A/N: All I wanted was some character interactions and to introduce another Arcobalenco but this chapter fried my brain. So it may take a bit longer to publish new chapters. That and I thought Tsuna would like a break before throwing him into the Varia Arc.
In a strange moment of life imitating fiction a stray cat has started following me around. *sweat drops* Unfortunately my family is allergic to dogs and cats so we can't own one. Hope you all enjoy the chapter and feel free to leave a review!
Observe, Hypothesize, Experiment
"We're going to an aquarium this time. Nothing bad is going to happen." Shizuka tries to reassure her brother, Tsuna raised an eyebrow. "That's what you said about the trip to the zoo, Mafia Land, and the amusement park." He retorts, Shizuka's eyebrow twitched. "This time Reborn didn't organize it and we have responsible chaperones this time around. We won't even be in Namimori. It'll be fun, I think." She says awkwardly.
Tsuna still wasn't convinced."Define responsible." "I guilt tripped Shamal and Masahiro, alright? And the pervert promised to be on his best behavior. Please big brother?" Shizuka asks, using the Sawada patented doe eyes of doom. "Why not? It sounds like fun." Yamamoto says with a grin, Gokudera snorted. "Yeah, being in a building with giant glass tanks and half dead fish. Sounds really exciting." Gokudera says sarcastically.
Shizuka smacked him in the back of his head. "That's a normal aquarium. The one we're going to is like a glass tunnel that lets us see into the ocean. So we'll be surrounded by fish!" She says excitedly. "What's so good about that? The pressure could break the glass and we'd all drown!" Gokudera exclaims as he and Shizuka glared at each other. "Stop being a baby, they have reinforced glass to stop that from happening!"
Tsuna sighed, letting the bickering run its course. Shizuka disliked the storm since the teen tried killing him and Gokudera, outside of the research he did on her as a ghost, thought that she was an immature child. It was one of the reasons that Shizuka decided to be around her own guardians once Yamamoto and Gokudera started sticking to Tsuna.
"It does sound like it could be fun." Tsuna says begrudgingly, Shizuka stuck her tongue out at Gokudera. "If you don't want to go then no one is forcing you." Tsuna says soothingly, unaware of the fact that Reborn was pointing Leon in gun form at Gokudera. He was literally being forced, at gun point, to go along with Shizuka's plan. Reborn had attempted, multiple times, to get the ghost girl to interact with Tsuna's guardians. He was not going to have the hot tempered teen ruin this opportunity!
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"I did not sign up for giving kids a field trip." Shamal groans. "You're the only one that has enough knowledge of Mist flames to stabilize Shizuka's human form. And you do not want to see that girl when she's bored." Masahiro says, shivering when he recalled the time Shizuka set off a glitter bomb in Kyoya's office. He made the mistake of mixing his laundry with his brother's and his clothes had purple glitter on them for weeks.
It was strange going out of town in a van, Namimori was so small that the residents were used to being in walking distance of everything. Nana didn't even own a car. Gokudera, Tsuna and Yamamoto were in the back seats. Somehow Ryohei heard about their trip and decided to tag along, talking Shizuka's ears off without noticing her attempt to become one with her seat. "I didn't know my little bro has a sister. I'm Ryohei, extremely nice to meet you!" He says with a bright grin.
This is it, I'm going to pass on to the after life during this car ride. Shizuka thought. It wasn't really Ryohei's fault that he radiated Sun flames and that Shizuka felt like a vampire being burned. Shamal glanced back at the two with a thoughtful expression. "Masahiro, you mind switching places with the dumb athlete?" Shizuka looked relieved, maybe she'd let the man wander off to flirt with women after all. If only his observational skills were that sharp when it came to determining whether a woman was uncomfortable being flirted with.
Underneath one of the seats was Reborn, if Shizuka wasn't the one to suggest the trip she would've been as paranoid as Tsuna. Especially since he was wearing a wet suit and his spiky black hair wasn't in his fedora for once. Now that she thought about it, it was strange that she found that flier on the table. I wonder where it came from? Shizuka thought as the van pulled over.
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Watching the van from the air was a small drone, tracking their progress. Verde sighed, it wasn't like him to get so hands on in his research. Especially using the same methods as Reborn. The plan was to isolate the group and find out what was behind the anomaly his thermal imaging sensors were picking up on. He was also curious to see what got Shamal to stick around in such a boring town, the man tended to drift like a Cloud. The van stopped and there was movement, Verde took the chance to see the van's inhabitants.
He was already familiar with the Vongola heir and his guardians, but there were two people that he hadn't seen before. There was a man that had an uncanny resemblance to Fon before he was cursed and there was a girl that had a strong resemblance to the Decimo. He switched to the thermal imaging, smirking when her silhouette matched that of the anomaly he discovered. The observational stage was almost complete, soon he would move to the experimental stage.
Shizuka almost ran gut first into one of the turnstile, too impatient to place her ticket in like the rest of the visitors. "You can't just faze through it, there are people here!" Tsuna hissed, Shizuka pouted. "Kill joy." She mutters, forced to wait patiently in line with everyone else. Underneath Reborn's suit, his yellow pacifier started to glow. "Hey, didn't it do that on Mafia Island?" Shizuka asks curiously. "Nope, we are here to have a FUN and RELAXING trip." Tsuna growled, one of his eyes twitching. Everyone started to back away from the irritated brunet, even Reborn.
"Alright big brother Ryohei, no breaking the glass to fight sharks. Or whales. Or any fish behind the glass." Tsuna says, remembering when the teen tried fighting all the predators in the zoo. Tsuna had no idea how the hell Reborn did it, but he was in one of the tanks riding on a shark. The visitors all thought that it was part of an act and cheered. Shizuka and Tsuna deadpanned. "At least with him in there, he can't mess with us in the tunnel." Shizuka says optimistically.
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"I wonder how dad would feel about adding shark fin soup to our menu." Yamamoto comments. "Wait, a soup just with the fins? What do they do? Fish the sharks out of the water, cut off a fin essential to swimming, and toss the poor bastard back in the ocean? It'd be like chopping off someone's leg and telling them to deal with it." Gokudera comments. "Can we not talk about eating the fish we're looking at?" Shizuka asks, a bit disturbed by the topic. "Shizuka, you laugh at horror movies. I don't think you're really one to talk."
Along with the fish surrounding them on all sides, there were also exhibits for little kids to touch starfish and other sea creatures. Shizuka picked up one of the starfish and turned it over. She saw a creepy looking mouth and bristles and immediately put it back. "Well that's going to haunt my nightmares for a week." She says bluntly. Shizuka eventually wandered away from their group to the manta rays, dunking her hand into the water to touch one. She was distracted by a child with green hair, standing beside her.
Shizuka sighed. "So you're another one of Reborn's colleagues. Please tell me you're not going to make a scene, my brother needs a chance to relax for once." She says, waving her hand through the water. Verde scoffed. "I am, but not by choice. I hate that pompous prick." Shizuka turned to Verde, raising an eyebrow. "That makes two of us. I'm Shizuka." She introduced, sticking out her hand. "Verde, also known as the second coming of DaVinci. And you're an anomaly." He says bluntly.
Shizuka blinked. "Huh, never been called that before. I'm a dying will ghost actually, apparently I was lucky enough to become a partial Sky." She states. "I can tell by the way your flames are reacting." He says bluntly, an eye twitching in annoyance. "Huh?" "Your flames are trying to draw me in." Shizuka blinked, then her jaw dropped. "Oh you have GOT to be kidding me. It's like my own flames don't care what I think anymore." She complains.
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"Wait, is the hatred between you and Reborn mutual?" Shizuka asks curiously, an idea starting to form in her head. Verde had some sort of device out, showing readings of Shizuka's flame output. He hummed, memorizing the data he was reading. "You know what would really piss him off?" She asks with a mischievous grin, Verde looked up. "You can't be serious." He says bluntly, Shizuka shrugged. "You wanted to research an anomaly, right? I'll let you do whatever tests you want and in return you can help me get under Reborn's skin." She offers.
"I am a scientist, not a babysitter." Verde says bluntly. Shizuka huffed, crossing her arms. "You don't have to move here or anything. I'm just offering you a temporary place to stay whenever you feel like screwing with Reborn." She comments. "Why am I not surprised?" Reborn asks, at this point Shizuka wasn't fazed by his sudden appearances. Although she was wondering how he got dried off so quickly. "Because I'm usually vocal about how much I dislike you." She says bluntly.
Somehow they all managed to enjoy the aquarium without destroying the place, for once the gods seemed to take pity on Tsuna. "You think we should tell him this is the only peaceful day he'll ever have with Reborn involved?" Shamal asks Masahiro, the Hibari shrugged. "I think that's a given. There's a reason why mother decided to retire." He says bluntly.
Bonus: Did we forget something?
"Alright, everyone in the van. I think we've pushed our luck enough for today." Shamal says, glancing at Verde. "Shizuka, what did you do?" Tsuna asks, Shizuka pouted. "I invited him to dinner, it's only polite! And he already gave his word that he wouldn't destroy anything." She states. "Of course, I'm not a barbarian like Reborn." Verde says bluntly, Shizuka snatched him off the ground when Leon started to morph into a gun. "He's not a cat!" Tsuna protests. "I never said he was."
The car ride, aside from the conversation between Tsuna and his friends, was oddly quiet. "Guys, did we forget something?" Tsuna asks, Shizuka faced forward and tried not to look at her brother. "I'm sure you're just imagining it Tsuna." She finally says. Thank god, without those Sun flames in the vehicle she could relax!
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Ryohei searched the entire parking lot but couldn't find the van. There was a note and some money left where the van had been.
Sorry if we forgot you, we couldn't find you in the aquarium. Left some money and directions for you to get home. Think of it as an excuse to train some more. -Shizuka
Ryohei sweat dropped. At least they left him something and this wasn't the first time he'd been left behind on a field trip.