Chapter 77:

Reject the hand dealt out by fate

So before we get onto the story, there's a small favour I'd like you to do for me and a very close friend of mine. I know it's weird and I know some of you won't understand because it's in Polish (I don't understand Polish either), but...

www. face book (dot com forward slash) questions / 520781404611871 /

PLEASE, pass it on! This is a survey of a Polish manga publisher, JPF, and if KHR wins, they will translate and publish it in Poland! And I'm sure you'll all agree with me that everyone deserves to read the awesomeness that is KHR.

Thank you very much *bows*

There was something wrong.

He hadn't been hit by anything, the gun wasn't even pointing his way. Yet something had happened. Tsunayoshi knew that this space wasn't normal, it wasn't supposed to occur. But he didn't really care about himself at the moment, he was more worried about Mukuro. No matter the amount of shouting, no one had answered him. He didn't have the time to be here. He needed to check on Mukuro. He wanted out. Out, out, out!

After a little exploration of the indigo mist, he had found a barrier, like see-through glass randomly sat there. It was the only such object he had found so far; no matter which direction he ran, he didn't find another one. So in his desperation to escape from here, the pure need to check up on his friend, he started to pound against the glass. He was in a state, in a panic with fear and worry. No matter what, he needed to get out of here.

He feels that hot burning feeling again, at its hottest around his hands and forehead. But he didn't have time to worry about it. He'd continue on even if the pain was released and kicked up another notch like the last time he had felt like this. Although last time the burning had gone from being on the inside to being on the outside, he had become a lot stronger. He had beaten that adult, the one that had wanted to kill the Arcobaleno. So maybe this burning was a good thing? Maybe he should try to get the burning on the outside again? Although he had no clue how this hot flame had gotten to the outside in the first place.

Hmm… Something had hit his forehead if he remembered correctly. Tsunayoshi looks around before frowning. Well there was nothing here. Not even a rock he could throw at himself. Maybe he could flick his forehead like Lal did sometimes? Those hurt a lot actually. But at this point in time, Tsunayoshi was willing to try anything to get out of here. So he brings his hand up to his forehead and gives himself a flick. Ouch. But nothing happens. The burning was still on the inside, not the outside. He rubs the spot he had flicked. He puts one finger against his forehead in a thinking gesture like Verde did sometimes. Think, think, think. He says to himself, tapping in time with each word. Flame, flame, flame… flame? Tsunayoshi looks up when something clicked and the hot hot feeling was suddenly on the outside of his forehead and concentrated on that pointing finger.

He pulls his finger away and stares at it in awe. There was a bright orange Flame flickering on the end of his finger. Tsunayoshi knew that this orange colour was right- it was the same orange that represented him and Luce and Xanxus and Dino and Byakuran and Nono and a few others. He knew from previous pictures and feeling that this flame was supposed to sit on his hands. He slowly pokes at the flame, mouth dropping as that finger too lights up. He repeats the process, watching finger after finger gain a pure orange flame. On some whim he claps, and suddenly his whole hands were covered.

He looks up and stares at the wall in defiance. He was stronger now, he knew, and he wasn't going to let this invisible wall stand in his way anymore! The purple mist got thicker and thicker around him, but Tsunayoshi ignored it in favour of slamming his fiery fists against the barrier. The whole world around him rocks and shudders, but Tsunayoshi keeps on going. Slam after slam, shudder after shudder Tsunayoshi kept on going in determination. The Arcobaleno had taught him the importance of never giving up. He was going to get out of here. He was going to see Mukuro again. He was going to help his friend!

With a shout, Tsunayoshi head-butts the glass partition.

It cracks. A small piece of purple glass falls through the black air. Tsunayoshi looks at the place where the fragment had come from. And there was a small hole filled with colour. He carefully looks through it, mindful of the cracked shards and the billowing mist rising up around him. And through the hole he sees…

… The hallway of the Arcobaleno house, the one with all the bedrooms on it. He's panting and laughing and he can hear Luce doing her scary not-shouting talking. Skull screams something about being sorry for eating all the cake. His vision swings without his consent and suddenly he's looking back at Luce who had The Bag in her hand. Well, that cake had been very yummy, he wasn't sorry if he had eaten it all, although he hoped he had saved a piece for Viper.

Suddenly his vision changes again and he thinks he's being picked up. Ah yes, Bermuda was playing a video game with him. But the weird thing is, he doesn't have control of his body. It's almost as if someone else has control over it. And whoever had control had obviously never played a video game before!

"No, no! You can't jump on enemies with spikey hats!"

The atmosphere inside the blackness changes slightly. The mist thickens and moves on its own, without the wind. The whole area suddenly seems more… occupied.

"Oya, oya? Tsunayoshi?"

That was Mukuro's voice!

"Yes, Mukuro, it's me. Are you alright?" Tsunayoshi shouts, finally glad to hear his friend's voice.

"Why of course I am Tsunayoshi. Although I didn't think I'd be able to speak with you. No one mentioned this when talking about the possession bullet." Mukuro mused, hands still moving the controller in the real world.

"Possession Bullet? Is that what was in the fancy gun? And what's possession? Verde hasn't taught me that word yet." Asks Tsunayoshi curiously. Verde would be so proud that he had learnt a new word.

"Kufufufu, possession is what is happening now. I am 'possessing' your body; basically my mind is inside your body. I am controlling it, making it move. Anyone who sees me assumes that they are looking at and talking to you." Mukuro explains. He had to wonder why no one mentioned that the bullet did this. Little did he know that the bullet was not supposed to do this, it was purely down to Tsunayoshi's Sky Flames and powerful Will that he was still around.

"Hmm, that would explain why I can see my own hands infront of me and see them infront of me through the crack." Supposes Tsunayoshi, you weren't supposed to be able to see your hands twice were you?

But suddenly he gets tired and his hands no longer glow.

"Tsunayoshi?" asks Mukuro.

The hot feeling cools and suddenly it's so very hard to keep his eyes open. He keeps them open long enough to see more of the hole chip away and fall to the ground. But despite how confused he was, he couldn't help but fall asleep again.

When Tsunayoshi next wakes up, it's with a lurch and a gasping breath. Danger! He was in danger. But of course there is nothing with in his immediate view. Just black and purple as usual. He spins and looks through the hole in the wall. All he could see was a different shade of black. Something told him that it was currently night time, so Mukuro must have his eyes closed.

"Mukuro! Wake up! Something's wrong! Mukuro!"

But again Mukuro pays him no attention, most likely from being asleep. He had to get Mukuro to wake up though. He knew this feeling, someone had a gun pointed at him. All three of the main firearm owners in the house tested his reaction times every now and again, walking into a room whilst he was asleep like this and pointing a gun at him. It was supposed to be training against assassins, but Tsunayoshi reckoned that they just couldn't sleep and were bored.

But if he, or Mukuro, didn't react pretty soon, then Reborn (it was most likely Reborn, still pumped up on adrenaline from a mission and unable to sleep, he guessed) really would shoot him, or smack him with a Leon hammer, which was probably worse. He tried to bring back the fire again, that seemed to make things happen. But it didn't come. He didn't feel the burning sensation under his skin anymore either. He tried though, but each attempt just made him more and more tired once again.

Although Tsunayoshi let sleep come this time. He knew that none of the Arcobaleno would hurt him. If push came to shove, whoever he had ended up sleeping with would pull him out of the way in time. He trusted them all. He would be safe.

"Tsunayoshi…. Tsunayoshi."

Tsunayoshi groaned and rolled over, trying to ignore that voice, he wanted to go back to sleep.

"Tsunayoshi, do you know the code to get into the Estraneo?"

That snaps him back awake. They were going back to the Estraneo? Why?

"Umm… No, I don't. Verde has a card that he swipes across that box and then the gate opens for him. Verde doesn't have to enter a code." Tsunayoshi answers truthfully. He can feel Mukuro's annoyance in the air around him.

"There has to be some way in." Mukuro mutters, "Hmm? Who's that?" Tsunayoshi distinctly feels Mukuro's presence leave the area. He must not be talking to him anymore.

Tsunayoshi stands, stretching the kinks out of his body after sleeping on the floor. It's then that he notices that his body doesn't hurt like last time the burning fire had been let free. Maybe it was because of this space he was in? Dismissing those thoughts, Tsunayoshi walks across to the hole in the barrier and looks through. Eh? Wasn't that… it was! That was Adult Chrome! She was disguised, but he was sure that was her. If Mukuro was listening to him, Tsunayoshi would have told him.

But what was she doing here?

When Mukuro had talked to Ken and Chikusa about destroying the Estraneo, Tsunayoshi was slightly concerned. When the first scientist had been killed, Tsunayoshi was scared and worried, but he let it slide, calling it self-defence or something. But when scientist after scientist fell to the ground and never got back up, it terrified Tsunayoshi. He had never seen so much red blood in his life- not that time the robot had hurt Verde's shoulder, not that time he had gone on a mission with Reborn and seen killing for the first time, not even when the Arco Iris had taken him. It was almost like paint with the way it coated the walls.

There was lots of screaming too. People, scientists and men in suits, were coming towards him. But then suddenly their faces would change, forming expressions of terror, before they looked in different directions and started pointing at things that weren't there. Tsunayoshi had seen Viper work enough times to know when an illusion he couldn't see was being used. Although he had no clue what illusions Mukuro was making these people see to make them scream like that. From his experience, adults didn't scream like that often.

"M-mm-Mukuro… ssstop…" He whispers, shuddering.

On odd occasions he could see Ken and Chikusa too, both covered in the red paint.

"Ken, stop it. Your claws don't look good coloured like that."

"Chikusa, that yo-yo is only supposed to go up and down. D-didn't you k-know that?"

Slowly one by one, the Estraneo members were falling. They were dying.

"NO STOP IT!" Tsunayoshi roars, slamming his hands against the barrier infront of him. "Why are you killing them? You know they won't get back up again right? You'll never see that person again if you kill them!" He shouts, trying to warn the three about what they were doing.

"Mukuro, stop it! That woman is crying and begging you. Mukuro don't kill her!" Tears pour down his face. Why wasn't Mukuro listening to him? Why was Mukuro laughing?

"Stop! Mukuro, Stop! Killing is bad! Mukuro!" But on and on Mukuro's trident moved. It just didn't stop, red droplets flying into the air, shouts following the slapping of metal against skin.

"Kufufufu, so Father… like how Experiment Number 69… to your expectations? Do you regret…? …This example of my power makes you glad to be the father of the strongest killer the Estraneo has ever seen… Well, Kufufufu, find your salvation in death."

No, what was Mukuro doing? No Mukuro stop, that's… No Mukuro you can't, not to him!

Tsunayoshi collapses to the floor, hugging his knees. Mukuro had just killed his father. That was like him killing Reborn, or Colonnello, Fon, Skull, Verde or Bermuda. He could never EVER kill one of them. But Mukuro had just done so, knew that that attack would kill him, wound send him to death. And he had laughed. He had looked at the blood on his hands… on His hands… Those weren't Mukuro's hands but his own. Mukuro was going around killing people in his body.

Tsunayoshi stares at his hands through the tears. So these hands were just as capable as anybody else's hands at killing. Although Tsunayoshi supposed he already knew that. He was the son of the nine strongest people in the Mafia, of course his hands could kill. Because here in the Mafia…

Killing was normal.

"So this is what you do? What you and Lal and Colonnello and Fon and Viper and Bermuda and Luce do? That was killing?" Tsunayoshi asks in a monotone voice.

"That's right. I killed them. They won't get up again, they won't talk or smile or anything else ever again. They also won't hurt anyone again." Reborn states, knowing Tsunayoshi needed the truth right now.

"I-it's what had to be done, right?" asks Tsunayoshi, finally willingly meeting Reborn's eyes to get his answers. "There wasn't any other way?"

Mukuro had suffered at the hands of these people. Ken, Chikusa, Chrome and countless other children had been put through so much pain because of these people. Mukuro was just making it so that they could never harm anyone else ever again, just like Reborn had said.

"J-just promise me…" Tsunayoshi starts. Reborn doesn't say anything or even move until Tsunayoshi continues on. "That you'll only kill people who deserve it. The only people to disappear are people who you have too. Okay? I-I understand that you kill to keep me and the others safe. I d-don't like it, not at all. But you have to, right?"

Mukuro had to. He was keeping the others safe. Tsunayoshi hated it, hated watching as people's eyes clouded over, lost their shine, as people stopped moving, stopped screaming, stopped breathing. But it was what needed to be done. Tsunayoshi knew that everyone on Mafia Row hated the Estraneo for some reason. Apparently they didn't play fairly, or did really mean things that even Mafioso wouldn't do. The Estraneo crossed a line that they shouldn't. That was why in the world outside of Mafia Row, the Estraneo were hunted and killed on sight.

Only people who deserved to be killed should die… and by almost anyone's standards, the Estraneo deserved to die.

To keep everyone happy.

To keep everyone from being hurt.

Because saving the majority was more important.

Because family came first.

Phantom Hitman 1412

First Published 07 February 2013