Hello again! :D It has been a LONG time! o.o However, everything just got in the way.. first a writers block, then school, and then..well you can imagine. :) BUT! I am here now, to give you the next chapter. I can already feel the ending nearing, and I'm a little sad, but it can't go on forever like cough, certain animes.
Thank you for everyoneone who read, favourited, followed and reviewed my fic ! :d There were some questions that were popping up again and again, so I will answer them now.
1, Will Hibari or Ryohei appear? Hibari yes, Ryohei..maybe at the end for a few minutes. But Hibari will appear shortly, so don't worry! :D
2, Was Uri the leopard/s/? Nope, they were just similar, but had absolutely no connection.
3, Hideoshi? Yep, he gets a seperate question too XD One, he is a boy. Two, has no connection to the maffia. Three, I don't know wheter I like him or not either.. He was just a small character after all :)
4, Lack of fights? Yeeah, well I'm not relly good at writing those... Plus, this fic is more concentrateed on characters and suspense, but I'll try to put some fight scenes in the next chappie :D
5, Pairings? NEIN! This fic is not about romantics either..
6, Genre-jumping? The bane of my existence XD It's really hard for me to stay with one specific genre, and as there is usually a LOT of time between my updates, and my writing style greatly resemble's my mood.. there you have the answer :D
AND LASTLY! I was asked to put more reunion stuff in the fic and...Your wish is my command! :D
I know it's a little like a filler chappie, but it's not really that. More like calm before the strom. The next storm.. Hope you enjoy~!
As he felt the last of his Cloud Leopards disappear, Abietto Irbis felt the ire rise in himself. He had underestimated those kids. It looks like Byakuran-sama, didn't broke them fully yet, if they could win against Abietto's leopards. But, he reassured himself, if the little ones could cause at least this much damage, then they had no chance against the mother, the Queen of them all.
And then, Abietto chuckled, there will be no more Vongola Guardians, and no more headaches for Byakuran-sama.
The hitman pulled out yet another Box Weapon. It was his trump-card, his ace in the hole.
There was no way he would lose this fight!
In the cafeteria of the middle school, a growing number of young adults were gathering. In the middle, all of the tables were pushed together, around them everyone took a seat in one of the chairs. Luckily there were more than enough chairs, so nobody had to stand. Most of the young adults were chatting with each other, however Kurokawa Hana was one of the few, who chose to stay silent, and listen to the others around them.
One of the conversations caught her attention: Akiko Sato and Ayumi Senawa the two used-to-be gossipers of Namimori Middle School, now one of the best journalists in town, were talking about all the scandals involving her (and their) used-to-be classmates. Normally, Hana would never sink so low as to listen in on a conversation like this, but times changed, and Hana herself changed. Right now, every piece of information she heard was important, not primarily because of her job, but because of a certain mafia family.
A mafia family she was growing rather worried about. It was subtle, but Hana saw the shift in the Vongola Guardians behavior. All of them seemed strained, as if there was constant danger around them, and all of them taken to always wearing their weapons. Even if they were with Hana and Kyoko. To top it off, all of them seemed weary, which was unfathomable, as Sawada always made sure to never overwork his guardians.
Sawada was another enigma altogether. It wasn't that he was different.. it was that he had disappeared. The girls hadn't seen the Vongola Don for a long while, and none of the Guardians were willing to tell them where he was and what was going on.
And while they heard nothing about Sawada, all the Guardians took on a mask of cheerfulness, trying to hide what was wrong.
And something was wrong, Hana was sure. She just didn't know what.
Hana shake off all the pessimist thoughts, and instead decided to tune in the gossiper-girls conversation again.
"- and that's how Yamada decided to be a carpenter!"
"Wow! I would never have known! "
"Right?! And what's best is that is that his father almost disinherited him, because the old man wanted his son to be a musician too, or something like that."
"You serious?! But... in the end it didn't happen?"
"Nope! I can only guess why."
The two were silent for a second, then Akiko's turn came to tell some news. She told Ayumi about the hardships of Hideoshi, as well as his failed relationships.
"Try and fail to find a better tattle than that! " Akiko stated in triumph, crossing her hands in front of her chest.
"Fufufu~ Then prepare to be blown away!" smirked Ayumi mischievously. " I heard something much better, and it's not even a rumor! It's a fact!"
"What?!" Akiko bristled. "No way!"
"Then what would you say if I told you," Ayumi stopped here for a dramatic pause, and even Hana leaned a little closer in anticipation (she saw some other around the table do that as well). " that Yamamoto Takeshi, our star baseball player never, as in never, joined a team after graduation? And never played even one match?
This, of course, caused an uproar amongst everyone who heard this piece of information. Those who didn't know what was going on looked around, confused, till someone filled them in. In a few moments everyone's eyes were set on Ayumi. Enjoying the attention she got, Ayumi decided to further elaborate the topic.
"A close friend of mine is playing in a baseball team right now, and he never heard of our star-player. Not once! When I asked him to look into it a little more, again, he came up with nothing. Yamamoto Takeshi never set foot in the baseball circuit!" she finished dramatically.
"I can't believe this.."
"What the-!"
"Such a let down.."
"Disappointing, right?"
These, and similar whispers spread through the cafeteria. Naturally, Hana knew Yamamoto decided to not join any team, but she would never have thought that 1, Ayumi would know this, and 2, that it would be this shocking for anyone else. As usual, she still didn't quite get, what was it with all the sport fanatics.
"But wait!" One of the young adults shouted suddenly, and instantly every eyes were on him. "Why would Yamamoto give up baseball?"
"It's true." nodded Akiko, then the woman turned to her best friend. "Any ideas, Ayumi?"
"Not one." Ayumi shook her head sadly. "I wasn't even that close to him, so..."
"Then, shouldn't we ask someone who is close to him?"
Immediately all eyes were on Hana, questioning her.
"I don't know." she shrugged nonchalantly. "If you really want to know, why not ask Gokudera, Dokuro or someone in Sawada's group? They were the closest to him."
Hana, inside her mind, apologized to the mentioned boys. But as long as they didn't chew her out for not knowing, she won't mind throwing the monkeys under the bus. Well, they were mafia, a few questioning civilians wouldn't have to bother them too much, right? Right.
"Now that I think about it," started Akiko, as most of the people in the cafeteria run out to hunt down the aforementioned persons. " what did Yamamoto do then? If he didn't join a team, I mean."
The remaining few, Hana, Akiko, Ayumi and three others, thought about the question.
"Actually, I wonder what everyone in Sawada's group does now."
"That's true. I never heard anything of Dame-Tsuna, Gokudera and everyone else int that group. Not even one little rumor!"
Hana sighed to herself at the "Dame-Tsuna" name. Some people could never forget. Not to mention stubborn.
"Well," Akiko snickered. "if it comes to Dame-Tsuna, we can all guess where he ended up."
"I think he still lives with his mother."
"Nah, probably on the streets."
"Or underground..."
"What do you mean underground?"
"You know..."
"Oh.. Sadly, that's a possibility too."
Hana didn't know if she should laugh or cry. All the tips were far from the reality. Except for the underground part, that was a close one, though not in the intended meaning. Mafia men were basically underground people, so it wasn't a far cry from reality.
If only she knew the truth...
Sasagawa Kyoko was irritated. Usually she had a lengthy patience, but right now it was really put to the test. She's been going around the school for more than twenty minutes, trying to get her old classmates to the cafeteria. It wouldn't be so bad, if she hadn't done that already almost an hour ago.
Fortunately, she only had a couple of people to usher to the meeting point, but if she had to pace through the entire school yet again, she would use some of the boxing techniques Ryohei taught her.
With such thoughts, Kyoko continued on to the thrid floor of the middle school.
At the same time, Chrome and Gokudera exited the main building. As Chrome led him, Gokudera took the time to look around the baseball field. Just like at the corridor where he was attacked, the field didn't indicate it in the slightest, that not long ago there was a red battle going on here. Gokudera clicked his tongue in annoyance. Whoever was the one pulling the strings, should really decide whether he (or she) wanted to involve civilians too.
Most likely, the two attacks on Kuroda and Hideoshi's friend were to lure them out.
"Can you see him anywhere?" asked Gokudera, squinting slightly as he tried to find the sword-freak.
"N-no." Chrome shook her. "Maybe we should try over th- There he is!"
Gokudera immediately followed the female Mist Guardian, thankful for the much better eyesight illusionists possessed. It saved them a lot of time. Running up to Yamamoto, who was sitting in the shadow of a tree, Gokudera was about to swear at the sword user, when he saw the makeshift bandage on his shoulder. So instead the bomber lit his Sun Flames and got to work.
Yamamoto looked gratefully at him, though both of them knew that Gokudera's flame wouldn't be strong enough to heal the wound completely. It was still better than nothing.
Chrome stood silently behind them while Gokudera worked, no doubt guarding them. After a few minutes Gokudera let out a tired huff, and let the Sun Flame simmer out.
"It should be alright for a while. I closed the wound as much as I could, but try not to overstrain yourself. That means no sudden moves, and definitely no fighting, got it?" scowled the bomber.
"Got it! Thanks Gokudera! " grinned Yamamoto. Gokudera just scoffed, and Chrome smiled softly. They were together again.
Yamamoto stood up, and carefully not to aggravate his injury, dusted off his pants.
" Well then, let's go! Oh, and Gokudera!" Suddenly he turned to the other man. "I'm sorry for suspecting Uri. I shouldn't have."
Chrome nodded her head seriously, and was about to add something, when the ringing of a telephone cut her off. The Mist and Storm Guardians looked at the rain Guardian, who sheepishly scratched the back of his head, then hurriedly picked up the phone. Yamamoto couldn't even say a word as the person on the other side immediately began talking. Yamamoto listened with rapt attention, which caused the other two Guardians to intently listen in too.
"So you got him? Are you hurt? Alright, thank God." A small pause, then Yamamoto answered again. "Just leave him there, Hibari will take care of him later. It would be better if you stayed there with the old geezer though, just in case he tries something stupid." Another pause, then Yamamoto laughed a little. After a quick goodbye the call ended.
"Who was that?" lashed out Gokudera immediately. "And what was that with Hibari? You know where the bastard is?"
Yamamoto laughed his annoying - according to Gokudera - laugh, then set to explaining the call.
"Sorry, my pupil called. He caught the man behind the leopard attacks. Turns out it was an old hitman by the name of Abietto Irbis. Fortunately we don't have to worry about him anymore."
There was only silence for a few seconds. Chrome broke the stunned silence first.
"Y-Yamamoto-san, you have a pupil? Since when?"
"Nah, just a few months." he shrugged. "He wanted to learn more about sword-fighting, and I could teach him. That's all."
Gokudera could feel the twitch developing on his forehead, but let the idiot be. He really could be this simple, though he used to think that it was on purpose to annoy him.
"What about Hibari? How do you know that he will be here?" he asked, scowling.
"Because that guy has a sixth sense when it comes to Namimori. Hibari will be here and bite that poor old man to death." Yamamoto chuckled, along with Chrome.
Gokudera sighed. He guessed the idiot was right. Then, a question popped up in his head.
"And, who is that pupil of yours?"
He didn't like the grin on Yamamoto's face. Not one bit.
Aaand CUT! My everlasting love, the cliffhanger! :D
You can guess who the "pupil" is, though I don't think it's too hard...
ALSO! One IMPORTANT question! Should, or should not the Guardians react overprotectively when they hear the old classmates insult Tsuna? What is your opinion? :)
Well then, off I go, to the Hell named School!
Thank you for reading~! :)