The trio took in what he said with an air of cautious acceptance. Which, good? Mementos was just a bit much to take in, even after spending hours roaming around and beating the stuffing out of the ickier parts of the collective unconscious.
He idly wondered if it would make the general population of Namimori a bit kinder, or if they would just bounce back the second something happened to annoy or upset them.
Tetsuya had produced onigiri for everyone to snack on during the talk, so at least Tsuna had something to do with his hands besides check over his weapons.
"And the other?" Mukuro asked.
"Ah, well, yeah, that one's a bit … more delicate. But since we harmonized…" He grimaced. "It's not nice, and it relates back to Mementos."
Mukuro made a "go on" hand motion.
"Set the wayback machine to when I was five. My—" He sighed. He really needed a code name for the man. "The man who sired me showed up with his nominal boss. Fancy car, driver up front. The boss was absolutely not Japanese. I found out later he's Italian."
Mukuro twitched, which was interesting.
"I was in a tree, and was badly startled, and fell from pretty high up—well, for a kid, anyway. I was sure I was gonna die, and orange flames erupted from my hands. Got knocked out when I hit the ground, and woke up to those two leaning over me. The one looked annoyed. The old man poked me in the forehead with a orange-flaming finger, and that's when everything went wrong for me.
"You know, stuff like my brain stopped working, I tripped over everything and nothing, and I developed a bad reputation around town for being utterly useless. Bullies everywhere delighted in stealing what I had, mocking me in front of everyone, beating me up…" He shrugged.
"Over the years my, uh, mother's husband—can someone come up with a name, please, because I'm drawing a blank here—showed up every so often and would 'play' with me. That usually consisted of terrorizing me until I cried and wet myself in fear.
"And of course, I usually ended up getting dropped or bounced off the ceiling or in some way hurt, at which point he'd give me what he called 'magic water'. I can't count the number of times I've been blackout drunk because of that man. I-It's a wonder I still have any brain cells left or a functioning liver."
The trio seemed just a little horrified, or possibly disgusted.
"Needless to say, I hate the man, and would be thrilled beyond reason if he never showed his face again. Then, the Phantom Thieves became a thing here in Japan. And I thought, maybe they could help? The calling cards they leave as warnings went on about sins and stealing twisted desires, right? So I took the opportunity I was given at the start of second term. We were on a class trip to Tokyo, so I slipped away—well, more like stumbled away.
"I have this sense thing, where I can…" He shrugged again. "The interface calls it intuition. Anyway, I used it to lead me to the leader of that group, and I asked him for help, phrasing my request as delicately as I could, because no one knows who they are, right? He said 'that group' couldn't, because the target was in Italy, not Japan.
"I was heartbroken, but felt compelled to follow the boy. I ended up getting sucked into Mementos in Tokyo, I guess because I was too close to them when they went in. I was caught by a shadow, went through the whole mask thing, and survived. When I got back here I went looking for a local Mementos.
"Maybe they couldn't help, but if I worked really hard, maybe the next time he came back, I could do it myself? If I could figure out how. In the meantime, I trained here, and once I thought I could do well enough, I got Hibari-san to spar with me, to show him I'm not quite as fluffy as I look. He joined me, then Tetsuya-san…
"But the thing is, ever since I did end up in Mementos, things changed. I wasn't clumsy any longer, my brain started working again, I was able to stand up to people trying to beat me up, that sort of thing. I started working through previous years of school work to try to get myself caught up."
"How do Flames fit in?" Mukuro asked.
"That's the really delicate part. The part that can get everyone in a lot of trouble if it gets out to the wrong people." He took a deep breath before saying, "It's connected to the mafia."
He blinked slowly when all three of them blanched.
"Okay, you clearly have some knowledge of that," he said slowly. "So, yeah. My—"
Tetsuya clucked his tongue, then said, "Defect."
Tsuna brightened. "Thank you, Tetsuya-san! So, right. The defect is part of the mafia. Turns out he's part of an organization attached to Vongola, and that the old man is the leader of Vongola. And, unhappily enough, I'm blood-related to the old man. The point being, if the old man's sons should be killed, I'd be the one in line to become the next don.
"So I figure the old man sealed my flames specifically to keep me out of the running, and to avoid bringing me in in any capacity. You know, keep me a clueless civilian. The problem, of course, aside from me stumbling into a way to unseal them, is that someone clearly can't keep his mouth shut, because we've already had one guy show up looking to kidnap and obtain money for me.
"We were told by a very discreet someone in the know that we should be very careful about showing our flames outside, and who we tell about them, keep it to people I feel can be trusted, preferably only if they already have them themselves, even more preferably that they managed to harmonize with me. Odds are? Things are going to go sideways and I'll end getting dragged off to Italy at some point to lead a family I don't want any part of."
"This fa—family is … powerful?" Mukuro said.
Tsuna fought the urge to narrow his eyes over the verbal stumble. "Yes. The most powerful on the so-called good side of things. I've started teaching myself Italian just on the off chance things don't go my way. I'm not holding out hope for a miracle. Doesn't mean I won't pray to the gods over it."
Ken apparently got impatient with the current state of dancing around the issue and blurted out, "We escaped from a famiglia."
Mukuro scowled at him, then turned back to Tsuna and nodded. "We did. They were unpleasant."
"Why do I get the feeling that is the biggest understatement of the century?" he murmured.
"To make sure I understand," Mukuro said, "the whole reason you went to find the Phantom Thieves was to force the defect to admit his sins. What were you hoping for as an outcome?"
He grimaced. "Maybe I'm being unrealistic, but I was hoping he would divorce my mother, give her the house, alimony, and child support, and that I'd never have to see him again. He's here every so often for a week or two, but even that's too much. Then maybe she could find someone in Namimori to love who is here? Who would give her the attention she should be getting.
"And… And if he's been unfaithful, I'd want that to come out, too. For all I know he's been careless and I have half-siblings in Italy. He can claim all he wants that he 'loves' my mother and me, but I don't believe it for a second. It's some delusional faery tale in his head. The fact that he's mafia just … makes it ten times worse.
"He sold my mother a lie, and she's head over heels in love with him. Or with the lie. Whichever. Half the time I'm convinced she literally can't understand how much time has passed since he was last around, and she's so gullible she'll believe just about anything. He took advantage of her. I want my mother to have someone who actually loves her and sees her, not some delusion.
"And I don't want a defect for a father who thinks it's amusing to terrorize me and then get me black-out drunk because I've never been strong enough to keep him from dumping booze down my throat and then laughing when I practically choke to death or throw up. If I weren't such a nice person I'd want him dead."
He turned bright red on admitting that and ducked his head.
And then Mukuro started talking, about the famiglia they had escaped from, the one that had experimented on the three of them and many other children, for years. How they had killed and resurrected Mukuro repeatedly, how Ken was spliced with animal DNA, and Chikusa warped with poison. That they had originally experimented on each other, the adult scientists, but switched focus to children. How they had no idea if they were even children of existing famiglia members, or random children snatched off the streets. That their names were ones they had chosen themselves once the decision was made to flee the country and they had settled on Japan.
"…How did you manage to escape?" he asked, his stomach very queasy over the tale.
"They were attacked," Mukuro said. "One of the scientists had just opened our cage when the alarms went off. He forgot about us entirely and rushed off, so we fled. Ducked away from anyone we noticed, eventually found a way outside, and off the property. We were the only three … specimens … still alive in the experimental ward."
"Some of the scientists in there," Ken said, "they had, you know, stitches on their faces, like seams? You could tell they'd done stuff to themselves."
"I can only assume they decided it made more sense to experiment on children," Chikusa added. "There are plenty enough of those."
Oh, his stomach was really not happy, but he refused to throw up. It might make him feel a tiny bit better, but it did nothing for his new friends. And really, who wanted to smell that?
He suddenly realized something important and asked, "Do you even have a place to stay?"
The trio exchanged looks. "Well, there is that abandoned warehouse over by—"
Hibari cut him off with, "I will give them rooms."
And as much as he wanted to ask about Hibari's family, he wouldn't. Hibari would tell him if he felt like it. Asking was just an invitation to get bitten to death for being nosy.
Hibari shot him another look, this one faintly amused.
Tsuna huffed.
Ω
Hibari's home had a guest wing. A guest wing! Tsuna huffed again and rigorously kept his curiosity in check.
"Omnivore," Hibari said, giving him another faintly amused look. "Your room is in the other wing."
He blinked slowly. "Thank you," he said, well aware that while polite, his response was likely inadequate for such a generous action, not to mention the trust involved. Wait, why would Hibari set aside a room for him? What—wait. 'Oh, maybe it's in case the defect shows his face? Having the option to just not be there sounds like a lifeline I would grab onto with both hands. I wouldn't have to suffer through another visit, right?'
"Omnivore."
Tsuna snapped out of his thoughts and looked at his senpai.
"They are settling in, and Kusakabe has gone to make tea. I will show you to the room set aside for you." Hibari then prowled off.
Tsuna scrambled off after him, cursing his shorter legs, and was led clear across the house (mansion, his mind insisted).
Hibari drifted to a stop next a door.
Despite most of the house being rather traditional, the upper floor was somewhat modern, for a given definition of modern. That being so, it was a non-traditional door, but the knob… It wasn't even a knob, but rather a curved lever or handle in some silvery metal, and it was inset with some orange substance. Which, huh, one way he would always recognize which room was "his".
Hibari gestured slightly.
Tsuna took the hint and depressed the handle, then pushed. The room itself made him gawk. He might have even gasped, or maybe just an audible intake of breath. It was large, for one, and—were those doors into a private toilet and bathing room? He was almost afraid to step inside, but he did, and carefully investigated.
It was ten times nicer than his own room, though he couldn't fault his—actually, he had no idea who had chosen that house, the defect or his mother. He didn't even know if Namimori was his mother's home city. The room was amazing and he was afraid he might do something rude like annoy Hibari with breathless thank yous and babbling.
He exited the room and quietly said, "Thank you," again, then followed when Hibari strode off after a nod. He was halfway down the stairs before he remembered he really ought to call and let his mother know he would be late. Or very late.
"Kusakabe already called."
Tsuna huffed.
They ended up in the workroom, where Tetsuya had already set things out. Tsuna knelt on the cushion he usually did and poured tea for himself and Tetsuya, then cast an inquiring look at Hibari, who nodded. He poured a third cup and delivered it, then knelt back down so he could sip his.
"I will get started on the paperwork to enroll the three in school," Tetsuya said just as "the three" wandered into the room.
Tsuna shuffled over and pulled an extra cushion out from under the table, so Mukuro had one, and Chikusa and Ken took up the left side with more spare cushions. Tsuna then poured tea and distributed the cups.
Hibari's brow went up.
"Distant relatives," Tetsuya said.
Hibari made a "hn" sound, then gestured at Tsuna.
Tetsuya said, "That would make more sense, yes. I will just need a family name or names."
The trio exchanged looks, then Chikusa said, "We do not particularly look like each other."
"Rokudo," said Mukuro.
"Jōshima," said Ken.
"Kakimoto," said Chikusa.
Tetsuya nodded and jotted down the names.
"I think," Mukuro said slowly, "that I don't know how much we don't know in terms of school."
Tsuna furrowed his brow. It was a wonder they spoke Japanese so fluently. "This term ends mid-December, so there'll be three weeks of break before the next term." What he didn't know is if Hibari would allow them to be alone in the house until third term started, or if they would be enrolled sooner and any issues passed off as simply not being familiar with what and how they learned in Japan.
"If you're enrolled sooner rather than waiting for third term, you would start to gain knowledge of how school … works. Even with native names, you'd be coming from overseas, so no one would expect any of you to fit straight in. And thankfully it's elementary, so the work load isn't that bad. Afternoons spent on training, evenings on catching up. It's what I've been doing since my brain started working right again. And we have another year of elementary, since you'll be enrolled in my year, not Hibari-san and Tetsuya-san's. So long as you're willing to try…"
"For a mostly normal life?" Ken said with a twisted grin. "Yeah."
"You can get the books," he said, glancing at Hibari and Tetsuya, "so that won't be a problem."
"Omnivore. You need to get going. Kusakabe will escort you."
He nodded and hopped up.
Ω
His mother didn't seem particularly fussed over him being so late, and just walked him through the meal she was preparing. Afterward he headed up to his room to flop on his bed. What a day! How the hell was it even possible three strangers could harmonize with him so easily? Were they that desperate for a place to belong? After hearing their story, he supposed he could understand.
They wanted safety and sanctuary. The delicate detail of them technically being mafia would take time to absorb. Tsuna sent up another prayer that it wouldn't come to that in the end, but he still wasn't so foolish as to not prepare toward the day it became a reality to be faced.
He sat back up with a sigh and got started on washing the latest grimy armor, then school work when those were set to dry. The warmth he felt from five connections was soothing, at least.
Ω
Tsuna wasn't the least bit surprised that he did not see Tetsuya. Hibari had been his morning escort, so he presumed that Tetsuya was the one doing to work to get the trio enrolled. His senpai could not be thrilled about having strangers in his house, unsupervised, even if they had harmonized with Tsuna. They would be enrolled and attending as quickly as possible. It was the only thing that made sense.
Hopefully it would not take long for everyone to become comfortable with each other. He did wonder if the trio would have nightmares. He certainly did, and he had not gone through anything so traumatizing as they had.
Lunch was spent with Hibari up on his private section of the roof. It was a comfortable silence.
It was just him and Hibari supervising the student departure at the end of the day, and they headed off to the shrine. Tetsuya and the trio were waiting, and they entered Mementos for their daily training.
As they started roaming on Yokubō no Michi Tetsuya said, "Tsuna-san, expect Mukuro-san, Ken-san, and Chikusa-san to be in your class starting tomorrow. Yours is luckily the smallest of your current year, so it works out."
He nodded. "And I even have empty desks around me." Even with his improving grades and lack of uselessness, most students in his class wanted nothing to do with him. They were far too used to him being someone to ignore or stay away from (so they did not get included as victims by the bullies who had tormented him). How Tetsuya had managed to get valid identification for the three… Well, he wasn't going to ask.
"I imagine if today—or this week—goes well in here, we'll be heading down to the next Path?" he said.
Hibari nodded.
"Which means more new creatures to face. A nice little shake up," he said, feeling rather pleased. Fighting shadows was nothing like fighting a person, but they did get him used to a varied number of attack types. 'Oh, darn it. I forgot to check the interface last night to see what levels they're at,' he thought with a vague pout. 'But if theirs are low, it won't take long to bring them up closer to where we are, especially if we can go down, to shadows which give more experience.'
They soon enough realized that whether someone was rotated into battle or not, they all gained experience, it was just that inactive members only gained about 75%. It was a lot better than nothing, and it meant someone not rotated in due to not having skills applicable to whatever shadows they were fighting would not lag behind even worse.
It also meant that if deeper levels were somewhat beyond the three, they would still continue to level as Tsuna, Hibari, and Tetsuya dealt the main damage.
One of the chained rooms contained a number of chests, and they were lucky enough that there was suitable armor in them, which went to providing more protection for their new members. That meant he could sell the newly-washed armor for being too weak.
The trio seemed to relish the opportunity to beat the stuffing out of the dregs of the collective unconscious, and Tsuna couldn't fault them for it. His own feelings of inadequacy (thankfully far less than they used to be), frustration, anger… Fighting shadows gave him a sense of release from all those negative things, a sense of being in control of what happened to him, which just bled over into outside.
All three of them leveled up, so Tsuna explained as they fought what Fon had said about Sun, Mist, and Rain Flames, though he did not mention the man himself. He did point out that he was told the usage of them was largely a matter of experimentation beyond the base qualities, and then gave them the example of his own flames, and how he had managed to "create" an attack just by getting it firmly set in his mind before trying to do it.
He also stopped trying to censor his thoughts. Mukuro had harmonized with him, so there was no point. If he could read minds, it was just as well if he could tell Tsuna wasn't anything other than what he presented himself as. Okay, well, he was a bit different if he had his flames activated outside, hands and forehead, because that seemed to make anxiety and worry just sheet away like water off a duck's back.
Tsuna did wonder though, if any given Mist's facility with thought reading (assuming they could do it, that is) showed them all the ugly parts of people such that they became a bit paranoid and wary, justifiably so, as opposed to people who could not and had far less in the way of evidence to base opinions on. Either way, he wasn't going to get fussed over Hibari and Mukuro being able to ghost his brain.
Ω
The next morning the trio were introduced to his class as transfers from a foreign country (which country was not specified) and were directed to the empty seats near Tsuna. They were, of course, immediately the subject of many whispered conversations (mostly between the girls in the class, though some of the boys were exchanging loaded looks), and which their homeroom teacher immediately put a stop to because it was taking attention away from the other morning announcements and review of the day's schedule.
The morning went well, and for lunch, Tsuna led the trio off to Hibari's roof. "No one else comes up here," he said quietly as they walked. "Hibari-san claimed it, and no one is stupid enough to challenge him for it. I suppose once he and Tetsuya-san move to middle school next year, it will be ours, and he will have figured out a new one at the middle school. We might have to beat back some usurpers, though."
He could see Ken grin out of the corner of his eye.
"Lunch is usually silent," he added as he opened the door to the stairway, "though I don't think Hibari-san will mind talking so long as we keep the noise level down."
He pushed through the door at the top and took his usual seat, then pulled his lunch out of inventory so he could eat. Hibari and Tetsuya were already there, and the trio took seats near Tsuna, also pulling meals out of inventory.
The afternoon classes went smoothly, though he had to wonder how much of the trio's ease was simply being good at faking it, and then it was time to "supervise" students leaving the grounds. Elementary didn't really have clubs, that was a middle and high school thing. He idly wondered if Hibari knew precisely how many students were enrolled, how many were not present (for things like medical issues), and counted every last one of them to ensure they were all out.
Then it was the shrine and Mementos.
They managed to make it to the end of the week with no issues, so when Saturday rolled around, it was off to the Hibari mansion as soon as the lunch bell rang and the dispersal was complete. Lunch, then they went out back, into a packed dirt area with a low wooden fence.
Tsuna pulled on his fist weapons and set himself, then sparred with Hibari. He was doing pretty good, right up until the point where his senpai pulled a fast one and created an illusionary foe behind him. Just the peripheral sight of a hand coming at him from behind almost sent him into a panic attack, and he was quickly on his back in the dirt, trying to get his breathing under control.
Once he calmed down, Hibari lent a helping hand to pull him up, which he nodded his thanks for. "Right. Dirty trick, but not a bad tactic, especially since it could happen again, and I need to be able to react with something other than panic. I gotta wonder, though, how solid and real-seeming you can get one."
Hibari nodded and looked toward Tetsuya, who stepped up to spar.
Tsuna made his way to the benches on the outskirts and took a seat. He pulled out a water bottle so he could refresh himself as he watched. Hopefully Hibari could spar the PTSD out of him. Not, he thought, that it was especially healthy to just take everything with barely a raised eyebrow, but it would mean he'd react rather than spin off into a blind panic that would see him captured or killed because of who he was related to.
Mukuro got up and came to sit beside him, briefly leaning against him. It was a comforting and quiet method of reassurance.
Ken was up next, once Tetsuya had been beaten, then Chikusa, then Mukuro.
After that it was flames.
Hibari and Tetsuya opened some crates that had been stacked off to the side and removed various materials. "Omnivore. Test your [Sky Laser] attack against these. Find the limits. Also, [Sky Punch]. How much does it protect your hands, and how much damage will it do."
That … made sense. He nodded and got to work, not really paying attention to the others. Once he got a handle on his own abilities he could be more informed, because knowing who could do what meant a lot in the end when it came to coordination, though he still expected Hibari to handle most of that. If Hibari was not present, though, he needed to be able to do it himself.
The following Saturday they sparred again after lunch, but instead of going straight to working with flames, Hibari led them to a building out back that contained exercise equipment. Tsuna was given a lesson on how to use each machine, so he could work on his strength.
Or, as Tetsuya said, "We get plenty of exercise each day, but strength training we do not. It is entirely possible we could use our flames to augment our strength, but perhaps not. Doing things the traditional way therefore makes sense."
Unspoken was if they could do both, they would be that much stronger in a real fight. That is, a fight outside, against other humans.
Things went along at a comfortable pace (though Tsuna was usually quite stiff and sore on Sundays, with most of the former getting worked out through training in Mementos) until the next weird thing.
Break had started, which changed up their schedule. Mornings were spent at the Hibari mansion (where Tsuna had yet to see any evidence whatsoever of parents) going over school work, mostly in terms of getting the trio caught up. After lunch was still training, and then evenings were whatever each wanted to do, which for Tsuna was reading manga, playing video games, leaning Italian, or watching cooking videos in his quest to be able to provide hand-cooked gifts for his little family.
He just had more of them now to figure out what they liked best. He wasn't the sort to normally talk about his feelings. Or talk much, for that matter. But recent events had him talking more than usual, just not normally about feelings. Cooking or baking something and gifting it to those closest to him would say what needed to be said, right?
It was on a Tuesday, while Tetsuya and Ken were escorting him to the Hibari mansion, when Tsuna's intuition spiked and he stopped dead, his head snapping around to the right. He was off like a shot a second later, skidding around a corner to see a red-haired boy about his age being menaced by three boys who looked old enough to be in middle school. The red-head already looked as if he had gone through one beating if the bleeding meant anything.
He didn't even think twice, he just charged in and nailed the closest one, causing the boy to stumble sideways and lose his balance. Tetsuya and Ken arrived seconds later and assisted, not asking questions.
The three bullies were summarily dropped, though Tetsuya took the time to get a good look at their faces. Tsuna went straight for the red-head, to help him up. "Fastest route to the hospital?" he asked. "He needs to be checked."
Tetsuya nodded, glanced at Ken, who moved to support the red-head's other side, then led the way. After the kid was dropped off at reception, along with an explanation of why, the three of them continued their journey to the mansion.
Hibari's brow went up given their tardiness.
"We intervened in a bullying incident," Tetsuya said promptly. "Tsuna-san's intuition triggered, I must assume. He diverted, and when we caught up he was already attacking one of the older boys. The victim looked roughed up and was bleeding. We assisted Tsuna-san, then escorted the victim to the hospital in the event that he had more serious damage than was visible. I did, however, get a good look at the faces of the aggressors. They are first years at the public middle school."
"Victim?"
"Irie Shoichi, our year. Slated for Yumei."
That was the private middle school for boys, if Tsuna was remembering right.
Hibari whipped a laptop out of nowhere and started doing something, so Tsuna set to being helpful to the trio when it came to catching up on the schoolwork they'd never had. He still thought it was amazing they could speak Japanese fluently, and read and write it. Another thing he would not be asking about. You did not gain a person's trust by badgering them for details on things that weren't freely given.
An hour later Hibari shot a look at Tetsuya and got up, and the two of them quit the room for a short time. When they returned it was to interrupt catch-up time with, "Omnivore. We are going to attempt to deal with those three in Mementos," Hibari said, then turned things over to Tetsuya.
"We will launch the website. We know that the Phantom Thieves managed to deal with Shidō, as evidenced by his confession on the eighteenth. Something deeply strange went down on the twenty-fourth, but things have mostly settled since then, as far as I can tell. We are not looking for public approval, so there will be no polls, just the option to submit requests."
"So we could submit the requests on those three, or one for the group," he said. "If they see the website, if there's hype…"
Tetsuya nodded. "In theory it should work the same. We need some kind of symbol, though."
The first thing that came to mind was that blue butterfly with a sparkling trail he had seen back in Tokyo, but perhaps… "A folding fan, but it's really tarot cards in a fan spread, still with the ribs and the pivot at the bottom? Major arcana. Nothing that would point to us directly."
No one voiced an objection, so Tetsuya nodded. "That can be done. Expect the site to be up within the next few days, then. I just have to create that logo."
Sure enough, the site was up in two days. Tetsuya had also set up a VPN on his phone, to block data collection and tracking attempts. It got Tsuna to make a mental note to put his laptop in inventory, just so Tetsuya could do the same for that. He had seen news stories where geolocation data had saved someone from being accused of a crime (they had been nowhere near the scene according to their phone), but he felt better knowing no one could track him that way.
Even if he was kidnapped, he suspected his guardians could follow the connection straight to him. He certainly hoped they could. That, for some reason, made him wonder what he would do if some rando managed to get handcuffs on him, or tied him up with rope to make it easier to drag him off. He instantly regretted that thought when Hibari shot a look at him (so did Mukuro) that promised to find out.
The corners of his mouth dragged down with unhappiness at future lessons that were more than likely to happen. Kami-sama, he needed to start thinking up ways to deal with situations like that, before Hibari had a chance to render him helpless and then look at him expectantly, waiting for him to free himself. Oh, ew, what if they used zip ties? Could he melt those? Without hurting himself? Craft a lockpick out of pure flames? Or a knife?
Tetsuya looked pointedly at his phone, which shook Tsuna out of his thoughts. He went to the website and submitted a request titled "The Bullies Three", their names, and a brief description of what they had been witnessed doing.
Now the trick was to get it talked about to the point where those three bullies would read the message and get nervous.
The biggest hook to the site, odd logo and submissions aside, was the claim that their group (which had no name) was just carrying on the good work of a previous group. No direct mention of the Phantom Thieves, but anyone who paid attention to the news (or gossip lines) would get the point.
Two more days passed and somehow one of them, or several of them (it certainly hadn't been Dame-Tsuna gossiping), had managed to get people talking about the site.
"I have been keeping an eye on the targets," Tetsuya reported. "They have noticed, and they are spooked."
Hibari smirked at the news. "We will look for them today, inside."
They turned out to be on Netami no Michi with its green-tinted lighting. The interface told them that much, as it had suddenly gained an option for Mementos Requests, but it did not specify which level of the path they were on.
Hibari had opted for the safe area at the end of Yokubō no Michi and headed down from there. They fought through everything as normal, and found an anomaly on level seven. It was downright weird.
They all gawked at it for a hot minute. Well, not Hibari, he was too cool for that. The hallway dead-ended with a torii framing the wall, which of course made no sense, but the interior of the torii had a … vortex of sorts, green like the lighting that stained everything, just brighter, that endlessly moved toward the center.
Hibari tapped his thigh with a tonfa, then forged ahead. As always, Tsuna scrambled to follow with his shorter (darn it!) legs, and plowed right into that poisonous green.
Inside was a semi-normal room, if he discounted the venous lines that glowed green like a heartbeat. Up ahead were three figures, those boys, but they were covered up to their waists in black, writhing shadows.
As they got closer Tsuna could hear them talking.
"It's not our fault the kid can't stand up for himself."
"Wimpy little big-brained nerds like that need their egos cut down to size."
"He made it so easy. It's like he was begging for it."
"How can someone stand up for themself when you're so much stronger and don't give them any choice?" he asked, not expecting it to make a difference. "You're quite pathetic, bullying someone weaker than you."
"What…?" the center one said. "So you're gonna gang up on us and be the bullies?"
The three figures suddenly disappeared in a splash of green and black, then reformed as creatures. Specifically, Kin-Ki, Choronzon, and Take-Minakata.
In some ways, it reminded him of the fact that their own footsteps splashed with the colours of their flames, as if they were always moving on a thin sheet of water.
There was no guarantee these versions of shadows would have the same—a glance at the upper left display showed that there was no data, which only supported his theory. Just in case the others hadn't looked he said, "No data. We need to be cautious to start."
Hibari grunted and pointed at Tetsuya and Ken as the other combatants to start.
Tsuna went first, due to his intuition-driven agility, and used [Magarula], which only proved they were all neutral to Wind. Hibari used [Psy Break], Tetsuya used [Swift Strike], presumably to show the reaction for all three to Physical, and Ken [Tarunda] to drop their ATK.
After a few turns, in which Hibari took full advantage of Psy attacks, and Tsuna of his ability to swap Personas each turn in order to try new elements to see what they were weak to, they had the data filled and knew exactly how to destroy them.
It took little effort after that, and the three splashed out and reformed as hunched-over human figures with those black shadows writhing around them. They began talking again.
"We had to," one insisted. "We were bullied, we had to be stronger than that!"
Everyone exchanged confused looks.
"What the hell?" Ken said. "That don't make no sense!"
"This is what you call standing up for yourselves?" Mukuro said accusingly. "You were bullied, so you became the bullies?"
"You had best apologize to your victim," Tsuna said, "and stop bullying others, or we'll be seeing you here again."
"Y-Yes," the center one said.
All three of them splashed out in a sparkle of white, leaving behind a restlessly shifting sphere at about chest height. Tsuna reached out and grabbed it. The sphere disappeared, and in his hand was a Life Stone.
"Not much of a reward," Tetsuya said, "but that isn't the point, is it."
"Now we just need to see if they actually do apologize to Irie-san," Mukuro said.
"For now, we continue to train," Hibari pronounced, then did an about-face and prowled off, back through the portal.
In the days following, Tsuna started noticing that Irie kept popping up in his peripheral vision, but the boy never made an attempt to talk to him. He brought it up before school started again.
"He made the connection?" Mukuro said. "You save him, question marks, and then his bullies apologize. They said he was smart."
"Any thoughts on a response should he work up the courage to talk to me?" he asked as he leaned on his intuition. It seemed to be vaguely favorable toward Irie? In what sense, though, he couldn't tell.
Tetsuya said, "If he's figured it out and we haven't heard any gossip about it…"
"Well, what can we find out about this kid besides he's 'smart'?" Ken asked. "Maybe he'd be useful for somethin'?"
"That would depend on what kind of 'smart' he is," Chikusa opined.
"We'll see if he talks," he said. "If he does, we can discuss it again, and decide on a response. Sound good?"
Everyone nodded. Well, Hibari just shot him a look that said he approved the plan, but that was as good as a nod.
Ω
Irie must have decided that the odds of getting anywhere near Tsuna without anyone else around was nil, so he approached him, looking warily at Tsuna's escort (despite Ken having been one of the people who came to the rescue), and said, "Um… Can we … t-talk?"
Chikusa immediately said, "I'll let the others know you'll be a little late," then disappeared off toward the door to the stairway.
Ken and Mukuro stepped far enough away so as to ostensibly not be able to hear (except for the part where Mukuro could read minds, and Ken's hearing was superhuman due to what had been done to him), leaving Tsuna with Irie.
"Uh, yeah, I'm Irie Shoichi."
He nodded, which in retrospect was as good as admitting something he hadn't planned to. Or maybe it would be taken as acknowledgment of hearing what was said. "Sawada Tsunayoshi."
"I wanted t-to, well… I mean, t-thank you."
Tsuna blinked and tilted his head to the side in a vague approximation of confusion. "Okay…?"
Irie did his own blink. "You… You d-dealt with t-those … guys."
Tsuna let a long moment pass before he let recognition cross his face. "Oh! Right. Those guys. The bullies. Yeah, I don't like bullies. I've had far too many come after me. I saw what was happening and just … you know … helped."
Irie let a long moment pass, an odd look flashing by, as if he wasn't quite expecting that response. He pressed a hand to his stomach and said, "Right, yeah, for t-that, t-too."
Tsuna was, against all reason, starting to feel amused, so he bit his lip to prevent himself from smiling. Once the urge passed he said, "Uh…?" Like he didn't know exactly what Irie was talking about.
Irie huffed quietly. "I won't t-tell anyone. I just… You helped. I just wish I could … pay you back somehow."
Still doing his best to look innocently confused, he said, "…If I think of something, I'll tell you?"
Irie nodded. "Okay. Uh, bye." He nodded and scurried off.
Tsuna watched him go, then turned around and met up with Ken and Mukuro, then continued on to the roof.
As soon as they seated, Mukuro cackled quietly. "That was lovely."
No more was said until they hit Mementos, and at that, it was Hibari raising a brow at him.
He shrugged. "He strongly implied that yes, he's made the connection, and suspects at least me of somehow getting those bullies to apologize. I was the one to show up first, after all. And the first to move to help him as soon as they were down, and talk about the hospital. Anyway, yeah. He said he wished he could pay me back somehow."
Hibari looked contemplative, shot Tetsuya a look, then teleported everyone to Ikari no Michi.
Tsuna was leveling faster than everyone else, simply by virtue of always being in the active party, so he had already hit level forty-six and was closing in on forty-seven.
He found out the next day in Mementos what that look had been about when Tetsuya reported, "Irie appears to be quite skilled with engineering and robotics, though he seems to be somewhat inclined toward being a musician."
Huh. He wondered if there were other things, things that simply weren't evident because the boy did them very quietly.
It wasn't until the next class trip that he spoke to Irie again. That one was to Kyoto, to the Imperial Palace, and it involved both fifth and sixth years. Tsuna's little family discreetly moved a distance away, so as to preserve the illusion of privacy.
"Hello, Irie-san," Tsuna greeted.
"Sawada-san. …How are you?"
He smiled. "I am well. You?"
Irie ducked his head for a moment. "No t-troubles lately."
"That's good," he said, admiring the architecture.
"How d-did you even…?"
He turned to look at Irie for a moment, then back to the palace.
"I mean, you just charged in and hit t-that guy. You were…"
"…Oh," he said, as if in sudden realization. "Yeah, I do have that unfortunate reputation, don't I."
"T-That's not … what I meant," Irie said. "You were so brave. You d-didn't even hesitate."
Tsuna turned to face Irie. "Like I said, I don't like bullies. I've had far too many beating on me. I finally gained the courage to stand up to one, and it's gone a lot better since then."
"And you … have friends now."
He wondered where that was headed, the statement. "I guess it's not really a surprise that transfer students who ended up sitting near me decided to give me a chance. They wouldn't know my reputation, and everyone else was whispering about them. It was rather creepy."
"Well, t-there's also…"
He nodded. "Hibari-san and Tetsuya-san. Hibari-san doesn't like crowding, or bullying, or … a lot of things. He's helped me out more than once, sometimes calls me 'small animal'." He smiled softly, mostly because being called that no longer irritated him the way it had.
The stilted conversation came to an end when their homeroom teachers called for everyone to assemble. Irie ducked away after a parting nod, and Tsuna rejoined his friends.
Hibari and Tetsuya stuck together, always standing apart from their yearmates, and Tsuna did the same with the trio. But he did notice Tetsuya pull out his phone and waggle it slightly as he eyed Tsuna, so he waited for an opportune moment and checked the website.
There was a request regarding a customer who was harassing the employee of a store. The details stated that he had a crush on the girl and kept asking for her phone number. There wasn't a name, but it did say which store and give enough clues to figure out who the girl was, which meant finding out who the harasser was should be simple enough.
Perhaps the girl herself had submitted it, or maybe it was a co-worker, or just a customer who had seen it happen too many times. They might not have believed the request would come to anything, but the more they did…
The class trip would have been very lonely were it not for Mukuro, Chikusa, and Ken. They all had fun examining the architecture and the design elements of the palace, even the surrounds. The trip back featured chatter about that, nothing anyone could overhear and wonder about.
Of course, by the time they did arrive in Namimori, he had to hasten off home for dinner. And, without a way (yet?) to secure his bedroom against his mother hearing things, he couldn't use his laptop to video conference with his little family and talk about the request.
They got school out of the way the next day, supervised as always the departure of the students, and headed to the shrine. As they were climbing the steps he said, "I'm starting to wonder if we should—well, when there are requests—discuss things at your house, Hibari-san, then do the investigation on it. Especially if more than one came in. Unless Tetsuya-san has figured out how to tap into the security cameras in various places."
"I've been trying," Tetsuya admitted. "It's not exactly my thing."
He laughed softly. "So do we go investigate now, or train, and then handle it tomorrow?"
"It would look odd for so many of us to haunt that store," Chikusa said. "It's a tofu shop. That doesn't take six people."
"Perhaps a compromise?" Mukuro suggested. "Two of us go investigate, then return here and enter, meet up, and hopefully take care of the shadow self."
Hibari nodded. "Rokudo and Kakimoto."
Those two nodded and headed back down the steps. The rest of them entered Mementos.
"If nothing else," he said with a shrug, "even though they'll join a bit later, we'll all still leave at the same time."
"Should we do another test, just in case?" Tetsuya said. "Two of us head down to one of the Paths, and the remaining two see if they can tell which level we're on? If they can, they can join us. And then we all go to to Ikari no Michi as always."
Hibari started to nod, then paused. "Teleport takes everyone."
Tetsuya frowned. "We could always test it tomorrow by half of us going in, heading to a random Path, then the rest enter and check. If it's not possible, we can just meet up at Ikari no Michi.
Hibari nodded, then teleported them all down to start training. They were lucky enough, when Mukuro and Chikusa joined them, that the man in question had been present, and Mukuro had been able to get his name. How, Tsuna wasn't sure, maybe ghosting, but that was beside the point. And spook him.
The interface map showed the target was somewhere in Yokubō no Michi, so they teleported to the end of Don'yoku no Michi and headed down the staircase. They found him, annoyingly enough, on the final level before the rest area, and it was more of the same, hunting down a dead end with the creepy vortex (indigo this time) in a torii that shouldn't be there.
"Geez, I don't get why she just won't give it to me," the shadowy figure said. "I'm a nice guy, she should be honored I'm asking for her number."
Tsuna's nose wrinkled. "That's not how it works."
The figure scoffed. "Nice guys like me should get all the ladies. Women exist to make us happy. A man's got needs."
Actually, he was starting to become horrified, because this guy's shadow sounded like a rapist in the making. "No means no."
"She's just playing hard to get, probably wants some expensive presents before she'll give it up."
Tsuna looked helplessly at his friends in the face of such delusion.
"Omnivore," Hibari said, packing a wealth of meaning into that single word.
He nodded and advanced. He wasn't even old enough to truly understand what went on between two people in that way, but even he could see that what this man was doing was wrong. So they beat the stuffing out of him after figuring out what his creature-form's weaknesses were.
"I'm just … lonely," the figure said. "I think she's pretty."
"Apologize to her," he said firmly, "and leave her alone. You need to stop taking no as encouragement. No means no."
"Y-Yeah…" The figure splashed out in white and indigo, then resolved into a white sphere at chest height.
Tsuna nabbed it; it was Hole Gold. More vendor trash. "At least someone did submit a request," he said.
The following week they got another one, regarding a mother who was refusing to provide or pay for her child's school lunches. The description alone made it plain the kid had to be in middle school or higher, because the lower years of elementary provided lunch—it was a whole thing regarding equality and responsibility, rather like cleaning the school—and the upper years gave students a choice to eat school-provided food or what they brought in. Middle and high school was more like the upper two years of elementary, with the addition of having to pay for lunch if you went to the cafeteria. That the woman refused to provide or pay indicated that she expected her child to have a job to afford it.
However, whoever submitted the request had included the woman's name. Her shadow was found on Don'Yoku no Michi and summarily wailed on.
Tsuna thought she sounded like a narcissist after listening to what her shadow self said in Mementos. Well, that and she had clearly never wanted a child in the first place and resented having one.
It was third week in February before Irie approached him again. He showed up at the front gates while they were supervising student dispersal, but when Tsuna moved to walk some distance away for privacy, Irie shook his head.
A glance at Hibari showed him his senpai looked almost amused, so Tsuna nodded at Irie and said nothing. After their "duty" was done, Hibari stalked off toward the shrine, and just no one said anything about Irie tagging along.
Hibari stood a fair distance from the tōrō when he said, simply, "Omnivore."
"Right. Hello, Irie-san."
"Oh, you can call me Shoichi," Irie said nervously.
"Tsuna, then," he said graciously. "You are…?"
"I said I wouldn't t-tell, and I still won't. I could help."
"Er, how?" he asked. He knew the boy was very smart, but…
"The website, for one," Shoichi said obligingly. "And t-tracking people d-down. I know of one who could use a … visit. A kid who pirates video games. But I wouldn't just expect any of you would know how to find him."
'Well, he's being awfully candid,' he thought, leaning on his intuition to get some kind of clue how to proceed. The result was favorable, so he looked at Hibari, trying to convey that, and Hibari nodded after a long moment. 'Should we bring him inside Mementos?' he asked in his thoughts.
Mukuro and Hibari shot an assessing look at Shoichi, who startled under their regard. Then those two looked at each other for a long moment, and finally, Hibari nodded. The entire group moved over to the tōrō, Shoichi scrambling to catch up after the abrupt change in positioning, and shrieked like the damned when Hibari brought them inside.
Shoichi shrieked again when he saw their costumes and flaming masks.
"If you want to be involved, well," he said, "you will be fully involved."
As he watched Shoichi take a closer look at their costumes, he realized (because he had never put much thought into it) that while the base look resembled Joker's costume, they had something of Hibari in them, too. Their vests, while still having the same detailing he could see of Joker's, were not grey, they were the same colour as their flames, just not so vivid. The long coats they wore were black and flapped as they walked (much like the sleeves of Hibari's jacket, just along the split length), but after talk of a Disciplinary Committee had come up, they had all gained an armband on the left arm, again with colours that spoke of their flame types.
Tsuna had every expectation that once it was formed on the outside, every normal member would have one, though probably not in one of the colours of the Flames of the Sky. Brown, perhaps? Or just the black and white crest of the middle school?
With the expectation that the kid would successfully go through what they had he wanted to buy gear right away, but they had no idea what he would be suited for. And without actually transforming, he expected one of the blank tabs would not fill in. It had probably only worked for Tetsuya because Hibari had known what weapon he used.
Shoichi stuttered his way through an, "Okay."
"Fair warning," he said. "It won't be easy. You'll probably hate what it takes. But once it's over? It's fine. You'll learn how to stand up for yourself, and know that people have your back." He tilted his head toward the stairway, then headed off down them, the others following.
It took a few minutes for Shoichi to creep down the stairs behind them, looking entirely weirded out by the circumstances. He shrieked again when a shadow lurched into view.
"That is what you'll need to face." He really hoped it was just one shadow. Shoichi seemed entirely too anxious and easily startled. Rather like he had been, just without the clumsiness and artificially-enforced limitations on his mind and body.
Shoichi clutched at his stomach with one hand, his expression that of a person who was walking to his death. And really? As much as Tsuna wanted to reassure him that they would save his life if it came to it, the genuine fear of death was a trigger.
The boy didn't get a choice in the end, because the shadow made a bee-line for him and attacked. The usual mask appeared, the struggle with despair and denial against a presumably taunting, gloating voice, and the ripping away of those limitations. Shoichi's mask was yellow, like Ken's.
Shoichi went straight for [Agi], which, good, as he was facing a Mandrake. He came out victorious, so Tsuna slowly approached him. Shoichi turned in his direction, but then got distracted by his new costume and that yellow flames were shifting quietly around his eyes.
"Uh, wow?" Shoichi said. "I see what you mean, now."
"First thing, we need to get you set up with gear. We do have some spare armor, but you'll need weapons and an accessory. So let's head back up briefly."
The gun and accessory were easy, it was the weapon that made Tsuna gawk. It was an honest to kami light saber. Which, okay? Shoichi was a nerd, apparently, and there was nothing wrong with that. Tsuna fully expected the blade to be yellow. When he handed all three over to Shoichi, it was almost predictable that the boy would shriek quietly over holding a gun in his hand.
He shrugged. "The gun is a toy on the outside. I would expect that light saber to be either non-functional, or more like a normal one. It's hard to say."
"Where … are we? What is this?"
"Ah, well, that's a thing. The short version of it is that this place, Mementos, represents the collective unconscious of Namimori, as best I can tell. What you just fought is an example of the negative, uh, emotions or desires of people? But more than that, we can find shadow selves down here. One example of that is the shadow selves of those three boys who were bullying you. We found them in here, fought and defeated them, and, well, kind of ordered them to apologize to you and change their ways."
"Yeah, they did. Apologize, I mean."
It was interesting that Shoichi did not seem to stutter while in costume.
"We come here to train, and also to deal with any requests that can be verified. So what's this about a kid pirating video games? Actually, wait, it'd need to be submitted. The kid would need to actually see that request for this to work. We're pretty sure, anyway. So, let's train instead. Oh, and expect to see some really weird stuff in here."
Hibari took that as license to teleport them all to the safe area at the end of Guratsuki no Michi, then walk down into Ikari no Michi. Before they went for the first shadow Tsuna said, "Watch for the moment. You'll get experience either way. Once you've adjusted a bit, you can be swapped in as an active fighter."
They made it to the end with no issues, gathering up random vendor trash, and at the end, in the safe area, they found the stairway down was still blocked.
Tsuna looked at the others in confusion. "I don't get it."
"Perhaps," Mukuro said, "it did not because Irie-san is similar to Ken, and he already…"
"Huh… Maybe that is it." The only guardian he was missing was Lightning, and maybe that connection is what would open the way. "I wonder if that means there are only seven Paths total."
"Still plenty of levels, though," Tetsuya said, "and good enough to train on."
He nodded. "Well."
Hibari stalked off again, in search of more prey. They went up to the first level of Ikari no Michi, then back down, stopping to rest at the bottom.
"Questions so far?" he asked Shoichi.
"The shadow selves?"
"I think they represent the unconscious mind of the person in question. When we first found the three who bullied you, they said some derogatory stuff, like you should be able to stand up for yourself, that you made it easy and were asking for it, and that intelligent people should be cut down to size. But after we defeated them, they said they'd been bullied, too, and they had to be stronger."
Shoichi frowned. "So they became bullies?"
"That was basically how Ken-san and Mukuro-san reacted," he said.
Mukuro shook his head. "Can I ask that we dispense with the honorifics in here?"
Tsuna blinked. It made sense coming from a foreigner, but it went against everything he knew, because while they were most certainly getting closer, they weren't yet close enough to show that level of familiarity.
"You said they called their leader Joker, like a code name," Mukuro went on. "So… If it makes it easier, go by weapon type? Though calling you Fist sounds perverted."
Tsuna went red and ducked his head.
"Cestus would work, though."
Hibari said, "No."
Mukuro held up his hands. "Okay."
Tsuna coughed. "Anyway. What Path a shadow self is on seems at least vaguely linked to the kind of sin. So the pirate you mentioned might end up on Don'yoku no Michi. Doesn't matter terribly much. The interface shows us which Path to check."
"How did you even get into all this?" Shoichi asked before biting into his onigiri.
"Because I wanted the Phantom Thieves to target someone. But because the target was outside the country, it wouldn't work. And since I was too close when they went into the Mementos of Tokyo, I got pulled in. Then I went looking for one here."
Shoichi opened his mouth, then closed it. Probably to not ask a too personal question he thought better of.
"Maybe once we get to know each other better. What did you mean about the website?"
"Oh, er, I mean, it works? But it could be tightened up a little. Measures put in place so that submissions are truly anonymous. Or even the more damning details hidden except to the administrator."
"I take it you understand that sort of thing, how to do them," he said.
"It's more that I have experience with programming," Shoichi admitted. "But websites are a type of programming. Which kind depends on how the pages are constructed, whether it's…"
He and the others listened to Shoichi ramble on for a while about XHTML, CSS, PHP, and a number of other acronyms that meant nothing to him (though Tetsuya clearly understand parts of it).
Once Shoichi wound down, Hibari got them all moving again, back to training. Shoichi was still a bit nervy when he was swapped in for battle, but the more they did, the more confident he became. He still made startled noises over certain shadows—because some of them were really messed up in appearance—but Shoichi was coming along just fine.
They eventually started the journey upward, nabbing all the vendor trash on the way (and yet another load of grimy armor for him to wash). Before they left he said, "Oh, right. We always leave in time for dinner. Doesn't matter if it felt like we've been in here for way longer than should be possible, when we leave, it's just about time for dinner. I don't pretend to understand. Also, Saturdays and Sundays are different, but we'll get on to that tomorrow."
After exiting, on the way down the steps from the shrine, Tetsuya slipped Shoichi a phone number.