Target 10: Training? Upgrading? Or just flippin the heck out?
Hitomi was painfully awakened the next morning by Reborn and a rather large green hammer with a weird smiling face on it. She yelped, dashing away from the bed and towards the window. Hitomi pressed herself up against the glass of the window, panting heavily and feeling scared.
"Get dressed, stupid. We have training today!" Reborn told her. Hitomi sighed, falling out of her awkward position on the windowsill.
"Fine…" She mumbled through the slight pain, still tired and feeling rather agreeable.
Reborn turned, leaving Hitomi to get dressed as he headed down stairs to the noisy kitchen. Upon arriving in said noisy kitchen, Reborn was greeted with yelling from Gokudera and Ryohei, laughing from Dino and Yamamoto, Tsuna trying to calm everyone down and quiet talking from Chrome and Solana. Emiko sat in one of the chairs next to Kamiko, both girls resisting the urge to eat the food from off of their parents' plates. Lucia giggled, playing with the Natsu, Uri and Jirou on the floor.
"Augh! God!" Emiko slammed her head on the table, drawing everyone's attention to her and Kamiko, making the latter blush and the former want to scream.
"Hitomi! Hurry up, oh my god if you don't I'm gonna come up there and beat you with your own hair!" Emiko yelled up the stairs, surprising everyone.
Hitomi's signature scream was heard from the top of the stairs as she went tumbling down the stairs, landing right in front of the kitchen threshold. She groaned, her face still planted on the ground. Lucia laughed, making everyone else snicker behind their hands.
"Are you alright, Hitomi?" Solana asked first.
"Yeah, but I don't need death threats!" The brown haired girl glared at her best friend. She came into the kitchen, plopping down on the chair next to Emiko.
"I don't care what you don't need because I know what I need—food! And I can't get any until we're done with this stupid training thing!" Emiko growled at her.
"Someone's feeling PMS-y~!" Kamiko sang, ducking out of the way when Emiko aimed a Tonfa at her.
"Well, now we know that Emiko can't function right without food." Kita said from the doorway.
"Hey there, Kita-san." Hitomi mumbled.
"Why're you so chipper this morning?" Emiko asked the question they'd all be wondering.
"Because! I had a big dinner last night so I'm not hungry! My mom said it's important for you to eat a good dinner if you're doing exercise in the morning! But," She turned to Reborn who rested on the counter, "Are we doing like fighting and stuff? Because Collins broke my Chakrams yesterday, now I gotta use this stupid trident thingy. People kept asking me if I was gonna give them sushi or something!"
"It seems like everyone just skipped over the fact that the door was locked and Kita got in here…" Kamiko mumbled to Emiko who nodded in agreement.
"Well, it shouldn't be too hard even without a weapon." Reborn stated after sipping his coffee.
"Yeah, I broke my sword yesterday too, and I don't have any money!" Kamiko complained.
"That thing was made of wood, you're fine." Emiko waved her off.
"Hm, two of you are down weapons, what to do…?" Reborn seemed to ponder this for a few moments, already having known about this.
"He doesn't care, he'll just make us do whatever it is without the weapons—I don't even have a weapon! I'm just over here stripping my clothes off and making people want to extinguish me with a fire extinguisher!" Hitomi complained. Emiko laughed, as did the rest of the rooms occupants.
"Someone tried to put you out with an extinguisher?" Tsuna asked through his chuckles.
"Yes! It was Ryota! He was all like 'Oh, I thought you were dying or something'. And I was all like 'Thanks, asshole!' And then he tripped me! He tripped me!" Hitomi fumed.
"Pssh, Hitomi when you tell stories, you make the voices all wrong, Ryota's voice is supposed to be high, as we all know, his balls haven't dropped yet so he's gotta go around with his li'l posse protecting him." Emiko explained. While Kamiko and Kita giggled almost silently, Hitomi groaned, banging her head on the table once more.
"Well," Reborn continued, as if he hadn't heard their little conversation, "How about we start the training then?"
"Fine…" Hitomi mumbled, pulling herself into a standing position as Reborn made his way across the kitchen to stand on Emiko's head, much to her dismay.
Almost thirty minutes later found the four girls and the baby standing in front of the Namimori park entrance. People of all ages frolicked in the park, doing various things and Hitomi hated all of them at that moment. They were free to spend their Saturday doing whatever they wanted and she had to be stuck with Reborn doing whatever he had in store for them.
"C'mon now, they're waiting." Reborn kicked Hitomi in the back of the head, causing her to scream and fall over, landing face first on the ground. Much to Kita's surprise, nobody even cast them a second glance. Emiko snickered, helping Hitomi up and following the baby while keeping a safe distance behind him.
"So, who are 'they'?" Kita asked. Kamiko shrugged as if Kita addressed her with the question.
"He's an old friend of Tsuna's." reborn replied curtly.
Kamiko rolled along next to Kita, trying not to pass the other girls. She turned to look at Hitomi.
"Do you know who he's talking about?" Kamiko whispered to her cousin, although she was pretty sure everyone in the group heard her.
Hitomi shrugged, wondering that much herself. She didn't really know who her father dealt with, as he was always gone and she had originally thought he just owned some fancy Italian company. Emiko did the same when Kamiko turned to her. The silvernette looked ahead, noticing that they had passed by the more populated part of the park fairly quickly.
"Well, whoever it is must be pretty important. And probably here to help us train, yeah?" Emiko concluded.
Before anyone else could speak, Reborn stopped walking and Hitomi tripped, trying to stop herself from running Reborn over. She landed next to him with Emiko in her grasp, Hitomi having tried to grab her to stop. Kamiko curved her board sideways, trying to avoid a collision with the two girls but ended up flying a few feet in front of the Hitomi, Emiko and Reborn. Kita just giggled, watching the spectacle.
"You guys all suck at stopping." Kita commented.
"We're here." Reborn stated.
Emiko sat up, looking around. "There's nothing here! Nothing but trees and grass and dirt and whatever else you find at parks! Like—"She turned around sharply, pointing at a familiar looking man. "Like dirty bums named Makimoto!"
Hitomi squeaked as the tall boy came out of the bushes, a smile on his face. Makimoto only laughed, coming closer to the group of girls. "I thought you said you couldn't come to the park, Yamamoto-chan? And here you are! Did you not want to come with me?"
Emiko rolled her eyes, turning away from the baseball player. He didn't seem to mind this and went to stand in front of her, completely ignoring the existence of anyone else in the group. While he tried to gain Emiko's attention, Hitomi managed to pry herself from underneath her best friend and stood next to Kita and her cousin, who had stood up already.
"Who's that?" Kamiko had asked, drawing shocked looks from both Hitomi and Kita.
"You don't know who that is? He's the star of the baseball team—"
"Besides Emiko, they're like co-stars." Hitomi cut Kita off.
"He's always following her around like a lost puppy." Kita added. Hitomi nodded only because of the way he was currently acting.
"We don't have time for this. Get Emiko and come over to those bushes." Reborn kicked Hitomi forward.
"Ack! Wait!" But Reborn, Kita and Kamiko were already headed towards the bushes.
Hitomi looked back over to Emiko's predicament. She was still sitting on the ground, her arms crossed and her face in a pout, obviously she was trying not to laugh at whatever he said. Makimoto had kneeled down next to Emiko and was currently trying to coax her into coming to play baseball with him and some of his friends.
Hitomi stepped forward, unsure of what to do. She shifted awkwardly from foot to foot and this gained Emiko's attention. Suddenly, Emiko stood, turning to Hitomi and walking towards her.
"I can't. I have things to do like I said." Emiko ended the conversation with her sharp words and wheeled Hitomi away from Makimoto.
"Well, maybe next time! Bye!" Makimoto waved until the two girls were out of sight.
"So you've finally decided to grace us with your presence." Teru said to the girls after they emerged from the bushes.
Hitomi noted that there were three extra occupants in the small clearing, making it seem a little bit two small. They were identical, their hair a pink-ish red color and their eyes brown. The first twin who stood on the right wore a pink shirt and a black skirt with long pink socks and black sneakers while the left twin was dressed in similar clothing; her shirt being black, her skirt pink and black socks with pink sneakers. Their hair was also different, the right twin having high twin ponytails and the left having low twin tails.
This time, Teru looked more her age as she was dressed in a white lab coat and her hair being tied back into a bun instead of ponytails like before. Reborn motions to the two twins forward. The right one smiles and left one only acknowledges the girls with a small glance.
"This is the Undicesimo and her current guardians." Reborn tells them. Their demeanor changes greatly, the left twin acknowledging them fully.
"My name's Gianna." The right one speaks first, pointing to the pin on her shirt which has her name on it.
"And I'm Gianni." The left one says afterwards, also indicating an oppositely colored pin on her shirt.
"Wow, confusing…" Kamiko comments.
"Reborn," Hitomi glances from Gianna to Gianni and back to the baby, "Who are these two?"
"I was hoping you'd ask. These are two of Vongola's rookie Weapon tuners. They are the daughters of one of Tsuna's subordinates." Reborn informs them.
"And why are they here?" Kita asks, making Hitomi and the others nod along with her question.
Gianni speaks first, "We're here to fix your weapons—"
"And upgrade them to make them better, dyun!" Gianna finishes for her sister.
"That's so creepy! Say more words!" Hitomi and Emiko are intrigued by the two twins. Kamiko rolls her eyes while she and Kita hold Hitomi and Emiko back from trying to approach the two girls.
Reborn sighs, knowing something like this might happen, he speaks anyway, "Well, while we train without weapons today, Gianna and Gianni are going to tune up your weapons."
"Really!?" Kita looks happy, her eyes sparkling as she pulls the broken Chakrams from her bag.
"Ack! Kita-san! You can't just carry weapons around like that!" Hitomi yells in disdain, knowing Kita probably wasn't listening because the curly haired girl already gave her weapons to Gianna while Kamiko and Emiko gave their weapons to Gianni.
"Take good care of my skateboard, please. I can't afford to replace it right now." Kamiko tells them quietly.
"Oh! Oh! And if you could put laser beams in my Chakrams… that would be perf!" Kita gripped her trident with enough force to break it.
"Did she just use the word 'perf'?" Emiko whispered to Hitomi.
"Unfortunately…" Hitomi whispers back.
"Give her the trident too, Kita." Reborn tells the excited girl. Kita complies less enthusiastically.
"Alright, we'll get to work as fast as we can, dyun!" Gianna tells them in her chipper voice.
"Now that that's settled, we can finally start the training." Reborn tells them.
"What're we doing?" Kamiko beats everyone to the punch and Reborn looks to Teru. Teru just smirks and motions the girls closer to her.
The group hesitantly takes a step closer, only for Teru to sneeze, accidentally releasing at least a dozen mosquitoes on the group. Screaming and running can be heard as the girls try to swat the bugs away. Teru herself tries to catch some, only for one to land on Hitomi, pricking her before flying off.
"No! Amelia! Come back! George is still here! Amelia!" Teru runs off, with the horde of mosquitoes following behind her.
"Is anybody hurt?" Kita calls out from her hiding place behind a bush.
Emiko and Kamiko are the first to respond, Gianna and Gianni soon responding. Hitomi, however, is rolling on the ground, laughing loudly. Emiko approaches her first, wondering what exactly was going on. Kita and Kamiko first look for Reborn, but the baby is nowhere to be seen.
"What's wrong with young Vongola, dyun?" Gianna asks, the twins moving forward.
"I dunno… She just—Ack! Hitomi!" Emiko falls back after being smacked in the face by Hitomi.
Hitomi, who was still giggling, ran past the group. Emiko watched Hitomi run in surprise before running after her, calling Hitomi's name. Kamiko shared a confused look with Kita before the two also ran after Hitomi. Gianni and Gianna turned in the opposite direction, running after Teru.
Hitomi ran through the park, screaming, swinging her arms around and yelling nonsense, causing people to back away and stare. Emiko came up behind her, tackling the girl to the ground and trying to keep her still. The crowd that had gathered around the two was pretty big and some, if not half the crowd, had their phones out, recording the spectacle.
"Hitomi! What the heck is wrong with you?!" Emiko grunted out. Hitomi managed to punch Emiko in the gut and backed away from the baseball player.
"I can't stop moving, Emiko! Or else they'll get me!" Hitomi whispers urgently.
"Who is 'they', Hitomi?" Emiko asked, her face contorted in confusion and slight pain.
"You know who they are! They will be here any minute with their hypersaw cutters and Washywitchicks!" Hitomi whispers louder this time.
Emiko, suddenly backed by Kamiko and Kita, turns to both girls before returning her gaze to Hitomi who is pointing to the left. Their eyes all follow where she's pointing, only for Emiko's eyes to widen in shock.
"And the prince can save us!" With that, Hitomi runs, pulling an innocent bystander, who happened to be named Makimoto, with her.
"Oh dammint!" Emiko stomps her foot.
"What… just happened…?" Kamiko asks. Emiko sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose and turning to look at the two.
"I. Have. No. Fucking. Idea. Hitomi just started spouting out some nonsense about whomever the fuck 'they' are and grabbed Makimoto, as you saw, and ran the fuck away." Emiko explained.
Kamiko stepped forward, watching the crowd disperse before speaking, "So, what are we going to do now?"
"Well, obviously, we have to go find her," Kita spoke up. "I mean, if she's with Makimoto and acting like a crazy person, who knows what'll happen."
"Yeah, you're right—"
"Maybe we can get our weapons—whatever state they're in—from the twins and go find them." Kamiko cuts Emiko off.
Emiko glares at her before rolling her green eyes and folding her arms, "I don't think we'll be able to, after all, they ran after Teru."
"Oh… that's right, and we didn't see were Teru went…" Kamiko frowns.
"Well, let's stop wasting time here—we have to find Hitomi before she causes any crazy trouble." Kita points out.
"Good idea, let's spilt up, here, Kita." Emiko pulls out her phone, Kamiko copying the action, "Give us your phone number…"
"Where are we going, Hitomi?" Makimoto tries to take his hand back from Hitomi.
Hitomi only grips his wrist harder, in an attempt to make him stop. She turns slightly, making a 'shh-ing' noise at him. "I can't tell you, people are listening in! We have to get to the 'secret hideout'!"
Surprisingly, it's Makimoto who tires out quicker than Hitomi as they pass by the Namimori sign. It's a few more minutes before Hitomi stops running and they appear in front of an old bus stop. Hitomi sits down, pulling Makimoto with her. He looks around, never having been out of Namimori on foot before. It's really rural outside of the town, one long road continuing into the distance, hills and valleys stretching in behind the stop and across the road. He looks to Hitomi who hasn't moved at all.
"Hey," He nudges her slightly. Hitomi jerks her head up, looking at him with wide eyes. "I—um, are you okay?"
"Me? I'm fine; we just have to make it to the hideout! So, you'll have to wait for the—look! The bus!" Hitomi stands, gripping Makimoto's hand even tighter.
Makimoto looks down the road and indeed, there is a normal city bus coming down the road from Namimori. It stops in front of them and Hitomi easily pays for their seats. She picks a spot near the front and pushes Makimoto down in the seat. It's fairly empty he notices, only an old lady in the back and a few young adults standing and messing around with their phones. Makimoto doesn't know what's wrong with Emiko's friend, but he just hopes Emiko can find them.
"Where the hell could they be?" Emiko wipes the sweat from her brow and look around. She currently stands in front of Nami-chuu with Kamiko.
"Dunno. Maybe we should consult the spirits to see—"
"Man, what the hell is with you and fucking spirits!? They're not real!" Emiko snaps at her.
"The spirits told me you would say that. They also said that we would meet someone who could lead us to Hitomi." Kamiko says almost emotionless.
"Dammint, Kamiko!" Emiko curses at the black haired girl. "Stop with the—"
"Emiko! Kamiko! Guys! I know something!" The two looked to see Kita running down the sidewalk with Teru, Gianna and Gianni behind her.
"See?" Kamiko says matter-of-factly, "Don't doubt the spirits…"
Emiko ignores Kamiko to speak to Kita, "You found them? We're supposed to be looking for Hitomi, geek!" Emiko smacks Kita on the back of her head when she's close enough.
Kita exclaims in pain while Kamiko approaches the three females. She looks them over before holding out her hand. "I see you've made the necessary repairs, yes?" She says.
"Yeah but—"
"We could only do some much with the time, dyun." Gianni finishes. Gianni is more chipper than Gianna now and this doesn't go unnoticed by Kamiko, but she doesn't say anything about it.
"And Teru-san knows why Hitomi ran off like that!" Kita explained.
Teru chuckled, blushing slightly as she rubbed the back of her head, "Well… ya see…"
"Spit it out! We need to know!" Emiko yells at her. Teru squeaks, moving behind Kamiko for protection.
"It's a new mosquito I've been working on! I engineered it myself! The thing is… it makes you sort of loopy…"
"Loopy? Loopy how?!" Kita asked.
"Loopy… loopy as in… well you'd have to see for yourself—but that's not the point. Hitomi's in danger! I need to shoot her with the antidote!" Teru replied, her tone urgent.
"Well then let's go look for her! Do you know where she might be?" Emiko asked.
"Well, an old man told us he saw Hitomi pulling Makimoto through the town's south side, screaming about a princess and some frogs or something—anyway, our best bet is to spilt up and see if we can spot them down there." Kita stated.
"Well," Emiko doesn't look too happy, but she readies her Tonfa anyway, "Let's spilt up now, then."
"Right, I'll take Teru and Gianna; you can go with Kita and Gianni." Kamiko says, grabbing the two by their arms, "And we'll search the south-west side."
Before Kita or Emiko could get a word in, Kamiko had already begun walking away from them. Emiko sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as Kita smiled, bouncing around with happiness.
"It'll be just like old times, huh?" Kita wrapped her arms around the temperamental girl.
Emiko growled, ripping herself away from Kita and walking away from the two girls "'Old times'?! I've only known you for what—like, a week or something!?"
Kita only laughs, motioning Gianni to follow the two. "Of course I get stuck with the drama idiot!" Emiko curses her luck as Kita walks into a mailbox, and instead of her falling over, the mailbox does. Emiko groans, acting like she doesn't know the chipper mist guardian.
The bus stops at least ten minutes later and there's a lot of walking involved when they make it to the next town. When Hitomi stops her weird walking and strange counting, she throws her arms up, letting Makimoto's hand drop to his side.
"Siamo qui, yay!" Hitomi yells. She begins walking weirdly once again and approaching the gates of this place.
"Sia—Sai—What? Where are we?" Makimoto whispers. He's never been here before and the place is most likely abandoned. Behind the gate, he can make out at least one very tall building.
"The secret place, if we're here, they won't find us, prince." Hitomi explains, pushing the gate which makes it fall over. She doesn't seem to mind thins and just pulls Makimoto along.
She stops shortly after entering the place and Makimoto glances around, amazed. He notices that it's not just one building but a few, and it looks really dirty with all of the over-growth and dirt thrown around. Some of the buildings are leaning and looked as if one touch would bring them falling down.
"Who are 'they'?" Makimoto asks next, as Hitomi pulls him into the building complex.
"They are who they are and they have come to do what they have come to do. So you, the prince and me, the warrior, are going to protect the princess of the gumdrop mushroom kingdom from them, understand? And the fruit will help us." Hitomi explains.
Makimoto looks thoroughly confused, but he laughs it off anyway and Hitomi pulls him into one of the front most buildings. She smiles, letting go of his hand and moving further into the building.
"So, where is the princess?" Makimoto says, trying to play along with her.
"Hm? The princess? Well, she's coming. We gotta make the portal for her to come through, okay? Or else the duck-squirts aren't going to bring her!" Hitomi replied.
"That's…" Makimoto couldn't actually put words to whatever Hitomi was spouting. He just hoped Emiko knew where to find them.
"Come on, prince! You gotta help me!" Hitomi giggles, pulling Makimoto out of the building and into another one.
"Are you sure this is the right place, Kita?" Emiko asks.
She and Gianni currently hang upside down, suspended by nets while Kita is stuck in a cage next to them Kita giggles nervously, looking at anything but Emiko and Gianni as she scratches the back of her head.
"If I say no… will you be angry?" Kita asks Emiko.
Emiko all but yells her answer at Kita, "What the fuck do you think?! No, I wouldn't be angry, Kita dammint!"
"Oh! Okay, then no. I don't know where we are and I think that old man was senile and talking about those two costumed people in front of the candy store!" Kita chirped only for Emiko to throw her Tonfa at Kita.
"I think Emiko-san was being sarcastic, Kita-san." Gianni input, looking between the two.
"Oh…" Kita mumbled. Gianni sighed, looking between the two and then at the ground.
"Well," She starts, "Now that Emiko is thoroughly pissed, how about we figure out how to get out of these nets."
"You wouldn't be in them if you hadn't come into our backyard! Adel's gonna whoop your asses!" A male voice says. His expression is panicked and he is urgently trying to untie the nets.
"Who's Adel?" Kita asks first.
"She's the person who will kick all of our asses if we don't hurry up and get you out—she's at the store now but she'll be back soon!" He says after he's freed Gianni.
"She can't be that tough." Emiko says just as the man lets her down.
"Trust me, she is." He says, moving over to the cage.
"What're you girls even doing around here—nobody comes over to this part of town much." Kita steps out of the cage and Emiko turns to the man.
"We're looking for our friend—she's kind wimpy looking, shorter than me, brown hair, big boobs." Emiko makes hand gestures as she explains.
"Oh! And she's dragging a tall boy around, also with brown hair." Kita adds.
"Nobody like that's been around here, sorry." He tells them. Emiko sighs, turning away from him to look at the gate they practically destroyed.
"It's not your fault. Kita should be saying sorry. She's the one who ran down your gate." Emiko explains to him.
"Well, if any of you want to be nice, you can help me repair that gate before—"
"Julie! Where are you? We've got groceries in the car!" A female's voice rings through the small house. Julie pales, his eyes darting around in panic.
"Oh shit, she's back—look you guys gotta go before—"
"Julie! Didn't you hear me? I said… who are these girls? Julie, are you picking up girls again?" Adel seemed to radiate anger and the three girls backed up.
"N-N-No! I'm not—you see they—her! It was her!—Hey!" Julie called to the girls who were already running out of the small backyard.
"Run! Run! She might crush us with her boobs!" Kita yelled pushing the two girls out of the yard.
"Sorry, you're on your own!" Gianni yelled back at Julie.
He gulped, looking back at the menacing woman who had just come a few feet closer. Emiko flinched as she heard the loud and painful sounding screams coming from the place they were in just a few minutes ago.
"Let's hurry up and find Hitomi… this day is getting kind of strange…"
"Why didn't you just leave the board behind?!" Teru asks, standing on top of the car. Kamiko gives her a blank look, daring her to say something else.
"You know damn well why I didn't leave it behind. And I suggest you stop asking, Teru, or you'll be the first booted off the island." Kamiko informs her just as Gianna pulls the two closer to her.
"R-Right…" Teru mumbles, obviously spooked by Kamiko's indifference about feeding her to rabid dogs.
"Anyway," Gianna speaks up, "We need to get them to leave us alone, dyun."
"And how are we going to do that?" Kamiko asks the tuner.
Gianna only shrugs, "How would I know? I don't know anything about animals, dyun."
Kamiko only sighs, face-palming as Teru screams, trying to pull herself onto the car more. She can only hope that someone will walk by and help them. Gianna screams as well, causing Kamiko to sigh once more, wishing that she chose to go with Kita and Gianni instead.
"So, now what?" Makimoto asks, piling more rocks on top of the small stone stack.
Hitomi jumps around, clearly not paying attention to him as she grabs more rocks and drops them in front of Makimoto. "Here! Put these on the 'X' too!"
Before he can ask her his question again, she's off; leaving the building to look for more rocks is Makimoto's guess. But this time, instead of staying behind in the dirty and falling apart building infested with whatever just ran over his foot, Makimoto ventures outside, noticing that the sun is shining brightly over the run down place.
"It's about noon now…" He mumbled to himself, catching a glimpse of Hitomi.
He follows her, wondering just where she's getting all of these rocks from. There weren't any rocks outside the building and the little path that he's following her down doesn't have any either. Once he finally reaches the end, though, he sees Hitomi is talking to someone—er, something. It's a statue. A statue of something. Moving closer, Makimoto tries not to startle Hitomi, who is animatedly having a conversation with whatever the statue is.
"Hey—Ack!" Makimoto is knocked onto his back by Hitomi. She sits on his lap, staring curiously at him, an evil glint in her eyes.
"I told you to stay in the castle!" Hitomi scolds him. "Now the spirits will be angry and they won't release the princess!"
"I'm sorry! I just wanted to see what you were doing!" Makimoto apologizes.
"I wasn't doing anything! You're just being nosey! Now go back and I'll convince the spirits to let the princess go!" Hitomi gets off of Makimoto.
He sits up, watching Hitomi return to the statue. After pulling himself into a standing position, he's pulled into a run by Hitomi. She turned, a smile on her face as she pulled him further into the complex of buildings.
"Where are we going now?!" Makimoto asks her.
"To free the princess! She's in the back! This is what Super Action Baka has told me!" Hitomi tells him.
"Oh god…"
"I thought you knew where you were going!" Kita mocks Emiko.
"Shut up!" Emiko growls at the older girl.
"So," Yamamoto cuts through their conversation. "What happened?"
The three girls are seated in front of Emiko's dad once again in the park. Emiko looks anywhere but at her dad and Gianni has a faint blush on her cheeks. Kita is silently fuming, which Emiko was surprised to see at first. Yamamoto chuckles nervously as he stands in front of them.
It's Gianni who speaks first, "Well, it all started after we had escaped the clutches of the lady with the big boobs when Emiko suggested we check by the river…"
"The river? Why by the river?" Gianni asked. Emiko shrugged.
"It's as good a place as any. We can check for anything from the bridge and then work our way up and down from either side of the bank." Emiko points out.
"Well," Kita sighs, taking a drink from the three's shared water bottle, "I don't have any other ideas, do you?"
Gianni shakes her head, the three girls making their way towards the river. Upon arriving at the bridge, the three girls take up looking at different positions, calling out Hitomi and Makimoto's names. That is, until Kita happens to drop her trident into the water. Only, it catches on the bridge's wood and dangles above the water.
"Guys! I dropped my trident!" Kita exclaims, Gianni rushing to her side. Emiko slowly wanders over, looking at the trident hanging by the wood.
"Well, that's too bad." Emiko turns, moving away from the two.
While her back is turned, she hears a rather loud splash and screaming. Emiko runs back to their side of the bridge and lets out a shocked gasp.
"What the—Kita, you dumbass! You should've just left it! Now I've gotta—Ah!" Emiko herself falls into the river due to the place where she stood giving out and dropping her in the river.
"…And we floated down the river until you found us and got us out." Gianni finished.
"Well… you're still looking for Hitomi?" Yamamoto asked, clearly trying not to laugh at his daughter.
"Yes! And we've gotta find her! She's with Makimoto!" Emiko exclaimed.
"Well, not in your wet clothes—why don't you guys get changed and then you can find her—but I'm sure she's fine." Yamamoto told them.
"I guess I could—Ah-Ah-Achoo!" Kita sneezed loudly. Yamamoto clicked his tongue in distaste.
"It is getting colder—you know what? I think you two should go home. C'mon, Emiko. I'm taking you home." Yamamoto said with finality.
"But, dad! We have to find Hitomi!" Emiko whined.
"No buts, Emiko. We're going home before you get sick. As much as I know you want to find Hitomi, she'll be fine and she wouldn't want you looking for her with the risk of you getting sick, yeah?" Emiko knew he was right but she didn't want to accept that fact.
"Dad—"
"No, Emiko. Didn't you hear me the first time? I said we're going home. Now c'mon." Yamamoto motioned her to follow, which she reluctantly did.
Emiko looked back at Kita and Gianni, silently telling them to continue the search. Kita frowned as Emiko and her father walked out of their sights. She turned to the pink haired girl next to her and frowned, studying her face.
"Are you going to go home?" Gianni asked quietly.
"Well… I don't want too, but I think we kinda have to, or we'll get even sicker—if that's a word." Kita pointed out.
"Yeah, well, at least let's call my sister and the others." Gianni and Kita pull out their cellphones, only to remember that the devices were water-clogged.
"I guess we'll just have to go home then, huh?" Kita said.
"Well, I can't really go home." Kita gave Gianni a questioning look and she elaborated, "My sister has our hotel room key."
"Well, I guess my mom won't mind having you over until tomorrow at least. She'll be mad about the phone though…" Kita stood, Gianni following her. "C'mon, let's go to my house…"
"Hitomi! That's not a princess!" Makimoto yelled, watching Hitomi approach the cage. Inside the cage was not a person, but a white colored tiger.
"No! The princess! I never said the princess was human, prince!" Hitomi laughed as she moved forward.
Makimoto, paralyzed by fear, keeps yelling at Hitomi to stop; only she doesn't and continues to hack away at the lock, trying to open the cage. Finally, the loud sound of rock against metal stops and the lock, now broken, rests on the ground and the cage door swings open.
"C'mon, prince! We gotta lead 'er to th' portal!" Hitomi speech is slurring slightly as she pulls Makimoto away from the tiger.
Makimoto only follows because there's only one door and the tiger is gaining on them, of course, Hitomi is also yelling at the tiger. Her yelling barely rises over the loud thumping of the tiger's paws and the occasional growl as it gains on them.
"C'mon, princess! It's just a little—!" Hitomi trips, making Makimoto also trip. This lands him a few feet in front of her, but not for long.
The ground where he is currently sitting shakes, opening up and swallowing him whole. Makimoto screams and Hitomi gasps, ducking underneath the tiger as it jumps into the hole with Makimoto. She crawls forward, looking down into the dark.
"Hey! You two alright down there?" Hitomi yells, watching the two fade in and out of the small light shining through.
"No! Get help!" Makimoto is screaming at her, but Hitomi only laughs, shaking her head.
"No! This is perfect—hey, why'd you stop moving?" Makimoto lies on the ground, a few feet from the tiger unconscious and bleeding. "Hey, prince, get up! You can't help the princess if you're sleeping.
Hitomi moves to drop down into the hole, but stops, a loud shot ringing out from the trees. The bullet hits her right in the middle of the forehead and Hitomi flops down, landing in the hole next to Makimoto. Reborn jumps down from his place in the tree and the man who stands next to him walks closer to the hole.
"She's dead." He states, looking down into the hole.
Reborn sighs, "No she's not. Just watch."
"Reborn! Protect the prince with my dying will!" Hitomi screeches, jumping up and attacking the tiger in her underwear.
"Hm, guess you were right, but this doesn't prove anything. She's still going to be just as weak as her father." The man says, watching Hitomi toss the tiger around as if it were a rag doll.
Reborn only shrugs, not saying anything as five minutes pass. The man seems to fade out of Reborn's sight just as Hitomi collapses onto the ground, next to Makimoto. Lambo walks up behind Reborn, waving his acknowledgement at the Hitman before peering down into the hole.
"Well, Cow," Reborn turns to Lambo. The Italian stares at him with a blank expression. "Now that Mukuro is gone and Hitomi is once again unconscious, you have the liberty of taking the two back to their homes."
"Aw, what? Why do I have to do it?" Lambo whined.
"Because, dumbass," Reborn turns, walking away, "You were stupid enough to come when I called."
"Aw, what?!" Lambo whined louder, "Tol… er… ate…"
This was a long one, wasn't it? I kind of rushed the ending, I guess… For those who didn't know, Gianni and Gianna are Giannini's daughters. And what's this? Another appearance from Makimoto whom we haven't seen in a while! Anyway, review! Bye!