOSS IS THE BEST- wait, you just made me surrender to this fight! Let me say this is not the end!"
"Oya? But from your words, it looks like you already have-"
Their fight was cut off by a sudden pillar of lava coming in between them. Behind it was our dear female illusionist, holding her trident out with a face of fury while Mukurowl flew beside her, landing on her shoulder.
The two illusionists gulped.
"I... I think it is to our advantage if we practised now." The males both phrased their words in unison.
Fear sure makes the impossible happen.
Chrome nodded swiftly, and practised her precision, timing, and stamina once again.
For starters, the initially distracted pair watched the training plan that Chrome had constructed.
She used Mukurowl to create an illusion of a flying cube. It floated in mid air, a layer of pale indigo flames surrounding it. Holding her trident in front of her, she breathed slowly, in and out, eyes closed.
In a moment, her trident spinned without hesitation, and she slammed it's end into the group, her eye snapping open at the same time. Immediately appearing, pillars of lava aimed and spluttered itself at the small cube, however all were missed almost effortlessly.
She clicked her tongue.
Tch- I have to improve my precision!
She slammed the end of her trident onto the floor again, then proceeded to flash it at many places, before having it stumped onto the floor yet again. Immediately, more than a handful of metal walls burst out from the sides, snakes slitthering at an extreme speed up the sides. The cube dodged the walls with precision again, but the snakes 'jumped' off the pillars, it's jaws preparing itself to bite it's prey.
Their bodies swirled around the cube, surrounding it's area, and it squeezed tightly, jaws still repeatedly snapping, trying to bite it's enemy. From this, the cube was trapped, but the speed of it just increased with the effect of 'desperation', or emotions of the owl of not wanting to lose.
Chrome smirked, but at the same time these thoughts ran through her mind;
"This much isn't enough."
She quickly twirled her trident the opposite way and pointed it out at the target before stamping it to the floor, and a cold wind blew around the area she practised in, while the closed areas started to freeze up. Her logic was that with the cold temperature, she could slow down the enemy. (Cue the two illusionists putting illusions of earmuffs and scarfs on themselves.)
But the male illusionists were impressed. Just in two days, they could see the usually timid and weak girl had improved her stamina and control of her mist flames greatly. Even they could not really break through her illusion.
Although throughout the other serious circumstances the Vongola famiglia had faced, she had improved a great deal, this time it was not just a great. It was... rather, it couldn't be measured.
But there was one weird thing.
Mukuro raised his hand.
"Chrome-chan, why are you suddenly OOC?"
She twitched.
"Of course I would go OOC! My dear friends are in trouble!" The female illusionist lost control of her illusions while spouting that out, allowing the small cube to escape.
"Wait, Chrome-chan, watch out-"
And the cube commenced it's attack.
"Kyah!"
She fell onto the ground, and got restricted by an illusion of ice by the cube.
And then a mirage of two letters came out.
K.O.
She sighed, and got into a crouching position just as the ice disappeared, Mukurowl beaming (somehow, you could tell it was), flapping it's wings with pride.
Iguras sighed as well, shaking his head.
"See, this is what happens if you don't do a rebuttal of a joke properly-"
"THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CURRENT MATTER!"
Her expression of anger scrunched up, her face slowly changing into shaking tears.
"Kyoko-san, Haru-san, Hiyako-san... it's because everyone is a precious friend-!"
She buried her face in her thighs, her body twitching with her hard sniffles.
Iguras covered his face and looked away.
"Chrome-chan..."
"...yes?"
"...well... I know you're concerned for your friends and all... but..." he covered his bright pink face.
Chrome looked up with her sparkling teary eye.
Mukuro was starting to question his intentions-
"I can see your panties."
Cue 2 flying tridents at his head.
After getting his head bandaged and after Chrome washed her face, the three sat together and tried to devise a strategy for vast improvement.
"Right now, even though we're all different and usually like to be alone..." Iguras held his chin. "We have to work our minds together, and weave together our experiences."
Mukuro chuckled. "I've mainly been in Vendicare prison- if not the team of scientists have been experimenting on me and a couple more of us."
Chrome bit her lips. "I was living a life without being involved in the mafia as a child, until... I got into an accident..." she shook her head for a bit, and proceeded to speak again. "It's been... about a year since my involvement with Bossu..."
Iguras nodded. "I was raised by a single mother in a fairly peaceful town who refused to tell me her personal troubles, which made me secretive too. 'Tis was okay with me, until I saw my mother raped before my eyes. Many times with many men. For money."
The two purple heads blinked.
He continued, not minding their faces. "One time, when many of those men had come for a group rape, I couldn't hold back, and holding my teddy bear, somehow used that as a medium for my flames and had them all die of shock, including my mum."
"...um-"
"I didn't really care if my mum used that method to make money for my well being, but she lost my respect. After that, more men started coming for me. And indiscriminate killings started just to lure me out. But I ran away from that town with my new found 'power'. After that, it seemed like that town had a war within itself, and almost everyone was obliterated."
"I-Iguras-san-!"
"WAIT!" He turned to them. "I HAVE NOT TOLD YOU THE MARVELOUS ABILITIES OF MY BOSS-"
"SHUT UP! WE SHOULD BE TRAINING NOW!" Chrome's OOC-ness appeared yet again, and yet again it scared the hell out of the male illusionists.
Iguras coughed a little.
"Then, how will we come up with a strategy that would benefit all of us?" He questioned, noting how Chrome trained more efficiently without the two of them interrupting.
Mukuro noticed that too. On a whole, he and Iguras were quite a few levels above the eye-patched girl in terms of the amount of flames they had, but in terms of strategies... she was superior. It may be due to their different upbringings; the males never really studied, while Chrome, due to her family's connections, did recieve premium and education of a higher quality to make up for her supposed frail health and body.
That aside, the female Vongola Mist Guardian had a considerably high amount of untapped potential. Even now, it was still blooming slowly. She could easily surpass them if she really trained herself out for the next couple of days; and even more with the practise put into practical use during an actual battle.
They twitched. If they didn't improve soon, they realised they would fall off the charts in terms of levels of acknowledgement.
"For now, I think we should try to do two-on-one battles." Chrome mumbled out, thinking with a serious look across her face.
Mukuro 'kufufu-ed' a little. "That's an idea. Oya, maybe we could even try to cast large scale, unidentifiable illusions after that. I'm pretty sure we would have improved quite enough to do that."
Iguras nodded "Our famiglia has another room bigger than this; maybe, after battling each other here, we can try our skills there."
With Chrome beaming and the two males smirking, they nodded. After procrastinating so much, the three of them were finally getting serious together.
It really took much motivation, in more ways then one.
The days passed mercilessly.
"One more day, then we'd have to start to go back..."
"3 days worth of- oya, intensive training..."
"Mukuro-sama, your trademark 'oya' has been misplaced in your sentence..."
The three illusionists lied down on the cold, hard ground, surrounded by four, complete grey walls with subtle holes in them.
Uncountable numbers of subtle holes.
"We... have to take a break now..." The Gole Fenice illusionist mumbled out, his limp body shifting a bit every now and then.
"Not... yet..." Chrome stood up with her trident, her eyes flashing signs of exhaustion.
"Chrome-chan, don't push your- oya, mental capacity too much..."
"Stupid pineapple head-sama, your 'oya' is in the wrong place again."
Her OOC-ness rose up to take the stage once more!
"If you think this is enough, then I... don't think it is." She fumbled a bit around her words, but her tone was as clear as her sparkling purple eyes. Eyes that sparkled with an indescribable level of fury.
"Wa-wait, reverse Chrome-"
"Who are you calling 'reverse Chrome' ?!"
She held out her trident once again, attempting to stand sharply. Her balance was lost for a moment, but she slammed one foot back, preparing the action to spin her weapon.
But she didn't move from that position. Her mouth opened, and her body trembled.
Stupid pineapple head-sama's eyes narrowed a little.
"E...eh? Why can't I... move?"
Her eye snapped sharply to her legs.
"Move... move!"
But her knees caved in, and her grip loosened greatly.
"...damn... this- isn't my... limi..."
Her voice was cut, along with her conciousness.
Before her body slammed against the floor, Mukuro had instantly moved himself to catch her at her head and hips.
"...kufu. Reverse Chrome or not, you're still one of Vongola's Mist Guardians. We have to keep ourselves, oya- in a good state of mind."
"Your 'oya' is in the wrong place again, stupid pineapple head."
"Twitch-!"
He smirked, but it was converted to quite a normal smile. (It looked kind of abnormal on him though, a smile as normal as that.)
"Rest, so that we have a higher chance of saving the hostages tomorrow. You've improved too fast."
He laid her body on the floor gently, and proceeded to rest beside her.
Iguras blinked at the side of the room, still attempting to, well, at least roll his body.
He sighed.
"...I feel forever alone now. Someone save me from this misery."
SLASH- CRASH- WHAM-!
"JAEGER, LOWER DOWN YOUR FREAKING VOLUME-"
Door opens.
"I CAN'T HELP IT, BERMUDA-SAMA!"
"YOU'RE IN A GODDAMN SOUND-PROOF ROOM- WHY CAN I STILL HEAR YOUR TRAINING THREE ROOMS AWAY?!"
"SOUND-PROOF WALLS AREN'T EXACTLY SOUND PROOF AS WELL-"
A sudden cut on his cheek made him step back.
He turned his head to the opponent in front of him, only to see a skylark with shadowed eyes, licking his lips with a fearless smirk.
"Don't look away from your enemy, herbivore."
Jaeger sweatdropped.
"B- but, Hibari-sama, you've been fighting for almost two days straight. I'm not human anymore, but you are-"
His words were once again cut off with a flurry of blasting purple flames.
Chains hung out from the side of the Cloud Guardian's tonfas, breath not ragged in the slightest.
"That rule only applies to herbivores."
Jaeger eyed the raven-black haired human. He had an inhuman amount of stamina and strength, yes, that's for sure, but now his body had suffered countless bruises and cuts, with most not tended to due to the continued battle.
He sighed, and continued trying to persuade the Disciplinary Head not to push his body.
"H- how about food? We haven't eaten since yesterday, don't you need it?"
"That rule only applies to herbivores."
"Uhh, water? We haven't drank in the last 8 hours-"
"That rule only applies to herbivores."
"Sleep-"
Glare.
"That. Only applies to herbivores."
Jaeger flipped an imaginary table.
Hibari stood in a fighting stance.
"I assumed you weren't a herbivore, or are you?"
The raven-haired skylark licked a wound on his arm, smiling with the eyes of a ferocious beast.
Jaeger put away his imaginary table, and laughed silently, letting his chains hang loose from his sleeves.
The moment the door slammed shut, Bermuda could hear rentless clashing sounds once again.
Honestly, he would not have cared about the matters of the non-herbivore brown haired boss of his; he would be able to settle his own things for he isn't weak; nor would he care about their matters.
After all, he wasn't an annoying herbivore, crowding around in numbers to multiply strength.
But somehow, this time he was attracted once again to the famiglia's matters. But he was not turning into a temperory herbivore.
It was for his pride once more.
Similarly, the battle for the cloud ring was for his pride in protecting the school. The battle 10 years later was to beat down anyone who had sullied his pride. (Though when it was the final battle with Byakuran, he became a temperory herbivore. Tch.) And probably the other battles he could remember were about the same.
But at the same time, it felt different from usual.
Although this was quite similar from before where the two girls were brought into the future, this time they weren't under their protection.
Prey to their enemy's hands.
For something like this to affect one of the only non-herbivores he had seen, he wanted to shrug it off and demote the brunette to a herbivore.
But he couldn't? The surprise came as a shock to his heart. Maybe it would be due to those under his power getting kidnapped.
It was because there was someone stronger that could get someone out under his strength.
The very thought of it made his own blood boil with anger, but also with the temptation to eliminate those of higher power than him that even took the things he protected, ripping a hole in his pride.
Kidnapping is an underhanded matter. Only herbivores do that; he would instead fight out with his own strength to decide the victor. Furthermore they gathered in an irritating group like the herbivores they are.
But that explanation was too long. Long story short, he just wanted to fight back for his pride in being a carnivore, he presumed.
Imagining the feeling of eliminating a stronger foe that damaged his pride, the skylark smirked.
Herbivore hunt.
Ironically, Reborn, the supposed former sun arcobaleno, wasn't feeling very sunny.
He had placed secret trackers and cameras on the rings of the 7. He could trust them to train, but couldn't trust what kinds of shit they could get into.
That worry only spiked more when he saw Gokudera encountering the enemy, and furthermore Haru was there as an extra trigger. And even more when it seemed like it was a repeat of when he couldn't get Shamal as a tutor during the Ring Battle Arc.
How did this worry start? On the very first day.
Why?
He couldn't locate Tsuna.
He was so interested in how much they would grow by themselves instead of the usual guided training by people he trusted and selected, he didn't check whether the cameras and trackers were working or not.
And on the first day of training, even though he had woken up at 5am to check on the brunette that he had raised for nearly two years, he realised that student had already left.
And when he checked the camera's images?
Bzzzt- bzzzt - ...
The screen only showed the grey zigzag lines of a television without connection to broadcasts.
And the tracker's image simply showed a blinking dot located in the house.
Tch - he had committed a grave mistake of underestimating how wary Tsuna was. Maybe it was his Hyper Intuition, but, still, he should have skills far better than allowing that annoying 'gut instinct' to notice anything.
Actually, thinking back, the reason he had woken up at 5am was due to having a particularly weird dream.
*glowing words: 7 days later...* (Reborn; Why is it like a monolouge?)
"Tsuna!"
"Bossu!"
A cloaked figure stood in front of the Vongola 10th generation guardians, his face covered.
"Hmmph... " The cloak was swiped away- "I have you covered!"
Reborn stared.
On the face of the easily recognizable student of his, was a checkered mask.
"...uh, Dame-Tsuna?"
"Uhuhu. Reborn. I have taken over as the new Checkerface of the era. UwahahaHAHAHHA!"
And as the creepy laughter from the student who became OOC in his dream played, the arcobaleno shivered uncontrollably.
*floating words: What happened in those seven days...?* (Reborn: Then again, why are there floating words?!)
And he woke up from what seemed like some creepy foreshadowing.
To find his student gone, the hidden camera spoilt and the tracker left behind.
Of course if thay dream came true, that'd be bad. The Clam Family can't lose it's sky.
But now that they were into the third day of the week-long training, with other worrisome troubles hopping up, he couldn't really be bothered about what the brunette might do. Probably when he's in the worst case scenario his hyper intuition might do something.
But still, it's only 'probably'. He can't help but have that small twinge of worry for his usually no-good student. (Even when he's many times better than his 2-year-ago self.)
He sighed.
"...even the world's best hitman can't assassinate all his doubt sometimes, eh?"
A gag was forcibly removed.
"Drink this, shitty ladies!"
A cup of seemingly clear water forced down their throats.
Soon after, those who we're forcibly fed fell unconscious.
On a table near the perpetrators in that utterly dull room, a pack of pills lay there.
Only 3 of the white pills had been pushed out, with the rest untouched.
With a grin on his face, someone looked through the door hole.
"Time to send them through a never ending paradox."
A/N: I'M. DONE. Two days before my one-month-dateline I mentioned in the last chapter.
The next one might have to wait a while. Exams are coming up and all owo|||
But hope you liked this chapter! And tell me how you find that little twist at the end? ;)
RawwrMage (18/09/15)