BATTLE OF THE SUCCESSORS – THE NEXT LEVEL
The Sky Battlefield
The battle in the sky continues to rage on. Tsuna and Bana hit each-other with blow after blow, their stamina seemingly endless as they repeat their heavy strikes. Tsuna throws a fist at Bana only for the Vongola Primo clone to duck beneath his arm and punch the behind of his skull.
Tsuna uses the momentum he receives from the punch to roll forwards in the air as he swings his heel towards the underside of Bana's chin. Bana avoids the blow by rolling the backwards, the foot of his nemesis narrowly missing his face as the two of them come face to face while they hang upside-down.
While their body positions defy gravity Bana gets the upper hand, a hard body shot to Tsuna followed by catching his enemies incoming attack. With Tsuna's wrist in hand Bana executes first edition, causing Tsuna's arm to freeze before he manages to pull it free, quickly slamming his arm into his thigh to shatter the ice.
"This isn't good…" comments Shamal, noticing that the fight is flowing firmly in Bana's favour.
"What is that idiot doing?" Xanxus asks rhetorically.
"He's distracted by his allies" Reborn explains. "In his match against you he was able to focus because his guardians held their own". In the match between Tsuna and Xanxus it was due to Hibari freeing himself at the beginning of the match that his team were able to fight. This time only Yamamoto has freed himself and he seems in no condition to fight. When combined with the ring collection the opponents were gathering, it didn't look good.
"It's going a lot worse this time" agrees the 9th, relying on Reborn's narration of the previous ring battle to compare the two. "The only one of Tsuna's guardians who is free is the rain guardian".
"And Yamamoto has a broken leg" says Basil adding to the sense of desperation felt by the observers.
"Then perhaps there is no hope" sighs Enma as he holds his head in one hand.
"What are you talking about" begins Xanxus with a smile, "This time he was trained by me".
In the sky Tsuna and Bana have come to a stand-still, Bana looks slightly dejected despite having energy to spare while Tsuna takes the moments break to get as much air as possible into his lungs.
"This is no fun anymore, I guess I will just finish you now" decides Bana as he launches himself at Tsuna and throws his flaming fist towards his opponent.
Tsuna watches as his opponent closes the distance to him and lights his own fist with the dying will flame. The flame dances in a beautiful ethereal mix of orange and yellow as it waits for the moment to collide with its opposing force.
BANG the two fists connect, sending shockwaves that can be felt by all those watching the fight. The result of the clash, a cape fluttering in the wind as it's wearer flies backwards through the air. The loser of that encounter was Bana.
Bana doesn't waste time before getting back on the offensive, he fires a full power burning axle towards his opponent. Tsuna returns the move causing another dramatic clash of flames, this time Tsuna's flames overpower Bana's, moving forward before striking the blonde, the first bit of significant damage he has taken.
"Sawada" exclaims Basil, excited that his senior has gained the advantage in this fight.
"Tsuna actually won that encounter… but how did he do it" Iemitsu asks of his son. Tsuna had long since surpassed him but until now the power of his child had never exceeded his own imagination.
"Xanxus…" the 9th begins with disbelief laced in his voice, "was that really… the flame of rage" he asks.
"Yeah, this is what made me acknowledge him as boss, he was able to learn the flame of rage" says Xanxus. Long ago Reborn explained that a dying will flame was like a fingerprint or your DNA, it couldn't be changed, or so it was thought until now. "That guy is not restricted to his standard dying will flame and is able to learn more flames. It's to this end that I had Mammon show him some horrible occurrences".
"It was no trouble boss" Mammon comments, waving off any praise that Xanxus attempts to give him.
"How interesting, so it turns out you are not a simple Primo copycat after all" smiles Bana.
"That's right" Tsuna says without any emotion.
"That complicates things… I never imagined you would have developed this way" notes the son of the 1st. "Then shall we see where the fight goes from here?" he asks as if he knows something his opponent does.
The Cloud Battlefield
Lancia emerges from the cage having been freed by Sorata and Tokata, he rolls his neck so as to loosen up and exchanges a smile with his teammates.
"Thanks, I hate being restrained" he says to his friends. An apt comment, something Hibari and Ace have both shared, a common feature in all cloud guardians is their hatred of entrapment.
"As for now, I suggest the you two get Hibari" he says. This is a slight surprise to Hibari, considering the strong desire they share for a rematch. Clearly Lancia is prioritising a win for his team over his own battles, something about Bana must be captivating to his followers.
"Leave it to me" yells Sorata as he rapidly expands and contracts as his staff so as to stab Hibari with it.
Hibari shocks his attacker as he casually dodges all of the attacks using minimal leg movement.
"What the hell". Sorata is confused, never did he imagine that the police officer could so effortlessly outmanoeuvre him while constrained in a cage.
"Don't you get it yet, none of you are capable of hitting me" he explains. He offers a small smirk as if he was the teenager, teasing kids with a basketball.
"You are quite a difficult man to deal with" notes Lancia.
"Calm down… calm down" Sorata says to himself more than anybody else. "There is a simple solution, we just take the ring and leave him in the cage" he suggests.
"Yeah, leave him there until the end of the match" says Lancia as he turns his back on Hibari. Deep down he feels his own pride slipping away but this is a team match, your brain has a role in fighting too and there is a lot of honour in teamwork.
"Do you know which cage is nearest" Tokata questions Lancia.
"There are two near here, the storm and the mist" the dark haired man replies.
Sorata quickly comes up with a plan, "Then the two of us will head to the storm cage, you go towards the mist".
"Very well" Lancia quickly acknowledges Sorata's scheme, "See you again Hibari Kyoya" he declares as he begins to walk towards Mukuro's cage. "I hope we have a chance to fight once more in the near future".
"Fear not Lancia, we will be finishing this soon enough".
The Sky Battlefield
Tsuna continues to dominate the fight using his newly obtained flame of rage. He punches Bana sending the challenger hurtling through the air once more.
"Damn you… Sawada Tsunayoshi… Damn you" he curses as he regains control of his movements.
Suddenly a dreadful power could be felt by all on the island and for a very quick moment, Bana's hair turned jet black. It quickly returned back it's natural blonde but the moment was not missed by any of those who had come to watch, what was going on.
The Mist Cage
Dokuro stares with an inquisitive expression, she gazes in the direction of the sky battle, her current boss against her former lover. Her emotions had been conflicted all day, she didn't know how she should react to anything but in that one moment she just forgot to control herself and watched in amazement. 'What is going on' she questioned in her mind.
"It's here" Mukuro breaks the silence, shocking Dokuro.
"What's here?" asks Dokuro.
"Chrome, this is the moment we have been working towards… are as excited as I am" asks Mukuro with a smile on his face. That smile is a mask that can hide a million different feelings but right now Dokuro felt the situation was ominous, incredibly ominous.
The Sky Battlefield
"NOO" screams Bana as his hair flashes black once again. Seemingly this change is beyond his control. "I won't let this happen" he declares only for his hair to flash black once again.
"Bana, what is happening to you" asks Tsuna with a new found sense of urgency and concern.
Bana's voice changes, two layers can be detected to it, one of them the voice everyone has come to know and one slightly deeper pitched. "You will… let me speak" he says with two voices.
At this point Bana's breathing has become erratic, more reminiscent of an anxiety attack than loss of stamina. "Sawada Tsunayoshi… I'm really sorry" he apologises.
"Sorry, if you're sorry then forfeit the match, it's never too late to ask for forgiveness" offers Tsuna. He has long since suspected that Bana is not an entirely evil individual, the ideal solution would have always been for the two of them to become friends.
"I… can't" says Bana through his clenched teeth, "I'm… I'm about to lose control… to the other guy" he explains as his hair makes the permanent change to jet black.
Suddenly his two-voiced speech stops, the original voice is entirely gone now, it has been replaced by its lower-pitched counterpart. Bana laughs, "It's time for you to stop now… my weaker half".
"So you're Vongola the 10th" says Bana, "He was pushed to the level where he required me to take over… PATHETIC". This newcomer has a voice that intimidates everyone here, even Tsuna feels terror just by listening to the flow of his speech.
"Let me explain to you, this is my black dying will form" says Bana.
"Black dying will… old man?" Xanxus looks to his father questioningly.
"No, I've never heard of it either" offers the 9th.
"This must be the form that he obtained from the deaths of others" concludes Xanxus.
"This form… the form itself is pure evil" Reborn comments. Ever cool in the face of danger, Reborn once battled Bermuda as equals, even he feels terrified looking at the new Bana.
"Yeah" agrees Xanxus.
"I don't know who you are or how you were born" Tsuna begins, "But I believe that Bana has potential to be a good man". "I'm going to stop you for him".
Bana laughs maniacally at his rival's declaration before he is attacked.
"X BURNER" yells Tsuna as he fires a full force attack at Bana.
Chaos ensues on the ground as Bana uses a single palm strike to deflect the attack in the direction of the spectators. Enma quickly enters hyper mode and hits the beam with repeated attacks.
"IT'S NOT STOPPING" yells Enma, hoping with all his heart that everyone gets clear of the blast.
The gun users Reborn and Xanxus both fire their own full force attacks at the incoming attack but prove themselves unable to stop the rage flames Tsuna has taken to using. Suddenly however, the beam stops dead in its tracks, frozen.
It was if time stood still, Xanxus looked to his side to see his father, staff raised in the air. It was clear now that the 9th had performed the first edition to stop the incoming attack. As the 9th pulls his arm back to his side he begins to fall backwards, the amount of his own life he used a hefty price for stopping the attack.
"OLD MAN" yells Xanxus as he catches his falling father.
"Sorry everyone" says the 9th. "That was… all I could do".