Target 3: Posters and New Business
Excitement bubbled up in Hitomi's stomach, putting a pep into her step as she drew nearer to her home. A squeak of the very same excitement left her mouth as she flailed her arms, wondering what her gift could possibly be. It had to be good—considering she knew that her dad had some money. "I hope it's, like, a puppy or maybe some new art supplies! That'd be spectubular."
When she got home, Hitomi slammed the door against the wall and dropped her bag, holding her arms out wide as she called, "Tadaima, Mama!"
"I'm in the kitchen, Hitomi-chan!" Solana yelled. Hitomi could hear the microwave going off as she kicked off her shoes, jutting her foot out behind her to close the door. When Hitomi reached the kitchen, she noted that her mother was the only one in the kitchen, moving about and listening to the radio.
"Where's dad?" Hitomi wondered aloud, her eyes sweeping the kitchen before landing on her mother. Solana only offers a smile, using a dishrag to wipe her hands.
"He's in the study. Waiting for you." Solana points up the ceiling and Hitomi nods. She watches her mother for another moment before she turns to head up the stairs and fidgets. Hitomi then suddenly turns back around in a split decision to look at her mother, a questioning gaze falling on the woman.
"Hey, mom? Is that baby still around?" Hitomi asks, backtracking a bit. Solana stops and turns to look at Hitomi, a bright smile on her face.
"Reborn? Yup! Why do you ask?" Solana tilts her head to the side slightly and Hitomi shakes her head.
"O-Oh! Um, no real reason… heheh..." Hitomi turns and head out of the kitchen and Solana returns to the sink. Her steps are slow, but the walk is rather short and soon enough, Hitomi finds herself standing in front of the door to her father's study. Through the door, she can hear the muffled voices of her father talking to someone, but she's not aware of who. Hitomi knocks on the door, running a hand through her messy hair.
"Come in." A semi-familiar voice floats through the oak door. Hitomi turns the knob and enters the room. She hardly comes in here—only if her mother asks her to get something. Hitomi doesn't like this room at all, actually. One of her least favorite rooms in the house.
"Hey..." She greets nonchalantly. She neither happy nor angered to see the man. Her posture and tone creating indifference, something that seems to surprise her father as he motions her into the room.
"Well, hello there, Hitomi. It's been awhile, hasn't it?" Tsuna smiles lightly, motioning Hitomi to sit.
"Yeah, about a year and a half this time." Hitomi says as if she's unaffected by the amount of time, though the slight undertone of her voice is scornful and Tsuna catches it. Tsuna cringes, his eyes not meeting Hitomi's due to the guilt he felt. He hadn't realized it'd been that long. He could remember Yamamoto saying that it'd only been a few months since he'd last seen Emiko.
"U-Uh… any-anyway… L-Let's just skip all that stuff and get down to why I'm really here." Tsuna said, his tone losing its light-heartedness. He decides that he doesn't want to feel the guilt of the conversation he knows they should have and moves on. Hopefully Hitomi doesn't notice. Tsuna sighs quietly when Hitomi only shrugs and sits down in the chair.
"...And that is?" Hitomi questions, eyebrows raised. She'd never heard her father use this tone before, it must've been something serious, like her awful grades.
"It's about your future…" Tsuna starts. Hitomi only stares blankly at him for a moment.
"What about my future?" She asks, "Are you gonna tell me that I have to get into a good college like Masayoshi? Because, ha, that's not gonna happen. I'm going to art school."
The room is quiet for a moment before Tsuna sighs, "That… That isn't what I meant, Hitomi. I meant your actual future. You're going into the same line of work as I am."
"And what's that?" Hitomi raises an eyebrow. "I'm not exactly in the loop with all of… whatever you do, if you hadn't noticed."
"Right, well, the future for you holds-!"
"You're going to be the boss of the Vongola in the future, idiotomi." Reborn stood on the chair next to Hitomi's. "Ciaossu." He gave a tiny wave to her. Startled, Hitomi almost knocked herself out of her chair, but at the last possible moment, she managed to hold onto the arms of the chair and sit up right.
"Ack! What're you doing here!?" Hitomi yelped, pointing accusingly at the hitman.
"Oh, I'm your home tutor. Remember? We met this morning, stupid." Reborn jumped up and kicked her in the back of the head, making her fall off the chair.
Hitomi grunted in pain when her head collided with the desk. She slid down the front, groaning until she was a mess on the floor.
"You alright there?" Tsuna peers over the desk to look at Hitomi. She only groaned in response and Tsuna took that as an answer. "Don't worry. You'll get used to it, Hitomi-chan... Um... that... or you'll get a metal plate in the back of your head... whichever comes first."
"You've gotta be kidding me!" Hitomi shoots up, surprising Tsuna and slamming her hands on the desk. "This... Thi-This... Kid can't be my tutor! I don't need one!" Hitomi gestures wildly at Reborn, her eyes narrowing at Tsuna.
"I needed one. You need one. Being the boss is hard, Hitomi." Tsuna replied, leaning back in his chair, "You need someone capable of teaching you the ropes."
"But I never agreed to be the boss. I don't want to be the boss! I don't even know what I'm being the boss of! You can't just come in here and declare that I'm gonna do some job I don't even—!"
"Don't talk like that. You're the only one who can do it, stupid." Reborn informs, standing on her limp form.
"W-Why me...?" Hitomi moans, covering her head with her arms. Reborn pulls out a brown piece of rolled up paper. Hitomi groans lightly and moves one of her hands to rub the back of her head.
"This is why." He states handing her the paper. Hitomi grabs at the paper dangling in front of her face. Reborn jumps off of her back and she sits up and begins studying the rolled up, old, dirtied and yellowed piece paper.
"What's this…?" Hitomi unrolls the paper and stares at it.
She continues to look down until the end of the paper, her dad's name is in the middle, a line points down, connecting to her brother, Masayoshi's name, and to her name as well. The only difference is her name is bigger and circled, like how her father's name is circled.
"It's the lineage of the bosses of Vongola Famiglia." Tsuna responds. Hitomi looks up at him over the top of the paper before looking at it once more.
"Dad..." She casts a sideways weary glance at Reborn, "...Evil baby… 'Vongola' means 'Clam' in Italian. What do you do? Sell clams to the world? If that's it... it doesn't seem so hard."
Tsuna tries to hold in his laughter at this comment. Reborn sighs and resists the urge to smack Hitomi for her stupidity. He can't resist the temptation, though. "Dame-Hitomi, Vongola Famiglia is a mafia family—the biggest in the world, to be exact." Reborn smacks her in the back of the head.
"You need to stop hitting people! That hurts! Geez..." Hitomi mumbles rubbing the back of her head.
"Hitomi, we're a mafia family. You're going to be a mafia boss." Tsuna tells her.
"M-M-M-M-M-Mafia! What?! What do you mean I'm gonna be a mafia boss! The mafia is evil! They kill people and... And- have you even seen the TV? Have you seen the mafia riots? And not to mention those shows about old mafia people—Dad, are you crazy?! Why are you in the mafia dad?" Hitomi screamed. She's panting and standing, her hands shaking. Hitomi almost looks like she's going to fall over. She then whispers, "Does mom know?"
Tsuna stared at her, he then turned to Reborn. Reborn looked at Tsuna with expectancy in his eyes and Tsuna pointed at Hitomi. "...I didn't act like that... Did I?" Tsuna asks. Reborn sighs, shaking his head. This was going to be a long process…
Kita leans against the wall surrounding Namimori Middle. She checks her watch for the twentieth time since she arrived here and sighs loudly. A light blue-haired girl who stands with Kita, leaning against the wall in a more casual manner than Kita scoffs loudly, gaining Kita's attention.
"I don't even know why you chose her, Kita-senpai. She's so unreliable. Really, Idiotomi? Seriously..." The blue haired girl scoffs. She twirls a piece of her hair between her fingers and Kita frowns, looking at her watch once more.
"Just calm down, Yuki… I know she didn't forget. She couldn't have. This is really important. Just have faith, Yuki." Kita replied. Yuki only shrugs, pulling out her phone and checking it once more for messages. Kita sighs again, looking up to the sky. '...I hope...'
"…And that's the gist of it, really." Tsuna said, leaning back. The look Hitomi gave him was one he was all too familiar with.
She's silent for a few moments, opening and closing her mouth a few times before she's able to actually form words. "…a-are you kidding—you're kidding, right? You have to be… haha, yeah… there's no way—wait, don't tell me you're serious." The look on Tsuna's face is sympathetic but Hitomi doesn't stay looking at him too long before she's staring at the ground, wondering how the hell did she even end up in this mess.
"W-Well... Just... At least go through the training, Hitomi-chan. There will be people after you and I want you to at least know how to defend yourself." Tsuna advised.
"W-Well... since you put it like that—Shit!" After hearing a loud beeping sound, Hitomi looks around. Tsuna shrugs and Reborn is sleeping. She then digs into her skirt pocket. Pulling out her phone, she looks at the screen. "Holy cow! Oh my god! I forgot! Ah crap!" Hitomi jumps up and sprints out of the study and towards her room. "I hope she's still there! This is terrible!"
Tsuna sits in the chair confused as to what just happened. Reborn stands and pulls out his gun. Reborn sighs. "A hitman's work is never done, huh?" He gets up and walks towards the door. Tsuna is left confused.
"I hope I can make it!" Hitomi panics, speed-walking.
"With your track record of not being on time for anything...I'm pretty sure you won't..."
Hitomi skids to a stop and looks up to see Reborn looking down at her. She frowns when he casually waves at her as if this is something normal. "Ciaossu." He greeted.
"Ack, how'd you get up there?! Leave me alone! I gotta go!" Reborn jumps off of her head and she trips. Reborn sighs heavily.
"I knew you weren't the one... well, I guess it's time, then..." He holds out his hand and Leon crawls onto it, changing into a gun.
"T-Time for what?"
"Hm, Time for you to die, of course."
"Oh... Okay... W-Wait Wh-Wh-What!" A shot rang out and Hitomi fell back onto the ground, her body going limp upon impact.
'Oh god... Not again... What the hell? I'm so full of regret… I didn't even get to deliver Kita-san's poster!'
Suddenly her clothes rip and her eyes open, a brighter orange color now. Her forehead is ablaze with a pure orange colored flame. "REBORN! DELIVER THIS POSTER TO KITA-SAN AS IF I WERE TO DIE!" Hitomi screeches. She picks up the bag and sprints forward, in the direction of the school. Hitomi kicks up a whirlwind as she runs down the street, taking clothes off of people and moving far beyond where they originally were.
Hikaru jogged down one of the many roads in Namimori. Next to her, was none other than her father, who was the one she got her peculiar hair color from. Hikaru detested running and doing anything with her incompetent father, but here she was, running next to the man, per his suggestion.
"Hmm. I hate running. Dad, why do we have to run?" Hikaru asked, her eyes narrowing.
"In the end, if you're to beat Sasagawa's son, you have to be stronger! C'mon, Hikaru... lighten up! This is quality bonding time like your mom wanted!"
"Dad, I have files and things to go over for Skye-san. I'm the top in my Muy Thai and Boxing classes... what more do you need? Can't we just go—whoa...!" Hikaru trailed, stopping her light jog.
"What?" Her father asks. Hikaru pointed to the screaming person jetting down the street. Her father's gaze drifted to where his daughter's finger pointed. His eyes widened in shock at the sight.
"Is that… Is that Sawada?" Hikaru questioned squinting. She puts a hand above her glasses, shielding her eyes from the sun slightly.
"…You mean Sawada's daughter, Hitomi?" He asks, head titled in confusion.
"Yeah... it certainly looks like her..." Hikaru wonders how her dad knows Hitomi's father as she answers.
"Well she better slow down or in the end, she'll hit that truck." Hikaru's dad said pointing at the large truck coming up the street.
Hitomi's incomprehensible screams were loud, making those around her cover their ears as she ran by, flipping over trash cans as people's clothing articles were traded with others. Hitomi continued yelling as she ran face-first into the truck, bouncing off and flying into the same direction she had just came from.
Hikaru gasped loudly, "I think she hit the truck!"
"Well... I don't see her; you think she went back the way she came?" He asked her as the truck passed by.
"I dunno, maybe. Anyway, c'mon dad. If we're late, mom will throw butcher knives or somethin at us."
The green haired man shudders as his daughter turns around. He shook his head and his daughter shuddered at the thought. "Y-Yeah... w-we should head back, Hikaru."
"Gah! Now I'm FURTHER away from the school!" Hitomi yells trying to get back on course. After bounding against a building and effectively cracking a window and nearly maiming a police officer, she's back on the ground again and running at full speed.
"The school!" She tries to slow down into a stop as she sees Kita coming out of the school. She's still running as the flame slowly burns out, five minutes almost ending.
"Kita! Kita! I have your poster!" Hitomi yells thrusting the bag at her. Kita is dazed and confused. Hitomi is standing front of her breathing heavily.
"Hitomi-chan... where is your clothing?" Kita asks giving her an up-down. She's surprised at seeing Hitomi come down the street half naked.
"U-Uh... what?"
"You're naked, kid. But," Kita takes the poster out of Hitomi's bag and hands it back to her, "Thanks for the poster... you and your friends should come to the show!"
"E-Err..." Hitomi blushed, rubbing the back of her head slightly.
"Idiotomi would be happy to come to your show, Kita." Reborn says standing next to Hitomi. In his small hand, he holds a bag, which he presents to Hitomi.
"Oh! How cute! Hello, little boy! What's your name?" Kita asks squatting down to be almost eye level with Reborn.
"Ciaossu, I am Reborn. I'm this stupid kid's home tutor." Hitomi snaps out of her daze when she hears this.
"Hahahahaha! He's just kidding, Kita-san!" She grabs Reborn and covers his mouth, he promptly kicks her in the boob and she lets him go in favor of clutching her breast.
"Then is he your brother?" Reborn surveys Kita with scrutiny.
"N-N-N—No way!"
"Hey! What are you three doing on school property? And naked, too! School hours and club activities are over! Do you wanna die?" Skye yells walking towards them, Bō staff in hand. Reborn then surveys the blonde prefect.
"N-No! S-Sorry... We were just leaving, right guys?" Kita laughs nervously, pushing a half-naked Hitomi away from Skye, Reborn in tow making silent notes in his mind.
"Damn... too late, kora..."
Hitomi, Reborn and Kita are seated in Nammy's diner. Reborn sipping coffee quietly, Kita eating a hamburger and Hitomi eating ice-cream. Hitomi's now wearing blue skinny jeans, a plain black T-shirt and sneakers.
"Thank you so much, Hitomi-chan. Is there anything I can do for you? Oh! Here, the money." Kita reaches into her skirt pocket and pulls out money.
"O-Oh... no it's fine, keep your money, Kita-san. I'm sorry I was so late though. I hadn't realized the time, Heh." Hitomi nervously rubbed the back of her head.
"No, it's fine. You know, everybody in the drama club had you pegged down as Dame-Hitomi or Idiotomi or whatever else. Saying you are useless and unreliable..." Kita started. Hitomi cringed and twitched slightly.
'Geez... I hadn't known I was so hated...' Noticing Hitomi's expression, Kita blushed and pulled on her black curls.
"B-But I didn't think you were like that! I promise!" Kita waved her arms in front of her wildly. "And you proved that to me. You're a good person, Hitomi-chan." Kita smiled.
"T-Thanks, Kita-san! I... I don't know what to say..." Hitomi blushed slightly.
"Well... there's only one thing to say." Reborn spoke finally.
"Eh? What's that, Reborn-kun?" Kita questioned.
'Oh god... What the hell is gonna say...' Hitomi bit her fingernails in anticipation while Kita cocked her head to the side. Silence filled the table before Reborn spoke.
"Watanabe, Kita... Join Dame-Hitomi's family."
Hitomi's eyes widened at the prospect. She'd only just learned of the mafia—and now Reborn was trying to get people into it for her? "Wh-What?!" Kita and Hitomi yelped, drawing stares from patrons of the restaurant. Hitomi blushes, ducking her head as Kita apologizes for them.
"...And I'm really good with Chakrams. They're my favorite!" Kita says; she's sitting on top of a table under the gazebo in Namimori Park. Reborn sits next to her, making mental notes. Hitomi's freaking out trying to convince Kita otherwise and wondering why the girl knows how to use weapons.
"Hm... Interesting, Kita." He smirks. Hitomi is trying to figure out how they even managed to get this far—and why Kita knows how to use weapons. She doesn't look like a violent person, but then again… her eyes trail to Reborn. Looks can be deceiving.
"Oh my god, this can't be happening! Kita-san! Why are you talking to him," Her voice gets lower, "About the mafia?"
"Because, it sounds like fun! Don't hog all this fun to yourself, Hitomi-chan! This sounds like a really cool game!" Kita chirps. "Even though we've only just met, this'll be a fun way to make new friends, right?"
"'Fun'? 'Game'? It's not fun! And it's definitely not a game! You could die! I don't know about you but dying sounds awful!" Hitomi reasons. She doesn't know much about it, but she knows that she doesn't want anyone else involved.
"It's not that bad. You've done it twice now, Dame-Hitomi. So, shut-up." Reborn counters, hitting her in the back of the head. She stands up abruptly, her head throbbing. Hitomi gets over it quickly and slams her hands down on the table, wincing at the pain.
"What do you mean twice? You shot me twice?" Hitomi yells.
"Keep your voice down, stupid. Someone will hear you." Reborn replied, looking around. Hitomi shot him an incredulous look while Kita looked back and forth between them.
"You shot Hitomi-chan, Reborn-kun?" She asked, titling her head slightly.
"Yes. I did. So I guess it's time to explain the 'Dying Will' and the 'Dying Will bullets'." Reborn sighs, "It's rather early for it, though. I would assume that I'd have to explain it when we had at least two guardians, but…"
"The who's and what's?" Hitomi and Kita questioned in unison.
"'Dying Will'. And 'Dying Will Bullets'. I shot you with one of these," Reborn stated, pulling out a red bullet with an orange flame on it. "They're called 'Dying Will Bullets'."
"'Dying Will Bullet'..." Hitomi repeats, "Wait—you shot me with some special bullets—is that why I'm always naked!" Reborn nods and Hitomi makes a noise of embarrassment.
"Wow! A real bullet! Cool!" Kita smiles. Hitomi looks over at Kita with wide eyes, a little scared of the girl's definition of cool.
"Cool!" Hitomi questions, "What's so cool about a bullet?!" Hitomi says, waving her arms wildly. Before Kita can respond, Reborn gives Hitomi a look.
"Stop interrupting. Or I'll shoot you with a bullet that won't let you come back to life." He threatens. Hitomi gulps audibly and quiets down, scared that Reborn might actually do it.
"Like I was saying... The Dying Will Bullet is a very special bullet. If a person is shot with one and they regret something, they have a whole five minutes of unhindered amount strength to do it. They have to have a Dying Will for the bullet to work. Or else they'll die."
"Like earlier when I was late and wanted to bring Kita-san her poster..."
"Exactly. Earlier, you also hit a truck. It didn't hurt you because you were in Dying Will Mode."
"Dying Will Mode? What's that?" Kita asked.
"Dying Will Mode. My next and final point. Dying Will Mode uses the pressure you face, for example, say that your friend is hurt because they've been shot down in court or some other thing and you want to help them, it externally removes your body limiters making you unafraid of anything and renews your confidence so you can do whatever it is you had to do." Reborn explained showing the two a diagram.
"But..." Kita trails off.
"But what?" Reborn looks to her.
"Why was I naked?" Hitomi asked looking down at her clothes. Kita nodded furiously.
"It's an unusual side effect. You'll get used to it. Your father did. Anyway, Kita." She nods. Reborn pulls out a small index card sized paper. "Here, take this paper."
"What do I do with it?" Kita examines the paper for any type of indication for what she should do.
"Just hold it. And think. What's your resolve?"
"Resolve? I don't...?" Kita looks to Hitomi questioning what Reborn said. The young boss-to-be just shrugs.
"What's 'resolve', Reborn?" Hitomi asks staring at the baby Hitman.
"Resolve is your motivation. Tsuna's, the current boss of Vongola and Hitomi's dad, resolve is to protect his family and friends. How important your resolve is to you makes your flame stronger and of high purity. So think about your resolve."
"Okay..."
"Why is she doing that?"
"Because, if she's to be in your family, you need to know what guardian position she can fill."
"HIIIEE? You're still on that? I told you I didn't wanna be the boss nor have a mafia family!"
"Kita's agreed to protect you with her life and you're just going to turn her down like that? You're worse than I thought, Dame-Hitomi."
"Eh? Why would she do that? There's no way I would let someone protect me with their life! I don't want anyone to die!"
"And if you don't become boss, people will."
"Hey guys! Is the paper supposed to do this?" Kita called to them. The paper burned with an eerie indigo type color.
"Mist."
"What?" The two ask. Hitomi frowns a little, she doesn't understand any of this.
"She's your Mist Guardian, Hitomi."
"What? You can't just assume!"
"Is this a part of the game? Cause it's really cool." Kita said distracted by the flame.
"Yeah. So will you?"
"Will I what, Reborn-kun?"
"Join Hitomi's family."
"Ha! Sure! I bet it'll be lots of fun!" Kita smiled.
Reborn smirked. Hitomi tried to reason with Kita about joining the mafia. "Family member acquired. That's one down and five to go."
A lot of dialogue in this one, but I thought it best for Reborn to explain a few things to the girls, but hey, Hitomi's got her first guardian!