So don't hate me, but his is a bit of a cliff hanger, but I promise I will try to get the next chapter up soon! I know I say that all the time, but this time I actually have time to so lets hope procrastination forgets about me and I can actually get it done Ya! Anywhosits, I hope you like this, and if you don't, just tell me, if you do tell me too! As always KHR is not mine although I wish it was cuz then I would continue it! Pleas Review, don't have to but they always make me happy and I would love to know what you all think! Thanks a bunch for reading, and enjoy! 3
Vongola Airport, just south of Namimori Japan
"But I just don't understand why he won't tell anyone Ryohei! He has a right to know there is at least some hope!" Yamamoto practically yelled into his cell phone as he leaned agents the SUV he had brought with him to pick up the last family they had invited to the event, and event he was so regretting being a part of. "Do you know how hard it is not to say anything? It is KILLING me, especially today." He said with a sigh.
"Listen, we still don't know anything, so of course we can't say anything, what if it leads to nothing? What would that do to him? To them!? We have been given orders Yamamoto, don't forget that. Plus have you seen him lately? Something is up with him, I saw him smile yesterday! Him, SMILE! Do you know how long it's been since I've seen him crack a smile that wasn't twisted and evil!? Kyoko and I just stood there and stared, she almost started crying!" Ryohei said on the other end. And if truth be told, his best friend was acting rather odd ever since he came back from picking up his assigned family member a few days ago, almost as if time wasn't moving fast enough for him. He sped through every job given him, and when that was done, he had this far off look in his eyes bouncing on the balls of his feet like he was waiting for something to happen, and every now and then he would smile, like he heard something no one else did.
"That is what I'm saying Ryohei, he's obviously cracked!" Yamamoto said exasperated shaking his head. The afternood was still cool, but if the previous days were anything to go by, it would get a lot warmer as the day went on, but luckily the base was well conditioned and as it was located at a higher altitude than most of the town, it wouldn't get too terribly hot, something that would work well for some of the guest. For some reason Reborn had insisted on inviting a small family from Russia who were already complaining about the heat. They had arrived the night before, and Kyoya had been put in charge of looking after them. Yamamoto shook his head again wondering what his boss had been thinking on that one.
He was starting to question his boss more and more the last few year, not in the big things, or his orders, he still trusted his life to Tsuna, but in the smaller diplomatic decisions he made, or more likely let Kyoko make. He loved her dearly, like a sister, but Kyoko had no business getting involved with the ways of the family, not because she was a woman, but because she was Kyoko. The girl didn't have it in her to be a part of this life, no matter how much she thought she should be.
"Listen, their plain is supposed to get there soon no? Focus on your mission, and we'll talk latter, the party is tonight, and tomorrow it's over. When this is behind us, we can sit Gokudera down and talk like rational adult without having to worry about other people interrupting us about the lack of complementary soaps in their rooms to steal! So just focus, and we'll talk latter, I have to go settle a dispute in the kitchens; apparently they didn't order enough of Kyoya's favorite Sake, fucking dick can't settle for anything else!" Ryohei said with a sigh and Yamamoto chuckled on his end.
"Ok, your right, and I think that I see them actually so I got to go, I'll see you when I get back, good luck." He said before hanging up his phone and slipping it into his pocket before straitening his tie and slowly walking forward to meet the group of people making their way from a plain to him. At the front of the group were two women, about his age from what he could tell, one with long blond hair in a bright violently violet sun dress and hat to block her eyes from the sun, the other with long silver white hair braided down her left side making her emerald green sundress and sunglasses look even brighter in the midday sun. Behind them he could see two young teenagers, 12 or 13 from what he could tell, a boy and girl. The boy was tall for his age with stream line sun glasses to block the sun and was warring the kind of suit Reborn use to make his and the gang wear back in middle school whenever they had to go to a big battle, something that made him smile, his shirt was a deep orange and seemed to match the dress of the girl standing next to him talking heatedly in whispers. Her long red hair was lose and hanging around her shoulders under a large white sun hat that she kept messing with to the amusement of her friend and the two body guards fallowing the group. These two caught his attention the most, one in particular had him doing a double take.
She had on normal street clothe, just some jeans, albeit tight body bolding jeans, with a dark blue tank-top under a black leather jacket, and if not for the lances hanging from her generous hips, he might not have known she was their guard. Her hair was what kept him mesmerized, it was long and a dark almost black purple; lose flowing behind her like waves her pale face flush in the heat as her laugh danced in the air making him smile as it reached his ears. She had a beautiful laugh, one he wanted to hear directed at him some day soon. He couldn't make out her eyes behind her slim sporty sun glasses, but for some reason he knew they would be sparkling with her laughter and a hint of mischief.
Yamamoto had to shake himself as they got closer, finally taking note of the other guard, dress similar to her counterpart, only with a red tank top and short unassuming chestnut brown hair that barely reached her chin, most of her face hidden behind large Hollywood sun glasses. He had a nagging feeling in his gut as soon as he let himself look at her, but before he could question it, they meet up with him and he had to focus on his mission.
"Konichiwa, and welcome to Japan." He said with a formal bow before standing up again and smiling the six guest in front of him, not sure what language they would speak, but going with English as most people now in days spoke it. At the back of the group, M.V smirked and looked him up and down, appreciating all that the pictures had not given justice to of the Rain Guardian. He was much taller than his pictures let off, and his smile seemed to warm her from the inside in a way she was more than willing to explore latter if given the chance. Had she been paying attention she would have took note of how S.S. tensed at the sound of his voice. She had to ground herself as flashes of memory blurred her vision and made her head spin.
As L.A introduced them to Yamamoto he couldn't help but notice how the only tow with actual names where the two teens, Kathleen and Peter, the rest of the group where introduced as letters, but he just mentally shrugged, each family had their own costumes, who was he to judge. He smiled and waved to the pair in the back before bowing again and introducing himself glad that they had understood him. "My name is Yamamoto, it is a pleasure to meet all of you. I hope you all enjoy your time in Japan with our family and we are honored that you have agreed to join us in our festivities. The Boss has been wanting to speak with you for a long time now." He said with a smile to Kathleen, making her blush and smile shyly back as the boy scowled at him, making Yamamoto and the others smile. Ah, young love he thought as he nodded to the boy and turned to lead the way back to the SUV. "You all have been given rooms in our bass, and there are cars available to you should you need them for any reason, just ask one of us Guardians and we will provide you with the keys, now if you'll just step right in, we'll be at the bass shortly, the Boss wants to meet you all emidatly so we will have to stop by his office before being shown to your rooms, you luggage will be there waiting for you. A short ceremony for our lost friend at seven that you are all welcomed to join us for but the party will start at eight with a dinner at eight-thirty." He said as he held the door open for them to enter and sit as before gently shutting the door and making his way to the front seat to start the car.
"I hadn't realized that we would be meeting with the Vongola Decimo so soon." Kathleen said in what she hoped was a calm voice. As much as she was trying to keep herself calm, the fact that she was meeting the Boss of the most powerful mafia family was starting to ware on her nerves. Peter placed his hand over hers that lay between them in the seat. He could feel it tremble in his as he gave her a reassuring squeeze and smile trying to help her clam down. She gave a short nod of thanks and small smile still staring at their guides eyes in the review mirror as he smiled reassuringly.
"Don't worry, any idea you have of Tsuna is probably wrong, at least partially so anyway. He really just wants to talk to you, no need to feel any pressure to be anything but yourself Kathleen, that's all he will be." He said as he wound his way towards their bass, sure that she was working herself up. Sometimes it was easy to forget how important Tsuna was when you knew him as well as he did. To him he was not only a Boss, but a dear friend. L.A smiled at her niece and nodded at his words, she knew this couldn't be easy for either of the kids and she was very proud of them so for, and as much as it had worried her back on the island, for some reason, she knew that they would be fine. K.D, patted the girls head from her seat behind her as M.V grabbed one shoulder and S.S the other shaking her slightly, letting her know that they would be there for her whatever she needed. Kathleen smiled and took a deep breath, grateful for her family and their support. Yamamoto smiled at the display of affection, even more sure that Tsuna would like this family of seemingly all female who were renowned for their skills and sense of unity.
They had been gaining popularity in the underground for the past few years, in both their efficacy and precision. They had the ability to go into a building full of people, pinpoint their targets, dispatch them, and leave without a trace, no collateral damage or any kind, and most of their hit could not be traced to them. Their signature was a literal lack of signature. Tsuna was very interested in this trait, he hated the way the Varia would go in guns and swords blazing, killing any and everything that got in their way. They needed a group who could go in, do the job and get out with no fuss, and the Hervarar where that group.
Yamamoto pulled up to the large estate that posed as their "Bass" and smiled to himself, sure that negotiations would go over well, climbing out of the driver seat to open the doors for his charges, he waited for all of them to climb out so that he could lead them into the estate and down a series of halls before he stopped in front of Tsuna's office. He knocked and waited for a reply before opening the door and bowing his guest through the door, fallowing them and gently shutting the door behind him.
Tsuna who was seated at his desk with Reborn and Dino at his sides, stood and smiled to the small group as he walked around his desk. "Welcome Hervarar family, I hope you all had a good trip." He said as he motioned for them to take a seat in the seating area just left of his desk. L.A and K.D smiled as the kids nodded stiffly and complied, following them and sitting on two chairs on either side of the kids as M.V and S.S went to stand behind the sofa the kinds had chosen. M.V was making a sweep of the room, taking note of anywhere that someone could be hidden, or a wall that might be false, all the things she had been trained to do when guarding an official. She also took note of how the Rain Guardian chose to stand directly across from her, making her eyebrow raise behind her glasses. She and S.S had opted to keep them on, even though they were inside, and the rest of the group took them or their hats off, for no particular reason. She smirked at him as he smiled back, glad that the mission might go better for her than she had thought it would. There was always time to play and as long as she got the mission done no one would say anything to her.
S.S was having trouble breathing, something the other might have noticed had they been paying attention to her and not what the Vongola boss was saying. She felt as if she was going to shatter, as if her world was breaking into a thousand pieces and she felt her eyes begin to water as she gazed at the face of a man she did not know, and yet knew all about. Millions of thought where spinning in her head, and she couldn't focus on one long enough to figure out what they meant before another bulldozed over it to catch her attention. She finally closed her eyes and focused on her breath, and on what she knew, which at the moment was only that her heart and mind where racing and her old wounds where acing. Somehow this helped her calm herself. She could deal with pain, she had been trained to deal with physical pain more so than most. So she let her mind latch onto the pain in her leg, the tingle in her shoulder where her scar lay and the small buzz behind her right eye.
As the meeting went on, she let her mind slowly come back to the present, and focus on those around her. By the time Tsuna and Kathleen where standing and shaking hands she was almost back to her old self. She breathed a small inaudible sigh of relief as P and the rest of her squad began to rise to leave, but before they could make their leave, a woman walked into the office. As soon as she spotted her, S.S felt the tears she had been sure where gone begin to collect at the corners of her eyes again. "Kyoko" she said in a whisper most did not hear as the woman made her way toward the group with a bright and beautiful smile. She was average height and thin, with long light brown hair that shown even in the unflattering fluorescent light of the office, and as she made her way to the Boss her brown eyes shown with love that to S.S felt like a punch in the gut. It took everything in her to stand up strait and nod when she was introduced. Mercifully, L.A excused them, as they where all tired from the trip, and bid the boss and his wife farewell and promised to see them again at the dinner latter that night.
S.S bowed graciously to both The Vongola and Chiavarone Famiglia Bosses before fallowing her family and Yamamoto out of the room and up into their rooms, hoping that none of her sisters noticed her shaking hands or the tears slowly making their way down her face before she let herself into the small apartment that Yamamoto had indicated as hers and locking herself in. She just made it onto the large bed before she finally broke down, felling not relief but an almost sickening sense of De Ja Vo as she quietly cried yet again for a man who would never love her and the girl who had loved him.
After a few minutes of self-pity, S.S began to laugh at herself at how ridiculous the whole situation was. Six years of not knowing who she was, of flashes of pain and confusion, and the answers where all here. The biggest mission of her life and all of a sudden the Fates decided that now would be the perfect time to give her back her memories. Well not all of them, but a lot of them. She still didn't know who she was, just what had made her that person, or at least off of the parts of her that had been in love with Tsuna and best friends with Kyoko. It was an odd sensation, knowing so much of what made you a person, but not knowing who that person was. She shook her head as she continued to laugh at herself. Enough S.S, you can wallow latter, you have a mission to get done she said to herself as she got up and began to look for what to wear to the festivities.
It was decided that she would be the one making the actual hit, leaving her to find, and isolate the target tonight, something she didn't really mind as that seemed simple enough. Men who believed themselves untouchable by other men usually paid little attention to the threat that woman made. She would use this to her advantage and seduce the target away from everyone else, no one would question it, and then she herself would come back acting mad that he had never showed, just in case anyone was paying that much attention to her actions, and if it all went well, the body would not be found for a few days, by which time they would be long gone and the mission would be a success. Because she would be going back. Her memories changed nothing that was something she had decided a long time ago. No matter what she remembered, it was her past, and her sisters where her future, she was a Hervarar warrior now, and nothing could change that.
Back in Tsuna's office, a teenager leaned agents a wall with his fedora casting a shadow over his eyes as he waited for the boss to send his wife back to her mingling with the guest with a kiss and a promise that he would be there soon. As Tsuna shut the door on her retreating back he let out a tense breath and leaned he head agents the door in front of him as the silence seemed to grow behind him.
"Oi, Baka-Tsuna…"
"Don't" Tsuna said as he banged his head agents the door once.
"…" the silence in the room began to ring with all of the emotions bubbling beneath the surface of the three occupants. Dino sighed as he shook his head, pained that he couldn't take the guilt form his dear little brother's shoulder, but then he could barely hold the weight of the guilt he felt.
"Why now….why after all of this time…" Tsuna said into the door to the room in general as the tears he had been holding back fell from his eyes. From the first moment he saw her, he knew. She had changed so much, but still he knew. When she walked in, he noticed her limp and as she stood staring at the opposite wall he noticed the scars around her neck and hair line. Her skin was no longer smooth, her smile no longer quick and all consuming, he didn't feel the same warmth her remembered from her all those years ago, and he almost convinced himself it was a lie, but then she had said Kyoko's name, in the way she always had when she was relieved to see her after a battle, as if she could breathe right again after so long of not being able to.
"Because life's a bitch" a voice said from the sofa the Hervarar family had been occupying just minutes before. "And the Fates are curlew" Mukuro continued as he rested his head on his hands propped up on his elbows.
Tsuna laughed hollowly as he finally turned into the room and walked back to the seat he had previously be in to basically throw himself into, in a very un-Boss-ish way, but he didn't care, he didn't feel like a Boss right now, he felt like a failure and a horrible person. "We can't tell him." He said in a whisper.
"Right because he won't know as soon as he sees her." Reborn said as he sank into the sofa between Dino and Mukuro shaking his head. "He'll know, so will most of the other Guardians if they take the time to look, so that won't help anything. We should tell him, get him ready for the shock; sure as hell wish someone would have gotten me ready for it." He said with a sigh.
Mukuro chuckled with a nod at the boy's works, yes he had known she was most likely alive, but to have her present herself, at her own memorial or all places, it had been a shock, even for him. As much as he hated to admit it, he had liked Haru, more so than the others. Not because she was pretty or useful, but because off all of them, she was they only one who regarded him as not something to be watched and feared or revered, but as a person. At first he had made it his mission to get her to fear him, but then he simply enjoyed the time she took to talk with him, putting an actual effort into communicating with him. Her death had a bigger impact on him than he would like to admit, but this turn of events had him reeling.
Tsuna looked up at Mukuro's chuckle, shocked once again by how much he seemed to care for Haru, or S.S as she was now called, and amazed at how much of an effect her presents had had on his Mist Guardian. For not the first time, Tsuna found himself marveling at how amazing Haru had been. Was. "We need to know what happen to her… but I don't think she'll give us that information easily, nor will her family." He said standing again, making plan, coming back to himself as he did. Now was not the time to wallow, now was the time to find information. "Mukuro, how goes your investigation on the information we got from the Varia?"
"It goes slow" he said with a smirk "but I did find out the name of the family who owned the island, not that you haven't figured that out." Tsuna nodded, returning to his desk and pulling out his cell phone. He needed to call his guardians together before any of them confronted her. Who knew what she would do. It was obvious she was a different person now, and she could be a danger. He couldn't risk his family, and as much as it pained him to admit it to himself, she no longer was part of it.
"Well I guess at least one good thing came from all this." Reborn said with a small chuckle.
"Oh?" Tsuna said with a lifted eyebrow as he sent the text to his Guardians.
"Yeah, we know the Hervarar are as good as they say, I don't know what they did, but in six short years they were able to take Haru, who had next to none combat training and turn her into… well… that!" he said with a shake of his head.
"What do you mean" Dino asked
"Didn't you notice how calm she seemed? Almost too calm if you ask me. It's obvious that she was dealing with something under the surface and yet she was able to hide it from her family members and had I not been struggling to do the same, I probably wouldn't have noticed it either." Reborn said leaning back and looking up. "Can you imagine that kind of control and clam on a mission? It's no wonder the rest of them look to her, or did none of you notice how she gave the ok for them to follow Tsuna to their seats and then Yamamoto out the door?"
"I was wondering about that… hu, I guess you're right… it's odd to think of her as anything but you know…her." Dino said with a shake of his head.
There was knock on the door and then it burst open and Kyoya walked a rather upset looking Ryohei right behind him. "Kyoya there is no need to get so upset, they said they would get our order in in time so just calm down!"
"They had better or I am going to bite you to death." Kyoya said glaring at the boxer who simply rolled his eyes.
"Now, now you guys, Tsuna called us for a meeting no need to get into a fight." Lambo said as he walked over to a chair in the back of the room and sat down, wondering why Reborn was looking at him with such sad eyes.
"He's right guys, so let's just sit down ok?" Yamamoto asked with a smile shutting the door behind him and walking up to take a seat in front of Tsuna's desk, as Ryohei took the other available one and Kyoya huffed and leaned agents the wall next to Lambo and they all looked expectantly at their Boss.
Tsuna sighed and then took a deep breath. He wasn't sure how he was going to do this, and had hoped to have a bit more time to think about it before his men got there, but as Mukuro said, the Fate where crewel. He took one more deep breath and looked up, but before he could say anything the door opened once again.
"Sorry for the wait Judime, that ass-hat you assigned me to was complaining about something again. Did I miss any…thing…" Gokudera said as he entered the room shutting the door behind him. As his eyes swept the room and caught those of Mukuro, Reborn, Dino's and finally his Boss, he felt his stomach drop and his heart rate accelerate.
Slowly Tsuna caught the eyes of each of his Guardians, feeling the pain and guilt wash over him ten-fold again before meeting his Storm Guardians eyes once again. As he stared into his bright green eyes he said the words he knew would both heal and brake his good friend's heart.
"She's alive…"