After I was discharged from the hospital, Domenico tried to bench me for a bit but I wouldn't have it. If I don't fight every day I wouldn't be able to sleep at night but as it stands, the words keeping me awake at night were Dino's words. His confession still rang in my ears. Thanks to Romario I didn't have to respond right away but I'm sure Dino would be expecting a response soon.
But at the moment, I had other things to think about.
I flipped Koge onto his back, stomping on his shoulder as he let out monotonous yelps for mercy, "You're so pitiful. No wonder my father called you an herbivore."
Koge didn't deny it or even show that he felt an ounce of remorse, "I know. My skills weren't meant to put me on the frontlines."
Even with my cast, I defeated him so easily. In fact, it was even easier than before.
"I know that now but… I can't stand the thought of you being an herbivore. You become a liability the minute an enemy decides to target you."
Romario chuckled from behind, "Cut him some slack, Kira. When you're not his opponent he can actually hold his own for some time."
I sighed, "You're too lenient. How will this family grow strong if you're like this?"
"I would argue that we've come this far because we're all of the same mind." Romario never agreed with my "spartan" ways. He called me cruel all the time but in my home, this was the law. Strength was everything so I could not bend on this one.
"Leniency is going to get you killed."
"You'll come save me." Romario said it so simply that it made me blush, "You proved it when you jumped in front of a bullet for the boss."
"He's not the boss yet." I scoffed.
How strange. Dino was special. Romario was an older male but he was taking my strength for granted. Sure it meant he had the utmost faith in me but… it also meant he was becoming complacent. Romario had made no improvements in his strength since the day I joined this family. He had no resolve to fight.
"You're killing him, Kira." Reborn's voice was accompanied by heavy footsteps belonging to his carrier… Dino.
I let Koge up and stood stiff, eyes on the floor now that Dino was here. We hadn't spoken since the incident in the hospital.
"Domenico's calling for you." Reborn said, "Come."
Giving one last sharp order to Koge to take his training seriously, I turned and followed them out. We walked in silence and it appeared to me that Reborn also knew of what had happened at the hospital. He smirked at me when I glanced at him. Embarrassed, I turned quickly away.
Domenico was in bed when we came to greet him. He was always in bed now. His body functions were failing him and this was all he could do. Today, his expression gave away his intentions.
"Kira, I'm glad to see you're well." He rasped, "This family needs you so it would not bode well for us to have you permanently put down."
Again, he only sees what he needs from me, not what his family needs to do on their own. This family is a flock of herbivores. This is the first time I felt disgust towards them instead of gratitude. How would they protect Dino if they were all so weak? If I hadn't been at Dino's side, would someone else have taken the bullet for him?
Taking my silence as permission to continue, he said, "I want to move into phase two. Dino will continue to go with you on missions. You will never leave without him."
Dino's protests were met by Reborn's iron fist. So this was all Reborn's scheme. How sad. Domenico was a puppet leader. Reborn was the brain and the brawn behind this entire family but there was only one suspicious fact about this whole thing.
"Reborn… Aren't you a hitman with the Vongola? Why are you meddling here?" I asked, scowling when Reborn smirked as if he was the winner here, "What's so funny?"
He tipped his hat to me for a brief moment and then declared, "I'm training my family's future allies. I wouldn't be here if I didn't see potential."
From that moment on, I was wary of Reborn. I was too inexperienced before but now, the way of the world looked so clear to me. Reborn was looking for us. Dino and I had a clear will to fight and grow strong. Despite all his protests, Dino was not stagnant. His strength was growing and soon, he would be the Cavallone's strongest fighter right behind… me.
Everyone else here was no longer growing. They didn't even have the will to keep training and getting stronger. They had accepted their place at the bottom of the mafia world but… I didn't and in turn, Dino was also obtaining strength. Our motives were different but we were expressing our will for power.
"I always say if you fight with your dying will, everything will turn out okay." He smirked that arrogant grin and said, "But it'll benefit this family too. Don't worry."
Domenico gave it all a moment to sink in before saying, "I have two very important announcements for you. For Kira, don't associate with Superbi Squalo anymore. The Varia staged a coup d'etat the other night and failed. They were branded traitors and await their punishment from Timoteo."
Squalo failed at something? There was someone out there who could defeat Squalo? My skin was buzzing from the pounding of my heart. I was so excited. I should've gone with him… But I was here.
I pursed my lips but said nothing.
"And for Dino, you have less than a year remaining before you must take the title of Don Cavallone from me." He gave away the secret he was previously protecting and Dino did not take it well.
He was screaming at the injustice and he had just so many questions. How come? Why am I the last to know?
I felt sorry for him. It was unfair. He was deemed too weak to know by his own father. A stranger like me was told before he was informed.
Unable to calm his fury, Dino was no longer listening to Domenico's pleas.
I reached out and settled a hand on his shoulder, "We can't change the past but he's telling you now. Let's plan for the future."
I didn't miss the gleam in Reborn's eyes. Domenico's pending death did not bother the hitman at all. Domenico was not his ally. Reborn was only looking at me… and Dino.
How terrifying.
O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O
We went to school the next day as if nothing had happened. Dino and I promised to meet with Koge and Romario later on to fulfill the task we had been given. The difficulty of the task was higher than the previous one but it was still too easy compared to the jobs I went on alone.
I suppose rather than the task, my struggle was with my lacking teammates. Dino wouldn't look me in the eye, Romario was busy doing nothing and Koge was suffering from lack of connections between our communications system and insufficient power supply.
"Let's go without coms." I decided, getting massive protests, "Or we can go with Plan B."
"What's that?" Dino spoke to me for the first time in a while.
"I go in alone." I said, silencing protests with my fists, "No allies? No coms? No problem. This is easy for me. I'll go in and get what we came for and come right back out. They won't know."
"Easier said than done." Romario scoffed, "You've never been on a stealth mission. We've done everything with crude power up until now."
"Then you go alone."
No one spoke up. It was either me or one of them and they'd rather not take the fall. I scowled at their lack of skills and even more at their lack of confidence.
"I'll go." Dino finally broke the silence, "I can't let you go alone."
"And we can't let you go alone." The three of us responded to him in unison.
This was the only thing all three of us agreed with at all times. Dino was the future boss of this famiglia. We could not let him throw his life away.
"Then it's decided." I grinned at Dino who looked so clueless, "I'm going. Romario, sit on him."
The poor little heir was crushed under Romario's weight and left to struggle. I motioned for Koge to take the wheel and I went for it alone.
Stealth was the coward's way in my opinion but I could see the merit of sneaking in and sneaking out. We didn't want them to retaliate since I was the only capable fighter in this family. Honestly, even if these guy's did fight back I had no problems taking them all down. I was extremely confident. Once again, my issue was just my lacking partners.
I would be fine even if these people came to seek revenge but for the people waiting in the limo… it would be too much for them to bear so I would have to pull this off as if my life depended on it.
I glanced at the dimmed windows. All the lights were out inside. Everything outside was illuminated by the flashlights held by the guards. Keeping my distance, I went around back.
This was a low-ranking family's residence. No one here could hold a candle to me. So when I spotted just a single guard at the back entrance, I let out a breath of relief. I approached him in silence and the minute he asked, "What are you doing out so late at night, kid?"
I reached up and snatched his spear out of his hands and skewered him through the throat with it.
He couldn't scream so I left him for dead.
The interior of the building was just as I expected it to be-ancient. I snorted at the gaudy purple roll of carpet lining the long hallway. There was a picture of the residing boss on both sides of the wall. Empty suits of armor stood at both ends of the hall.
My destination was at the end of the hall. It was guarded by two men in full blown suits. Neither seemed to be heavily armed. So easy. I took my first step into the hallway in silence.
The men lifted their guns immediately, "Who's there?!"
I broke into a dead sprint towards them. There was no need to be afraid. The chance that either of them could hit a moving target was nearly zero. I knew that for certain because if this family had any men good enough to hit moving targets, they wouldn't be this far down the ranks.
I slammed into the closest man and knocked him into the second male and they both went tumbling into the suits of armor beside them. The armor went clattering to the floor. The helmet only stopped rolling when it hit my feet. The mafiosos' eyes had followed its path to my feet and their eyes rolled up to my face. I felt my lips tug into the most sinister smile.
Neither of them moved fast enough for a chance at survival. They were both dead within the minute but the gun shots had attracted attention. The person inside the room, the boss of the family, came out with his gun raised and pointed dead at my chest.
I gasped, barely dodging the bullet. I stumbled and fell flat on my rear while dodging the second bullet. The third went scraping by my temple and I saw my life flash before my eyes.
Is this it?
Screaming like a lunatic, Dino was on him. My eyes opened wide as the whip knocked the gun to the floor and then went for a second lash at his eyes. Howling in pain the man grabbed at his eyes, putting up his hand pitifully to attempt to stop the whip that was relentlessly lashing at his torso.
Dino was definitely fighting as if there was no tomorrow. Romario was behind him-the only true witness to the birth of Bucking Bronco Dino. I don't know how Dino got Romario to come in with him but whatever leadership skills he used to get that loser to follow him was beyond me.
The screaming had woken the rest of the house. Mafiosos were storming the hall with their guns focused on Dino now. My blood ran cold. I put my hand on the floor to rise to his defense and accidentally touched a piece of the armor that had fallen over. I glanced down at the gauntlet and before I knew what I was doing I donned the armor on my too-small hand and went for it.
The bullets almost seemed as if they were coming at us in slow motion with my adrenaline pumping through my veins. I clenched my armored fist and slammed the bullets to the floor one by one. One slipped by my defense sinking into my thigh. Behind me, I heard Romario desperately telling Dino it was no longer safe.
"Dino!" I snarled as another set of bullets broke through my defense but they were not aimed at me.
They went whizzing by Dino as he had his whip curled around the enemy boss' throat. I readjusted my body to better defend him but someone had come barrelling into me with all their strength. I was knocked to the floor and the person I was supposed to protect was left defenseless as I tried to wrestle my attacker off me.
The clinking of magazines to the floor told me some of our attackers were out of bullets. Viciously, I bit the man on top of me right in his throat and tore out a chunk of his flesh. He let out a gurgling scream and I gave him a fierce kick into the line of fire where he met his death at the hands of his relentless comrades.
And yet, Dino was still defenseless. I scrambled to my feet, hand outstretched as the final assailant pointed his gun dead at Dino's chest and fired. I was shocked to find that Romario had put his body between the bullet and Dino. It took everyone in the room a moment to realize that Romario hadn't taken any damage. The assailant was out of bullets.
Roaring in fury, I made a mad sprint towards the last man and pummeled him into the floor with one bare hand and one armored hand. The armored hand did so much more damage. After the man had lost consciousness, I picked up the other gauntlet from the remains of the armor that had fallen and I turned on the rest of the mafiosos who stood with terrified stares when they realized everyone was now out of bullets.
We decimated that family on that night. Something tells me, even if I had successfully pulled off a solo stealth operation the conclusion would not have been any better. That night, I got to see the future boss of the Cavallone Family leading from the frontlines. I got to see the future right hand man to Cavallone Decimo show the will to protect his boss with his life. And I got to discover the usefulness of gauntlets. This was a very productive night.
O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O
The next day, I went to school with Dino in a huff. My leg was wrapped massively in bandages from where I had gotten shot the previous night. I was extremely embarrassed to have to come to school with scars from my almost-failure.
Leaving the limo, I glared at Dino who offered me a hand when it was my turn to get out, "Don't get arrogant. I slipped up when I shouldn't have but you were lucky to survive too."
"It wasn't luck." He grinned when I glared harder, "You and Romario were protecting me. I have the best guards in the whole world."
I hummed, pleased by the praise, "In that case, you saved my life as well. I owe you one."
"Well…" He reached for my hand again, trying to help me walk onto campus, "Originally, we would've all been there in the first place. The only reason you were in danger to begin with was because we were too scared to go in with you…"
I pushed his hand away, walking on my own. I would rather die here than have people think I was weaker than Dino, "How did you get Romario to come with you in the first place?"
"Romario was the one who volunteered to come with me." He shrugged when I glared at him in disbelief, "All I said was 'if I let Kira die in there alone, I'm going to kill myself so please let me go.' And Romario just came with me."
I understood Romario's feelings. Our mission was to obtain the information we obtained last night by killing the enemy boss but our mission every single day was to protect Domenico and Dino. We owed a debt to this family that we would repay with our lives if needed be.
Dino paused at the school doors, opening them warily, "Is it just me or are people staring at us?"
I glanced back over my shoulder where Romario was still lingering, "Isn't it just because Romario is glaring at everyone like they're criminals?"
"Yeah but why?"
I shoved Dino into the building and then stepped in behind him, slamming the door shut hard enough for Romario to get the picture, "You almost died yesterday. Excuse us if we're being careful."
"I'm not scared as long as you're here." He grinned and the sight of his smile made my heart pound oddly for just the briefest moment, "I'll see you at lunch, okay?"
I scoffed at him, hurrying away in an attempt to reign in the uncontrollable pounding of my heart. What was wrong with me? Well, I'm sure you already know but the important part of this day has yet to come.
In class, I heard the whispers of the students around me. Squalo was not at school today. He was pending imprisonment at Vongola Main Base. The word on the street was that Xanxus was already made a prisoner and the men who followed him into battle that day were all captured and on trial.
I felt sorry for him but I'm sure if Squalo set out to do just what he did, he didn't regret anything but his failure. His actions came with consequences and he probably already knew that this would be a possibility. I'm only sad that I lost my sparring partner.
