THE RAINBOW FLAME WAR – ONE MILLION BEATING HEARTS
The Smoking Crater
This location has become the most important place in the world. It has a small but telling landscape, a crater smoking from the wrath of thousands of rage flames. Tsuna moments ago unleashed his most brutal of barrages on the crater, on Honda. There is only one other person here and that is Kara, Honda's daughter. She lays nearby to the crater, a hole in her stomach and in serious danger of bleeding to death.
A short distance away at the sight of the main battle some of the mafia's chief members are able to faintly see what is going on. The only person who can see in true detail is Vongola Bana but the others all attempt to magnify their eyesight in the same way with varying success. This allows them to have a rough idea of what is going on. At this point only one thing is sure to them though, Honda is dead.
Tsuna isn't comfortable with the situation yet. The tiny amount of energy he retained from his previous attack used to keep him flying above. Then he starts as he hears a rumble.
Honda emerges from the burning crater.
"NOBODY CAN KILL GOD".
As Honda pulls free from the flames and bears down on Tsuna, the Vongola boss realises that there is nothing he can do. He has expended his last traces of dying will flame, there is simply no longer a way to attack.
Honda stops only at close range to his opponent, slapping him disrespectfully into the ground, a small trail appearing where Tsuna is dragged through the dirt. The rainbow ultimate flame that burns brilliantly around him disappears.
He has lost the rainbow ultimate flame.
In the distance Dino has his eyes wide with disbelief. He shakes his head side to side quickly, closing his eyes tightly as he does so, "No, no, no, no, no, this can't be happening, not after so much work. There is no way… Tsuna can't lose after coming so far".
Honda lands on the ground before the injured Sawada Tsunayoshi. There is no mafia around to stop him, even if there were they have all been fighting too long to even hold him back. There is nothing to stop him, this war is his.
"I'm going to eviscerate you Sawada Tsunayoshi" he drools childishly while making the proclamation. "You will regret laying your hands on god".
Tsuna is laying on the floor face down but he manages to lift his head if only for a second. "Go to hell" he manages to get out before weakly spitting towards Honda. The saliva never reaches the self-proclaimed god but it is enough to show the utter disrespect and contempt that the Vongola boss has for him.
Honda laughs while he looks down at the Vongola boss. This is his moment, the moment to destroy the Vongola once and for all. Until someone appears above Tsuna's injured body and kicks the Yakuza boss in the chest.
Honda is driven back along the ground, digging his feet into the earth to use friction as a means of stopping his momentum.
The man who kicked him… Kosuke Yaru.
"You're…" Tsuna begins. He has encountered Yaru few times throughout his life yet he still remembers the day they first met. Ironically things have changed greatly, that day Yaru was crashing Tsuna's wedding, this time he is saving him from dying. Such is the change from Yakuza to mafia.
"You bastard" Honda shouts before leaping forward towards Tsuna and Yaru.
"SIS" Yaru shouts.
In that moment a huge glass barrier appears between Honda and Tsuna. Presumably created by Lucy, the barrier is absolutely enormous, something without an end. Tsuna struggles to move his head but moving his eyes left and right he can see no end to the barrier.
"What the hell is this?" Honda asks.
"The first night you helped my sister unlock her powers she came to me and told me how cool it all was" Yaru reminisces, "Before that we were always hunting for food, running from people trying to take advantage of us".
"We decided it would be cool if she could make a barrier that would cover half of the world. That is what is going on right now. This glass barrier has cut off your half of the planet, it runs perfectly around half the world and even traps you in from above".
"Is that even possible" Tsuna asks.
"It is possible" Yaru strongly asserts, "This is a dream of Lucy and I from when were just kids. This is our ultimate protection".
"I will see you caned a million times for this Lucy" his eyes fall on the sister of Yaru who is hidden behind a rock nearby. It is childish but it makes her feel safe as she defies the man who has ordered her torture so many times.
Lucy looks to Yaru.
"You will not be caned" Yaru firmly insists, "Hold him back".
Honda laughs at this suggestion, if this glass barrier covers half the world it must be firmly embedded in its position all it requires is a significant push and it will smash to pieces.
The Yakuza boss flies full force into the barrier so as to make it smash but is surprised when the glass seems to flex in a way that pushes the barrier towards him. 'It's Lucy, she's trying to push me back'.
Honda grits his teeth, "Do you think you have more power than I do, I am… I AM GOD HIMSELF".
Honda begins to push harder against the barrier, it is as if he is a bottomless pit of strength.
To counter Honda's intensified efforts Yaru approaches the barrier from the other side, kicking it in the exact same place his former boss is hitting from the other side. It is an attempt at cancelling the forces out.
"I won't let you reach Sawada Tsunayoshi" Yaru shouts as he pushes with all of his might against the barrier.
Tsuna watches in awe as the Kosuke siblings who collectively ruined his wedding put their lives on the line to defend him. He is at last distracted by the sound of a violin to his side. A teenage girl with striking blonde hair is the performer.
"Who are you" Tsuna asks.
"Just shut up and let me heal you" Sakura answers in reply, as if unknowing of the fact Tsuna held her life in his hands.
Tsuna smiles gratefully while Honda continues to yell hysterically, "I've already made this clear to you haven't I… you are incapable of holding me back". After announcing this Honda continues to push the barrier even harder than before causing a great deal of curvature to be seen along the length of the glass prison.
"Sakura can't you go any faster" Yaru shouts over his shoulder.
"I can only go at one speed idiot" Sakura retorts angrily, "Push harder".
"Is this your answer to the question Yaru" Honda asks rhetorically, "Yakuza or mafia…". The elderly man begins to laugh manically "You've chosen to oppose god".
"I've chosen the right side" Yaru replies, "I've chosen mafia".
One more man then arrives at the site of the battle, this is another traitor to the Yakuza. The man humbled by Vongola Bana, this is the dart thrower Gon.
"I have decided the same" Gon informs his former master as he too begins pushing the glass against the dictator.
Kara's eyes have long since been blurry as a result of her blood loss but she vaguely recognises the silhouette of a woman approaching her. "Who… who goes there" she manages to speak, "What are you doing".
"I told you he was good for nothing, right Kara" the woman slowly walks up to Kara before leaning down and wrapping some dressing around her open wound. This woman is the current Vongola Storm Guardian, the resistances chief organiser.
This is Ellen.
If the others were present they would be shocked to hear Kara's reply. Shocked to hear a solitary word escape her lips.
"Mother…".
Kara closes her eyes once and opens them again, a weak attempt to confirm the woman before her isn't an illusion. Upon opening her eyes to still see Ellen she begins to cry, "I wanted to believe, I wanted to believe in him, I wanted to so badly".
"I know" Ellen replies, "Now there is only one thing left to do".
Kara is shocked that despite her mother's lack of supernatural strength she too joins the Kosuke siblings in pushing the barrier back against Honda, against the man who kidnapped her so long ago, against the mother of her child.
Honda's daughter realises that every little bit of strength helps and despite her poor health somehow struggles to her feet. Reinvigorated by her mother's appearance she leans on the barrier with her full weight. Thus is complete the Yakuza rebellion, now Honda has no allies.
Despite his bad situation the self-proclaimed god continues to laugh as if he has lost his senses. "Is that the best you can all do; this is nowhere near enough". His boasts ring true as he increases the force he is using once again.
This is overdrive.
The glass bends to near breaking point yet somehow a faint smiles comes to Yaru's face. "I think you are underestimating the hatred this world has for you, god".
Honda questions in his head what Yaru means until he looks over his shoulder. There is a rapidly approaching force that the mafia brought with them. There is the force of one million rebels.
"EVERYONE HOLD BACK THIS BARRIER" Dino yells at the top of his lungs, "DON'T LET HONDA GET CLOSE TO TSUNA".
The sight of one million people protecting one man causes the jaws of both Tsuna and Honda to drop. This is something that perhaps everyone except the two of them understood, just how importantly people placed them in their hearts.
"Everyone…" Tsuna smiles.
"Shut up and concentrate on getting better" Sakura yells, completely uninterested in the arrival of such a gargantuan army.
Tsuna decides that she has a point before he closes his eyes and concentrates on restoring his energy. He relaxes every muscle in his body and concentrates on what Reborn told him was the most important part of the dying will flame, the will.
"Done" Sakura announces, causing Tsuna to quickly rise to his feet, "But what are you going to do now?".
Tsuna thinks back to the data Gokudera and Haru analysed and steels himself. "Everyone hold that barrier back".
Tsuna then flies into the air, well behind Yaru but in a position such that Honda can see him. He then brings the rainbow ultimate flame back and begins flickering between the plus and zero states.
"What is the boss thinking" Xanxus asks, "What zero-point breakthrough is he going to use".
Honda, seeing that Tsuna is airborne once again naturally steps up his efforts. In spite of his million strong opposition, using the power of overdrive he manages to bend the glass slightly back towards the Mafia again.
"This strength" Bana starts, "Is this man's power really bottomless?".
"VOI, Shut up and push" Squalo shouts, "EVERYBODY PUSH".
Xanxus joins his rain officer in issuing that order. "That's right trash, if I see a single one of you not pushing I will turn you into ash".
"THAT'S RIGHT PUSH" Enma shouts, fuelled by the anger, the dying will of so many who believed in him.
Tsuna's sky flame turns into a hollow and the sun flame appears at the centre of it. This is much the same as when he first discovered such a thing to be possible back in a resistance camp.
"He's going to do it with that flame" Ellen exclaims, "What will happen".
"Mother, what's happening" Kara asks.
"That is the rainbow flame that Tsuna has worked all these years to obtain, if he performs the zero-point breakthrough with that, we win".
Slowly but surely Tsuna's hollow ring fills up, firstly after the appearance of the yellow sun flame comes the green thunder flame, the flame that his brother is renowned for using. Then the red cloud flame joins in, the dying will of his closest friend Gokudera Hayato.
"That's right Tsuna" Bana encourages under his breath, "EVERYONE PUSH".
"PUSH TO THE EXTREME" orders Ryohei, desperate to protect his sworn brother.
Flames continue to appear in the circle. Next in the order comes the rain flame that Yamamoto used earlier to defeat Kara, a flame filled with serenity. Then comes the mist flame used by his wife, used by Rokudo Mukuro, the man who first gave his life in this conflict against the Yakuza.
"WITNESS THIS YAKUZA" Tsuna shouts as the ground begins to shake as a result of the countering forces.
"YOUR END COMES WITH THIS FLAME THAT BURNS WITH THE PASSION…".
"IT BURNS WITH THE PASSION OF A MILLION BEATING HEARTS".
The shouting orders of the officers on the ground has now become a combined chant for the crowd. "Push, push, push, push" they chant as they work together to hold Honda back.
Seeing the army of a million helping him from below. Tsuna lowers his head, he recalls all the people that died for him.
He recalls his parents.
He recalls Reborn.
He recalls Mukuro.
He recalls Basil.
He recalls the Shimon.
He recalls Belphegor.
He recalls the Millefiore
He recalls the Arcobaleno.
And lastly he recalls Gokudera.
Tears fill his eyes the dead are all forefront in his mind. So many have given their lives to get him to this point and he finally believes with all his heart that he won't let them down.
"Everyone… thank you".
"THANK YOU SO MUCH".
"Do it Tsuna" Ellen mutters under her breath, she knows that the boss can't hear him but she knows exactly how he feels. All of the dead are travelling through her mind as well.
Finally, the purple cloud flame sported by Hibari Kyoya appears in Tsuna's circle. Then all of the flames begin to vanish and reappear, flashing at a low frequency.
Tsuna is flickering between plus and minus.
The crowd lets out an enormous cheer as excitement overcomes them. This is truly it in all of their minds, Tsuna is going to overcome Honda. Before the might of a million beating hearts even god himself is unable to stop it.
"DO IT, DO IT TSUNA" Dino shouts.
"GO FOR IT" Ryohei adds.
"YOU'VE GOT THIS" the sun policewoman Kyoko insists.
"DO IT FOR MOTHER AND FATHER" Lambo yells.
"DO IT" comes Ellen's voice atop all the others.
"COME ON" Yamamoto and Byakuran say together.
"DO IT FOR SHIRO" shouts Dokuro.
"WE'VE WAITED LONG ENOUGH HERBIVORE" comes the voice of the usually silent Hibari Kyoya.
Then Tsuna goes into the minus state.