BATTLE OF THE SUCCESSORS – NOW IT'S OUR TURN
The Sky Battlefield
As Tsuna and his guardians get to their feet many of the spectators are joyful that their family are not giving up. Unlike the others though, Reborn, Xanxus and a few members of the Varia realise that the situation is still dire, with Tsuna and his fellows being severely injured in comparison to their opponents.
Bana looks down his nose at Tsuna and his tone changes, rendering his voice more sombre than before, "You know it's quite pathetic really, how weak you are" he begins. "It must be damn sad, your fiancée and your mist guardian both betrayed you. Your friends have all betrayed you and you're about to lose everything".
Tsuna snickered as Bana explained his opinion. "Sad, you sure have an interesting way of thinking about it" he suggests much to the surprise of Bana and the spectators. "You may have put me through a lot of pain… but I still regret nothing".
"As a result of what you did I made lots of friends in the Varia" recaps Tsuna, "and you know what, despite their new attitudes, Kyoko and Haru, they're still alive. Not only that but the rest of your guardians seem like really nice people. Lose everything, keep dreaming, thanks to you I can bring Vongola to greater heights than ever before, all I need to do is beat you and free the real Bana".
"Enough talk" Bana yells as he unleashes a burning axle towards Tsuna and his guardians.
As Tsuna moves to block the burning axle the sand from the beach is thrown into the air blocking them from view.
"Is… is this it… is it over?" asks Lussuria, clearly terrified at the prospect of defeat.
"Tsuna" Iemitsu mutters as he closes his eyes and clenches his fists. How would he ever explain it to Nana if their son died this way.
"Sawada…" Basil exclaims in disbelief. His senior, the man he was destined to work with when they inherited the key roles in the Vongola family.
"No" Enma says as he projects his voice to all his fellow spectators, "Tsuna wouldn't lose".
"He'll stand up; he always does" agrees Colonello
Not bothering to listen to the opinions of the spectators Bana takes a few steps forward and turns to address his guardians. "Go and take their rings, you've earnt them" he praises only to gasp when he hears a faint burning sound from behind his back.
As Bana hears the burning sound he doubts his own ears, he put everything into that burning axle. He turns around hesitantly refusing to believe Tsuna could survive. As the son of the 1st turns his gaze he was slowly graced by the sight of Sawada Tsunayoshi, his arm held out before him in a perfect horizontal line.
"Now it's our turn" he proclaims.
"What the hell a…" Bana starts before being interrupted.
With a speed that had somehow increased once again Tsuna closed the distance between the two leaders and delivered a punch straight to Bana's chest. The result, the raven haired clone is taken off of his feet and is driven backwards into Sorata, into his own team-mate.
"What… what the hell" Lancia is completely stunned by this action, Tsuna was actually able to get a solid hit on Bana.
"How did he do that" Kyoko asks her team-mates.
"I have no idea" replies Haru as she tightens her grip on her sword.
"He actually did it… that guy… that was the zero-point breakthrough" declares Xanxus.
"But that effect, it wasn't…" starts Enma, clearly realising that this was not the effect of first edition or custom.
Xanxus smiles knowingly, "He did it with the flames of serenity instead of his normal flames, so it produced a different effect". Xanxus recalls Tsuna mentioning that he was attempting this in training but never thought that his boss would be able to succeed. To use the zero-point breakthrough in such a way is unthinkable.
"You bastard" yells Bana as he launches at Tsuna once more.
"Zero-point breakthrough serenity edition" Tsuna announces as the flame on his hand begins to flicker. Upon Bana closing the distance and throwing his kick towards Tsuna he was blocked, blocked by a shield made of pure dying will flames.
As Bana started at this development the 9th expresses his admiration towards the man he hoped would succeed him, "I never even dreamed that the zero-point breakthrough could be used like this".
Upon defending himself from Bana's attack the elder Sawada brother reacts by dissipating his shield and swinging his rage flame clad right fist at Bana, sending the evil-doer backwards once again.
"I won't accept this" Bana says through gritted teeth.
Tsuna doesn't reply with words, he simply stares at Bana, almost as if he pity's his opponent.
"I WON'T" Bana yells at the top of his lungs as he launches towards Tsuna once again.
Not holding back in the least, the clone punches towards Tsuna who has re-spawned his shield. This time the results are different however, Bana raises the fight to new levels again by punching straight through the shield and tackling Tsuna over a great portion of the beach.
Seemingly ignoring the attack, he just witnessed, Hibari sparks the action between the two teams, "Let's go" he says simply.
As the two sets of guardians battle each other Basil raises a concern. "Hold on, aren't we outnumbered here, won't this be a big problem Mr Reborn?".
Reborn smiles, "Don't worry, didn't you see earlier that Ryohei was able to take on three of them by himself".
"That's true" returns Basil.
"Looks" says Reborn, causing Basil to look back to the fight.
Throughout this ring contest it had been highlighted to the spectators many times that the teamwork of Bana's subordinates was sublime however, it was still far from the level that Tsuna's guardians had reached.
"They're totally dominating them" yells Ken.
"This is incredible" Squalo excitedly chants with a smile on his face.
"Yeah, those guys are going to win" Belphegor nods in agreement.
Suddenly all of Bana's warriors leap backwards as if they are retreating from Tsuna's fighters. The reason they are doing this is unclear to everyone, until Xanxus looks into the sky to see the fight going on above.
"Look" Xanxus says as he points to the sky.
As the allies of Tsuna look on they are struck by terror when they see Tsuna falling from the sky. Not giving him a moment to rest and working perfectly in sync with his team, Bana stamps on a falling Tsuna, the latter plummeting down into his followers with great speed. The impact was so hard and the strength behind the blow so great that all the guardians had been caught in the impact, a huge crater had formed where they had been pushed down into the earth below.
"Dammit, he actually made a breakthrough but it's still not enough" curses Xanxus, unable to comprehend how his boss had done so much to get stronger but was still not winning.
Tsuna lays in the crater as his dying will flame flickers for the last time and slowly dies. He had given everything to defeating his opponent yet it was still not enough. What was he supposed to do now, how was he supposed to move forward?
"Was that… all I could do?" Tsuna asks himself.
"10th, please don't give in… we've come so far" Gokudera encourages his friend.
"I haven't got the dying will flame… it's gone Gokudera" Tsuna explains
Bana lands down amongst the guardians and approaches Gokudera, "It's pathetic, how noisy you are, perhaps I should kill you first".
"Shut up… I'm going… to beat you" says Tsuna as he struggles to his feet, "I have to stand up to you".
"You know that you can't win don't you, why do you continue to fight when you can't win" questions Bana, for the first time genuinely intrigued to hear how his counterpart will answer.
"This fight isn't about whether I win or lose, it's about… it's about not letting down my friends again, so I'll fight you even without the dying will flame" answers Tsuna.
"Do it Tsuna" yells Dino causing the other spectators to look at him in awe. "You've got this" he says as he offers a thumbs up to the man he shares a tutor with.
"That's right, go beat him" Squalo proudly joins Dino in shouting.
"This fight is no different to any other you've had so far" Iemitsu tells his son.
"Honestly" sighs Bana, tired of all the hoops he has had to jump through in this fight.
"EVERYONE SHUT UP" Reborn yells with an abnormal sense of urgency, "LAMBO, I'M GOING TO TEACH YOU TO…".
Tsuna has stopped listening to the yells of his friends, already throwing his first attack towards Bana. Without the dying will flame Tsunayoshi was incredibly slow, Bana easily outpaces his opponents fist with his own, hitting the unprotected fighter into one of the beaches many rock formations.
"TSUNA" the spectators yell. Having taken an unprotected blow from an opponent at this level, Tsuna is certainly dead.