Target 11: Home Alone.
"So I'll be back before dinner—alright? And make sure you tell them that we're having guests over. Masayoshi? Are you listening?" Solana walks over to wave her hand in front of her son's face.
The blue haired boy looks up, glancing at his mother before looking back down at his laptop. He waves one hand and rapidly types with the other. "Yeah mom," He says finally, "I understand."
"Good, I don't want those two to go crazy. Make sure you either call for takeout or make them some food—I'll pay you back, alright?" Solana asks him once again.
"Yeah, fine mom. Make food for dad and Hitomi. Tell them you left. I got you." Masayoshi repeats.
Solana nods firmly, walking out of the kitchen, "Alright, I'll see you later and don't forget, okay?!"
"Yeah!" His yell is cut off as the door slams loudly behind his mother. The silence in the room is cut by the clacking of Masayoshi's laptop keys.
"I'll just leave a note with mom's hand writing…" Masayoshi pulls a sticky note from the pad by the door and takes the pen, quickly scribbling a quick note onto the paper and sticking it by the phone. He admires his handiwork, "Thank you years of signature forging…"
Masayoshi goes back over to the pot, pouring himself some more coffee before he returns to the note. "And…" He stays, dipping a spoon into the coffee, "To make it more real, let's add some stains on—shit!"
Masayoshi looks at the almost drenched note and notices that the phone short circuited. "Damn it! Oh well," He dries the note as best he can, "It's still readable. They'll be fine; after all, they both know I'm here."
He walks back over to the table, closing his laptop and taking it and the coffee mug next to it into his room, instantly forgetting about his oddly quiet father and sister.
It's a little after ten in the morning when Hitomi and Tsuna make themselves known to the world. Hitomi sits at the kitchen table, munching on cereal when Tsuna walks in, stretching. Hitomi offers a little wave before turning up the TV.
"Sleeping late is the best~!" Tsuna comments, pulling out a bowl and the milk.
"You see where mom went?" Hitomi asks, drawing Tsuna's attention.
"Nope, she wasn't in bed when I woke up—I thought she was down here." Tsuna replied, sitting down across from Hitomi.
"Well, she's not… did you try to call her?" Hitomi finishes off her cereal and dumps the bowl in the sink.
"How bout we try to call her now?" Tsuna stands, moving to the phone stuck on the wall of the kitchen.
Before he can dial, though, he notices the phone isn't making a dial tone. Tsuna hangs up the phone and looks around, obviously paranoid. Hitomi stares at him questioningly, wondering just what's wrong with him. She notices that Tsuna has a note in his hand.
"Now," Tsuna starts, drawing Hitomi's full attention, "I don't want to startle you or anything… but I think your mom's been kidnapped by Reborn and on top of that, he disconnected the phones." Tsuna says slowly.
"What?! Do something Mr. Mafia man!" Hitomi panics.
"Calm down! If he has her, we can't do anything! And we most definitely can't leave the house!" Tsuna tells her. "Put some pants on and meet me down here in five minutes!"
Hitomi stands in front of her father, who is dressed in army camouflage, watching the man walk in front of her, Natsu on his shoulder.
"Okay," He says first, "Your mom is very capable of taking care of herself. In a situation like this, the best thing we can do is stay calm and protect the house—just in case Reborn has something planned."
"Why the house?" Hitomi asks.
"Because if the house was turned into a battleground, your mom would kill me." Tsuna simply replies.
"That makes sense."
"Alright, now." Tsuna stops walking, "We're gonna go into the lab and get supplies. Then we're gonna board up the house."
"Right." Hitomi follows her father downstairs. Tsuna easily opens the door's lock and they go inside.
"We'll need guns… and wood—oh! And this thing! Hitomi, get that." Tsuna points at the strange item on the table in front of him.
Hitomi walks towards it, picking it up and studying the item. "What exactly… is this, dad?"
"It's important, that's all you need to know!" Tsuna replies.
"Alright, now we'll use the power saw and cut up these pieces of—"
"Dad—"
The lights cut off immediately and Tsuna whirls around as Hitomi grabs around in the dark for something stable.
"I know, Hitomi. These guys of Reborn's are cunning bastards aren't they?! Turning off the lights like that!" Tsuna yelled out in the room, "Well we'll show them! Hitomi, take this gun and go down the hall! Shoot at anything you think is dangerous!"
Hitomi squeaks, dropping the gun which goes off, having not been on safety. Tsuna yells, dropping everything and the two run out of the room with the other guns firing themselves.
"Dad!" Hitomi yells, running down the hallway, "You don't give guns to minors!"
"How was I supposed to know!?"
"So the lights didn't go off…" Tsuna mumbled. Hitomi shakes her head in response, wondering just how dumb her father is.
"No, that remote just turns off the light in the lab." Hitomi dead panned.
"What do we do now?" Tsuna asks Hitomi.
"How should I know? Just… watch TV or something?" Hitomi suggests.
"No! Remember! This is life or death! We could die today!" Tsuna exclaims, knocking Natsu off of his shoulder. The lion cub squeaks, going off to do something else.
"No, you're just being paranoid I—" Tsuna pulls Hitomi down as what he assumes is a barges of bullets sounds off. "Oh God! You were right!"
"Hurry, we'll build a fort to protect us!" Tsuna flips over the couch and Hitomi trips over the table, breaking it and messing up the living room as she and Tsuna run around, making their fort.
Outside, Emiko smiles, watching Lucia run around tossing firecrackers.
"This is fun, Emiko-oneechan!" Lucia giggles, throwing more down as she skips down the road.
"Don't throw too many! You might scare someone!" Emiko warns her.
"Alright…" Tsuna peeks over the small fort they've made in the destroyed living room. "I'm getting kind of hungry."
"Well, go make some food." Hitomi tells him. Tsuna sighs, slinking out of the room and into the kitchen. He returns almost a few minutes later, his clothing slightly singed and a strange look on his face.
"What happened?" Hitomi questions him as he takes a seat next to her.
Tsuna shakes his head, "I ain't goin' back in there…"
"Well…" Hitomi presses, "What happened?"
"Go look for yourself." Tsuna pushes her slightly. Hitomi rises, making her way into the kitchen.
What she finds, surprises her. She'd gasp, that is, if there weren't so much smoke floating around in the kitchen. Within a span of five minutes, Tsuna had managed to set the stove and oven on fire. Hitomi yells, causing Tsuna to come into the room.
"Dad! What the hell happened?" Hitomi asks, coughing loudly.
"I just—I—I tried to light the oven with lighter fluid! That's what you do, right?" Tsuna asked her.
"No! I don't know? I usually use the microwave, look! I'll show you." Hitomi makes her way around in the Smokey kitchen, opening the window.
Hitomi calls Tsuna over, showing him what she's doing, "So when mom's out, I make grilled cheese sandwiches."
Tsuna watches her put the sandwich together in confusion, "Don't you need to use the stove for that?"
Hitomi shakes her head and places the sandwich on a metal plate. "I stick it in the microwave on high for a minute."
As she does this, Tsuna, fills a cup up with water and throws it into the oven, thinking that it would put out the fire, but it only made the fire bigger. Hitomi shrieks, dropping to the ground just as Tsuna runs out of the kitchen. The microwave begins popping and the door flies open, throwing the metal plate and the glass dish underneath against the wall as it explodes.
"Hitomi!" Tsuna calls after everything dies down, "Are you okay?!"
"Y-Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine!" Hitomi sits up, looking around the kitchen. "We won't be when mom comes back, though…"
"Stay here, I'll be back, okay?" Before Hitomi can answer, Tsuna is gone, leaving Hitomi alone.
"Shoot." Solana grumbles. Reborn looks back at her, "I forgot that today I was supposed to pay the electric and the phone bills…"
"I'm sure those two will be fine, they can't be that bad when left alone, after all, you said Masayoshi was home right?" Reborn stated. Solana nodded her answer and turned back to the situation at hand.
"The office closes in half an hour, how much longer are we going to be doing this?" Solana asks him, "I'm getting tired of this."
"Well, kill him then, we just need what he's got—I already know what he might try to do." Reborn waved his hand.
"Alrighty, then!" Gunshots rang out, scaring anybody who happened to be on the street below the two.
"You brought Enma-san?!" Hitomi asks. Enma only waves at Hitomi with his free hand, the other hand holding his daughter.
"Yes! He's my best friend! I'm sure he'd know what to do!" Tsuna replied.
"Don't worry, Hitomi-chan, I'll try to calm Tsuna down—in the meantime," Enma lets go of his daughter's hand, "Can you watch Mami for me? Xeno made me bring her with me…"
Hitomi looks down at the black haired girl before nodding, "Sure I can, Enma-san."
"Great! I'm gonna go find Tsuna…" With that, Enma left Mami and Hitomi alone in the foyer.
The black haired girl smiled sweetly before running past Hitomi and outside. Hitomi dashed after her, wondering what exactly the small girl was going to do. Mami had managed to climb up into one of the few trees located in Hitomi's backyard. Hitomi jumped, trying to pull at something to get the girl down.
"Mami-chan, don't play around like that!" Hitomi yelled, trying to get the girl out of the tree.
Mami only giggled, climbing higher as Hitomi continued to yell at her.
Inside, Enma looks in the various rooms on the first level, noting that they look terrible, but on the second floor, everything is fine, signaling that the two haven't been upstairs. Coming back downstairs, Enma hears Tsuna yelling about something.
"Tsuna, what are you doing?" Enma walked down the small hallway only to find Tsuna tearing apart another room, obviously looking for something.
"It's Reborn, man. I'm tellin' ya. He's got something planned—he wouldn't just spontaneously call Solana out to do something—the note she left didn't even make sense!" Tsuna stops what he's doing and holds out the note for Enma to read.
Enma takes the note, reading it aloud as Tsuna continues to destroy what Enma thought was the Sawada's dining room. "'Dear Tsuna and Hitomi, I will be—taken by Reborn. If you need—Masayoshi—take out. Call you later, Solana'… That does seem pretty strange, but do you really think that Reborn did something to her?"
"Well, no." Tsuna stopped turning to Enma, "I think he's trying to test us—me and Hitomi! He knows we can't function with Solana. He's testing us! We don't even know how to feed ourselves—did you see the kitchen?"
"Unfortunately… but, you could order some—"
"The phones don't work and the lights went out a few minutes ago and—" Tsuna's rant was interrupted by a loud exploding sounds. The two bosses rushed to the window only to see Hitomi lying face down on the ground with Mami sitting on top of her laughing and the trees in the backyard burning.
"What the hell happened?" Tsuna exclaimed. Enma shook his head, frowning.
"I knew I should've dropped her off with Julie or something…" Tsuna looked to Enma to explain, "Her flames have been acting crazy lately…"
It was a few minutes before Enma and Tsuna could make it outside. Tsuna immediately went for Hitomi who was still conscious, but clearly in pain. Enma picked up Mami who smiled and held out the lighter fluid she took from the kitchen.
"Mami makes pretty lights, daddy!" She cheered, making Enma face-palm.
"You sure did, Mami…" He replied sheepishly.
"Well it doesn't matter now—just put out the trees and we'll—"
"Mami! Get away from the house with that lighter fluid!"
"Do we have enough water?" Hitomi asked, carrying two bucket down the stairs.
"I'm sure we do, here Enma." Tsuna handed his two buckets to Enma who threw them into the burning room.
"Guys! Quiet down there! I need to concentrate!" Kita yelled from the upstairs bathroom, where the sink and tub was currently overflowing with water.
"So, tell me why we got Kita to come over, again?" Hitomi asked her dad as the came back into the main hallway.
Tsuna sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with his dirty hands, "She's a mist user, Hitomi. And mist users," He started before she could interrupt, "Are able to create illusions."
"So, what does that have to do with our messed up house?"
"Well, since Reborn clearly isn't testing us, the house is now a disaster and we can't call anybody, much less use the lights, Kita will create an illusion that the house is just fine and dandy until we can fix the house."
Hitomi made a noise of understanding before looking up the stairs.
"See? The house is—wow, she's better than I thought." Tsuna looked around appreciatively. Hitomi looked around confused, clearly not seeing what Tsuna saw.
"Dad, what do you mean? The house still looks like crap, if Kita's doing this, she only made it worse."
"What do you mean? You can't see the—you can't see the illusion?" Tsuna asked, a shocked look adorning his features.
Hitomi shook her head, looking around at the various rooms and noting their dismay; the destroyed living room and fort, the smoking oven and devastated kitchen, and the flood of water trickling down the stairs. Hitomi shrieked as it got closer to them but Tsuna could only look at her in wonder.
"Dad! We left the sinks and stuff on upstairs!" Hitomi tells him frantically. This snaps Tsuna out of his daze and the two run up the stairs, trying to turn off the water, only for Tsuna to trip over a step and send the two tumbling down the stairs in an unconscious heap.
"It'll be nice to have everyone over for dinner, yeah?" Solana said, walking up the steps, groceries in hand. Haru, who stood behind her, grinned.
"It'll be nice to see Hitomi-chan! I haven't seen her in a while and Masayoshi too?"
"Yup, I just hope the house isn't a mess. You know how Tsuna and Hitomi are…" Solana unlocks the door only to find Hitomi and Tsuna lying on the ground, still unconscious.
"Hitomi! Tsuna! Get up!" Solana kicks the two. The two sit up, hitting their foreheads together and groaning in pain.
"Like father, like daughter, huh?" Xeno commented from behind Solana.
"Mom! You're back!" Hitomi stood quickly, hugging her mother.
"Yes i—what smells burnt?" Solana asks, sniffing Hitomi again. It's then that she notices the two's appearances. "What exactly did you two do all day?"
"Oh!" Tsuna laughed nervously, "Nothing at all!"
"Yeah! Not at—"
"Tsuna! I managed to get Mami to fall asleep and she stopped setting things—hey, everyone! What's up?" Enma smiled nervously, noting the look on his wife's face.
"Just what were you three doing?" Xeno stepped forward, looking at Enma.
"It wasn't my fault!" Enma cried, pointing at Tsuna, "He called me over here cause he messed up the house!"
"What are you talking about? The house looks fine." Solana said, looking around, "I don't see anything wrong with it."
"You will soon…" Kita wobbled down the stairs before collapsing at Hitomi's feet.
"Ack! Kita-san, are you alright?" Hitomi knelt down to check on Kita as the illusion she had created faded, revealing the actual state of the house.
"Hitomi—your friend will be fine. Let's," Tsuna started pushing Hitomi in the opposite direction, "Run. Just start running."
Hitomi looked at her mother who had dropped her groceries. The woman looked like she was going to have a meltdown in Hitomi's eyes and all she could do was nod before she and her father took off, Tsuna yelling something about not coming back until they secured a new place to live.
"TSUUUUNNAAAAAA! HIIIITOOOOMIIIII! BRING YOUR ASSES BACK HERE NOW!" Hitomi heard as she and her father continued down the road.
"Oh," Masayoshi said coming out of his untouched room, he picked his way down the stairs and came to stand beside Kita's unconscious body. "What happened?"
"You were here the whole time and you didn't hear those two idiots tearing apart the house?!" Solana glowered at him.
Masayoshi's expression remained the same, "I left a note."
"I think it'd be best if you ran too, Masayoshi." Solana said quietly.
"Well," Masayoshi picked up Kita and handed her to Ryohei, "If you say so mom. Dad! Hitomi! Wait for me, mom's gone insane!"
Masayoshi ran out of the open door, Solana chasing after him. Yamamoto laughed, "They sure are a crazy family, huh?"
"HITOMI ANGELA, MASAYOSHI CARTER AND TSUNAYOSHI SAWADA GET YOUR ASSES BACK HERE!" They heard Solana yell, only for more yelling to follow.
"I'll say." Xeno replied.
"So…" Amelia started, "Anybody wanna go to that new restaurant in town?"
Murmurs of agreement sounded throughout the group and they left, closing the door to the home, not hearing the insides break down.
"Wait." Ryohei stopped, causing the group to stop, "What do I do with her?"
"Just bring her, she'll wake up soon." Reborn told him.
"Alright, now let's get going to the extreme!"