THE NEW WORLD – THE NEW WORLD
A disused house, Austria
Following the great battle Gokudera saw fit to carry Tsuna as far away as he could get. Along with Haru they ran North as fast as they could go without being detected by the enemy forces. They continued to run north as far as they could but the Yakuza forces overtook them. It happened unbelievably quickly, especially when aided with the surrender of the world's major powers, in merely two days the Yakuza ruled the entire world.
In the disused house Gokudera looks out a nearby broken window, scanning for any traces of Yakuza he can find. It's cold but nothing the mafia can't cope with. The sun sets early over the horizon as an orange tinge fills the silent room.
Haru glances at Gokudera without saying anything. The storm policewoman no longer feels any hostility towards her ex-fiancée but she cannot find the words to say, the two of them are on the run in central Europe watching over the world's last hope, Sawada Tsunayoshi. And the 10th boss has regained consciousness since his fight with Honda.
Another day passes, the only words the two offer each other concern whether they should move location or who's turn it is to watch.
'What's the point of all this' Gokudera asks himself, 'Even if the 10th wakes up he might not be able to defeat Honda'.
It is indeed the case, Tsuna fought harder than he had ever done before when he fought the Yakuza boss. The man formerly known as no-good Tsuna had used his most powerful attack and failed to kill an opponent who wasn't in his strongest form, the situation is about as hopeless as it can get.
"Hayato" Haru exclaims as she turns to her guardian counterpart, "He's awake".
The storm guardian whips his head around and swiftly walks over to the side of the rusty bed that Tsuna is lying on.
"10th… 10th… 10th" recites Gokudera in an attempt to wake up his best friend.
Tsuna yawns as if waking up from a good night's sleep. "Gokudera… Haru…?".
Tsuna looked around questioningly as if he had just started to remember what had happened.
"What happened" Tsuna asks with a panicked expression, "Did I… did I lose…".
Gokudera tensed his face and closed his eyes. Haru clenches her fists tightly, as Gokudera explains to Tsuna what has happened.
"10th, the mission" Gokudera begins, "the mission was a complete failure".
Tsuna's mouth drops as he looks rapidly between his two subordinates, "What… no way… then is everyone OK… just what happened".
Gokudera recounts the events of the previous few weeks to his boss, "We only focused on our job" he begins, "Our job was to get you to safety as quickly as possible".
"Where are all the others then?" the chestnut haired mafioso questions.
Haru interjects to save Gokudera from having to further explain their failures, the failures that Gokudera feels he, as the boss' right hand man is responsible for. "Tsuna, the wireless sets that Dino gave us, the Yakuza tampered with them".
"Then we are doomed" Tsuna comments.
"10th…" Gokudera murmurs as he grits his teeth.
Watching as the Mafia's two leading lights stand in silence Haru tries to offer hope. "There must be something we can do, there always is isn't there?".
"I can't train anymore" Tsuna says as he looks into his lap.
Haru starts.
Gokudera looks at his boss with wide eyes, "What do you mean 10th".
This is the most devastating news that the storm duo could possibly receive. If Tsuna had a month in which he could train freely then it is quite possible that he could defeat Honda and free the world, yet now the boss is declaring that he can't train.
"When you get to such a high level, if I try and push my limits any more then Honda will definitely sense my presence, even on the opposite side of the world".
Gokudera gasps as he understands what Tsuna is saying.
"As soon as I attempt any worthwhile training from now on he will feel it and come running".
Haru also begins to understand what Tsuna means. The mafia boss has now reached such a high level that when he ascends to his ultimate form it very nearly causes an earthquake. Also when you reach a higher level your sense gets stronger, your ability to detect other great powers increases, therefore it is possible that Honda would detect Bana on the other side of the world, never mind Tsuna.
With no way to train without having to fight a battle Tsuna can't win, the mafia are doomed to failure.
Southern America
Southern America, more specifically Brazil is the location that the Millefiore family have chosen to flee to. Ganma had some ties here before he joined the family and Yamamoto suggested that they make full use of that when they run.
The family was fortunate to come out of the battle with most of its members alive and well however, that helps very little in a war against the great force known as the Yakuza. Even if Yamamoto were to spend another 10 years training the odds are he could not overcome the man who proclaimed himself to be god.
"Nothing" Ganma says as he shakes the radio set in his hand, "No communication with the others whatsoever, this thing isn't working".
Yamamoto ignores his subordinate as he finally has a moment to just sit down. As the baseball star sits down he places before him the shattered sword of King Arthur, Excalibur.
"It really broke" Yamamoto mumbles.
Yuni realises how shell-shocked her recently appointed boss is, she lowers herself to her knees and looks up into the man's eyes. "I know it's hard to believe what has happened but we need to look at what we are going to do next Yamamoto".
Seeing that the black haired boss is unresponsive Yuni turns to her most faithful companion, "Ganma, do you have any idea what we should do now".
The blonde haired guardian turns to his former boss, "Yuni, I don't know how to say this subtly so I'll just have to come out with it".
"The chances are Sawada is dead, any actions we make here, even if we were to repair Excalibur, they will be useless" he gently continues.
"The only small hope we have is if we find Sawada Tsunayoshi alive, so I suggest we start searching using small, local-level resistance groups".
Yuni nods at the plan, "Does that meet your approval boss".
As if he can't hear anything Yamamoto continues to stare at his broken sword, his ghostly mentor Byakuran doing the same.
"Boss" Yuni calls to him again.
Still no response.
"YAMAMOTO".
Finally, after a few seconds the Millefiore Boss and Vongola Rain guardian replies, "Yeah, do anything you can, I will focus on this blade".
"Sorry but right now I am not of much use to you" Yamamoto explains, "If you need me to any fighting or anything like that just point me in the right direction and say go".
"Yamamoto, you need to avoid getting out of the picture" Byakuran encourages his pupil, realising how depressing his attitude is.
"Out of the picture" Yamamoto replies as he sighs internally, "I can't help that feel right now, the entire Mafia is out of the picture".
A Few Months Pass, A Hideout in Europe
Tsuna and the storm duo had spent several months running from hideout to hideout, taking note of the situation in various cities and assessing just what was going on. It was too hard to get a full picture of what was happening in the world though, several cities the trio walked into they were recognised from wanted posters and had to immediately run to avoid detection by Honda.
The hideout the trio are using this time is a bit more recently abandoned. Haru looked around at the family photographs and theorised that they were very religious.
'Perhaps they left to pray for my victory at the Vatican' Tsuna postulates.
Gokudera hits the top of a TV he has been tinkering with and smiles as he declares, "Right, we have a signal".
For the first time in a very long time the trio feast their eyes on an audio-visual broadcast, although they feel strange watching TV during the world's greatest crisis it is necessary to determine what is happening across the globe. Perhaps there is some resistance in the American continent.
The channel that came appeared to be a news channel of some sort. The woman who Tsuna guesses to be the presenter, is dressed formally with a small tattoo on her right hand. Clearly she is under the influence of the Yakuza.
"That is when god defeated the evil human leaders and proclaimed that we are all his slaves" she announces, "Please do your best to obey god, it is not beyond reason for a god to kill mortals if they irritate him".
Tsuna gasps at what is watching, "This… this is propaganda… they are calling him god".
"They are encouraging people to worship him" Tsuna points to the TV as he turns to his two followers.
"A man who has worked out the secret to an eternal lifespan, a man with the power to control anyone in the world with a click of his fingers, a man who can sense anyone who can even come close to rivalling him and his opponent was defeated in a single hit when he used full power" Gokudera says, "That man is the closest thing to a god this planet has ever had".
"If only I had…" Tsuna begins as his body trembles, "If I had beaten him people wouldn't be going through this… I've let everybody down".
"You haven't let anybody…" Haru begins before she is interrupted.
"I HAVE HARU" the boss shouts without holding back, "Don't you get it, their prayers were all the same, please make Tsuna win, the people from this very house were probably the same".
"Well guess what, I lost and now they are all suffering for it" the Vongola boss finishes as he storms out the houses living room to find somewhere he can be alone.
Against Haru's expectations Gokudera falls to his knees and tears begin streaming from his eyes.
"Hayato" the storm policewoman exclaims.
"This is… it's all too much" sobs the second-in-command, "I just can't cope Haru".