The next day Shoichi turned up at the gates again. Which, good. Though Tsuna expected that had he not, Hibari would likely have hunted him down to bite him to death before dragging him off to the others. Once all the students had left, they all went to the Hibari mansion.
Shoichi seemed just as awed by the place as Tsuna had been, and amazed at how much land was included in the property.
"We spar on Saturdays, amongst other things," he said before he moved onto the packed dirt "field" to face Hibari, taking a moment to retrieve and wear his fist weapons. He was on the alert for any tricks with illusionary kidnapper-types, though it didn't stop him from near panicking when it happened again, about mid-way through, but he kicked back and hit nothing, then tried to continue as if nothing had happened.
He still lost, of course, but Hibari extended a hand to help him up off the dirt, gave him an approving nod, then switched focus to Tetsuya. Tsuna grabbed a seat on one of the benches and pulled out some water to sip.
"T-that looks … scary," Shoichi said.
"When I finally felt strong enough, I practically demanded a spar from Hibari-san."
Shoichi turned a surprised look on him. "T-to…"
He shrugged. "I wanted his help, with Mementos. I needed to prove I wasn't useless, right? I did well enough that he was willing to humor me. He brought in Tetsuya-san. They eventually came to the conclusion that we get plenty of exercise just running around Mementos, but strength training was a good idea, too, and sparring. Because fighting another human isn't anything like fighting shadows."
"And t-that illusion person? I guess t-that was illusion? I'm t-trying t-to figure out how he did t-that."
Tsuna shifted on the bench so he could more easily look at Shoichi. "Kidnapping attempt. We left after training one day, and a man came up behind us. He grabbed me and started to drag me away. I nearly lost my head, but I was able to kick backward hard enough to get him to let go.
"And then the three of us, as Hibari-san would put it, bit him to death. Tetsuya-san escorted me home, then went back so they could deliver the man to the police and report what happened. The first time Hibari-san did that fake-out from behind, I nearly wet myself in fear. But he was right to do it. I need to be able to not panic should that happen again for real."
Shoichi's face was the picture of shock. "But why would someone t-try to kidnap you?"
He shrugged again. "We can't know for sure," he said, deliberately avoiding talk of the mafia, or even how Hibari had produced the illusion. "But it happened. The man said he'd get good money because of me."
Shoichi went pale. "Human t-trafficking!? T-that's a real t-thing?"
"I imagine there are a lot of nasty things we don't want to be real that are," he said vaguely. "Makes me wish we had lots of barely noticeable cameras we could put up around town, so we'd know when strangers enter Namimori. None of us has a clue how those'd work, or monitoring them. Namimori isn't exactly tiny. It doesn't sound feasible, because even if we could, who would be watching all those monitors? Who could know every single face in Namimori to recognize a stranger?"
He paused. "Oh, uh, it's your turn," he said, tilting his head toward Hibari.
Shoichi went even paler, somehow, then shakily got up and trudged toward his doom.
Tsuna watched, curiosity at the forefront, and nodded when Shoichi was able to produce his saber. It didn't glow, the blade wasn't made of light, but it was still a functional weapon. Needless to say, Shoichi did not last long and was shortly enough flat on his back, panting for breath.
Interestingly, Hibari did not offer him a hand up. He wondered why.
Shoichi stumbled back to the bench and sat down heavily, so Tsuna produced another bottle of water to hand over.
"Good job."
Shoichi practically fumbled the cap onto the ground in his surprise. "Good?"
"Yeah. You sparred with the 'demon' of Namimori, you tried to hold your own, and you came out of it still conscious. So, good job. I would say it's harder to spar with a saber, and I think it is, but Mukuro-san seems to delight in his trident," he said, nodding toward the field.
Shoichi sipped his water as he got his breathing back under control, and watched the spar.
Mukuro was using that trident like it was a part of his body. The boy was smiling as they faced off! Tsuna still wondered how in kami's name Mukuro had learned to use the thing.
Once every spar was done, Tsuna got up and dusted the dirt off his clothes, then went inside with the others to clean up a little. Tetsuya disappeared to go fetch food, then returned with a serving cart. If nothing else, the exercise made for a good appetite.
Shoichi and Tetsuya sort of huddled together and spoke quietly.
'Talking about the website?' he wondered, then said, "I suppose at some point, we should all be sparring each other."
What he didn't say, and shouldn't need to, was that bullies were one thing, and that he had been lucky so far only having faced people using their fists. But someone was eventually going to use a knife, or a pipe, or some other weapon, and they needed to know how to fight against something other than fists or Hibari's tonfa. And that wasn't even covering more mafia people showing up, which he wouldn't say a word about around Shoichi until and unless something happened to prompt such a disclosure.
Hibari nodded approvingly.
He realized that meant they couldn't work on their flames on Sundays, not until Shoichi gained his in Mementos. And then was eased into the whole mafia thing.
"We could draw names or tiles," Tetsuya said. "We are an uneven number, but we'll figure it out. Perhaps a bye, and in the second round, whoever had that is the one to pick an opponent. It would depend on how many rounds of sparring we did. Everyone should get some practice either way."
Realistically, they should be doing strength training at least three times a week, but unless they could haul those machines into Mementos itself…
Ω
Tetsuya and Mukuro came to escort him the next morning. "You sent a reminder to Shoichi-san?"
Tetsuya nodded. "He will join us. Or be hunted down. Whichever."
He laughed softly at the sudden mental image of a shrieking Shoichi being chased through the city by Hibari. At the mansion, instead of going to the workroom, he went with Tetsuya to the kitchen (he finally got to see it!) to get supplies and then deliver them.
He was still working on learning how to pick locks, but he was just about there. They really did need more than one person who could do it. It helped that Chikusa and Ken had also decided to learn. His efforts had reached the point of about ninety-five percent success. He would need to get on with trying to make a pick with just his flames.
Tetsuya and Shoichi were talking quietly again while looking at a laptop, presumably about the website, which reminded him of—
"Did you make a submission about the pirate, Shoichi-san?"
Shoichi looked up. "Yes, I d-did. I only found him because I noticed him on t-the web, and t-tracked his activities. He has the money for purchase, he just seems t-to find it amusing or t-thrilling to pirate the games instead. And t-that hurts people."
"Then we can handle—well, no. We don't know if he's seen the request." He bit his lip as he tried to finagle the lock he had. "Hopefully in the next few days."
Shoichi coughed, which made him look back up. "Uh, well… I could push t-that."
"How do you mean?" Chikusa asked.
"I know where he is on t-the web. I could easily make sure he sees … gossip … t-that he's been t-targeted. And I know how to piggyback the camera on his machine to see when he notices. I had to backtrack him t-to get proof of t-the pirated games, so I know he has a laptop. And while I can't t-tell if he made external copies—like, burned t-them to d-discs—I could verify after t-the fact t-that he d-deletes from his laptop."
A look was exchanged while that sank in. While looking at Hibari he thought, 'It's a risk, but if he can do things like that, it's very valuable. He might actually be able to get hard data on Vongola and CEDEF. Well, assuming he can be brought in fully. He could potentially warn us the next time the defect is coming for a visit.'
Hibari inclined his head after a few seconds.
"Okay, see what you can do."
Shoichi pulled a laptop out of inventory and woke it up, then started tapping away, checking something on the existing one before really becoming focused.
'Hooking into the wifi here?' he wondered, then went back to his task. He succeeded a few moments later, and sat straight with a satisfied sigh. He took a moment to refresh himself with some tea, then started in on the next lock.
It was getting close to when they would have lunch when Shoichi spoke up again. "Got him. He's seen t-the request and he's looking worried."
Hibari looked pleased, and Tsuna certainly was. And he could already tell what Hibari would say, so he said it for him. "Then we'll look for him after lunch."
And for that he went with Tetsuya again, so he could help prepare it. There was no point in learning how to cook from his mother if he wasn't going to actually cook. Tetsuya was glad for the assistance, and between them they got the meal ready much faster. He even personally made hamburger steak for Hibari, and just hoped he liked it.
He did.
Hibari gave one of those looks he couldn't decipher, but he also got a slight up-quirk of the lips, so he counted it as good.
The target, once they entered Mementos, was on Don'yoku no Michi, which rather made sense. It took no time at all, relatively speaking, to find the dead end vortex to his little hidey-hole. That fellow, as it turned out, was of the opinion that he wanted the games, so he should have them, and yet still have his money available to buy things that weren't just bits and bytes. And since it was possible, why not?
The boy didn't seem to understand the results of his actions, but after his defeat, his shadow self was subjected to a long lecture from Shoichi about what kind of harm it caused, to many people who were just trying to make an honest living and provide entertainment.
That shadow self left behind a skill card. Which, what? A baffled Tsuna examined the thing to see that it would teach any of his Personas [Triple Down], which would hit all foes thrice, with light gun damage. "Interesting. I had no idea stuff like this was a thing," he said, then explained what it was to the others.
"I imagine if a Persona has no free slots, it would replace one," Chikusa said.
"Yeah, I expect so. I've already seen that when fusing them together. I have to choose which skills the new Persona will inherit, and sometimes which ones to replace."
Hibari clearly thought that was enough talking and prowled off toward the exit back to Mementos proper. However, Shoichi asked to look at the card, and fumbled taking it, pressing his fingers against Tsuna's hand.
[Tsunayoshi and Shoichi have achieved Harmonization] was followed by [Shoichi is now the Secondary Sun Guardian of Tsunayoshi] and [Tsunayoshi has achieved Level 53].
Tsuna blinked as Shoichi had a mild freak out. Hibari turned back, curiosity in his gaze.
"Secondary?" Ken said. "What the hell, yo? Why is that a thing?"
Tsuna let out a helpless sort of sigh and shrugged. "As usual, I have no idea. That didn't come up in that conversation," he said as he shot a look at Hibari.
"What is this feeling?" Shoichi breathed. "Please tell me this isn't like the red string of fate."
Tsuna laughed and shook his head. "No, no. Not that. I wasn't expecting this at all, but I won't say I'm sorry. You're stuck with us now."
"Like having friends is a bad thing?" Shoichi muttered.
He laughed again, softly. "We come with baggage, though, but that can wait until we're ready to leave." He held up the card that Shoichi had been trying to take. The picture on it was simple, three Gun symbols, with a title at the bottom for the skill name. He could only assume that poking around in the interface would show him it could be used. And that assumed there was a Persona he wanted to add it to.
Shoichi took it to examine it more closely, then handed it back. "Oh, I leveled up. I have something called [Sun Flames] now."
He nodded. "I'll explain what I can, though talking to Ken-san may help with ideas. He has that, too."
Ω
Shoichi, predictably, had a freak out when the mafia connection was mentioned, but then he got weirdly focused. He looked ready to whip out his laptop and start poking around, except electronics did not work inside to his knowledge.
"So it's a maybe," Shoichi said. "A likely maybe, but still a maybe. And your … father, he's one of them."
He nodded. "I was quite unhappy when I found out." He would have to find some alone time with Shoichi so he could fill him in on why he loathed the defect. Shoichi deserved to know, now that he was truly one of them, why it had all started. Shoichi knowing how the sealing of his flames had really messed him up, the awful things the defect had subjected him to, would paint a vivid picture of why he was so wary of the man and wanted him out of their lives.
"Next Sunday," he said. "There are things you need to know, but I doubt the others would want to listen to it all again."
Shoichi just nodded, not pushing.
The week itself went normally. School, Mementos, washing and homework and "me time" in the evenings. When Sunday rolled around, after he arrived at the mansion, he excused himself and Shoichi and went to the room set aside for himself.
Shoichi was appropriately awed at the luxury, and took a seat when offered.
"So." He frowned. "Right. Back when I was five…" The explanation of his flames being sealed sent Shoichi into a cold sweat, but his explanation of his father's usual modus operandi while at home made him look actively ill.
Really, how would any sane person react to a man who harmed his own son while "playing", laughed about it, got him blackout drunk on "magic water" that was forced on him, and then laughed some more. On top of that, eating enough food for ten men at any sitting, wandering around in his underwear, and … well. Bodily functions should stay mostly private, right? Geez.
Either way, Shoichi was appropriately horrified and, not so oddly, resolved.
They rejoined the others and, since Shoichi was aware of flames (and even that he himself had them), Tsuna decided to see if he could use his own to create functional lockpicks on the fly. And if he could do that, he needed to try for a knife, because he just knew at some point Hibari was going to ambush him, tie him up, then stand back and wait for him to rescue himself.
That Hibari snorted softly as soon he thought that just strengthened his resolve to get this to work.
Ω
Hibari did, of course. Tsuna was foolish enough not to expect it so soon. During their Saturday spar he was completely taken off guard when illusionary ropes (and not another fake kidnapper coming at him from behind) wrapped around him and he tumbled to the ground.
Hibari smirked at him, then bent down to pick him up (in a princess carry, damn it!) and set him off to the side, where he would be in no danger from the following spars. Hibari then placed a set of actual handcuffs on him, removed the ropes, and called Ken onto the field.
Tsuna huffed.
Then he got to work. He had made progress with a pick made of flames, now he just had to finalize it. Sure, he would be set free if he could not manage it, but that would be rather shameful. He had managed to create [Sky Laser] just by visualizing what he wanted and believing.
So he focused. Within a minute he had a lockpick in his hand. It was then that the sheer awkwardness of his situation impinged on his awareness. He sighed and maneuvered the pick into the lock of the left-hand cuff, and tried to manipulate the interior as he had been taught.
It took until mid-way of the first round of spars before he heard that sweet click and the cuff released. He grinned at his success, then sobered at how long it had taken him to manage it. Clearly, he would need to get faster.
Now that his hands were no longer chained so close together he could maneuver more easily, but getting the other cuff off… Well, he was right-handed, and that would make things twice as hard. He was still working on the right cuff when Hibari directed the start of round two of sparring, this time not always against himself.
It took him through to the conclusion of that round to finally get that sweet click. He was free! Tsuna flopped back and exhaled. He definitely needed to get faster. And—no, he wasn't even going to think that thought.
Hibari wandered over to offer a hand up, and he took it, seeing as he did that his senpai had an approving gleam in his eyes. Tsuna quirked his mouth in an almost smile. "Very sneaky."
Hibari's brow went up briefly, as if saying, "What did you expect?" His hand was released before Hibari turned to lead the way to lunch before the shrine for the second half of their training, in Mementos.
Tsuna, to his irritation, was hit with [Bufudyne] by a Byakko during one of their fights, and inflicted with the Freeze ailment. Being frozen like that was sort of terrifying, being completely unable to move, to defend himself, and to know he could shatter should one of the shadows get in a physical hit on him.
It also burned.
Ken promptly fixed the status ailment, which he was grateful for, but it stuck in his mind. Ice could be so cold that it burned.
Flames were like fire, except theirs did not burn the ones who wielded them. If ice could be so cold that it burned, could fire be so hot it froze? It sounded ludicrous, but…
He was going to have to think about that pretty hard. Visualizing it was one thing. Understanding what—he stopped. Wait, was that what had happened to him?
"Guys?" he said once the battle was over. "I need a second opinion here. I was just thinking that if ice can be so cold that it burns, what if fire can be so hot that it freezes, and could I do that. But then, I was reminded of what happened to me, when my flames were sealed. I was always too cold."
"So instead of sealing your flames," Ken said, "it was more like freezin' 'em?"
"Yeah? It took a while before things normalized, and I didn't have anyone to talk to back then, when they were first unsealed. Just at some point I realized I was no longer cold all the time. Other stuff, like no longer being clumsy and my brain working so much better, those were super obvious, but not the cold."
"I don't see why you can't try," Tetsuya said. "In fact, if it is possible… Well, if another mafia kidnapper shows up, or an assassin, you could in theory freeze them in their tracks. The old man has Sky Flames, like yours. If he can do it, why can't you?"
Everyone looked game for that, which made Tsuna feel so happy. His little family never for a second thought he would use a technique like that against them, so they were all for the idea. "Okay. I'll have to put some deep thought into it."
"Well, I've noticed somethin'," Ken said. "Like, the difference in my flames when I use 'em to heal rather than harm. I dunno, I don't get how to explain it."
Of course, Mukuro could see into people's heads, so he chimed in with, "The softer flames of healing versus the harder flames of harm. There are other things that are so cold they burn as they freeze, not so unlike the Freeze ailment. If there are soft and hard flames, there might also be positive and negative flames?"
Huh… That was an interesting way to look at it.
Unfortunately, another shadow lurched in spoiling for a fight, so contemplation of that had to wait.
Also, that exams were coming up, so he had a lot of studying to do for those. He wanted to do well. All his evenings for the next two weeks would be taken up with that. The schedule should be up on the bulletin board at the school come morning, which he would have to write down.
And then, a break of three weeks before the new school year started. Hibari and Tetsuya would start their first year of middle school. So would Shoichi, but at Yumei Middle rather than Namimori Middle.
It was unfortunate that they would not all end up in the same school, but the private school would better cater to Shoichi's intelligence and give him more opportunities with it.
Hopefully, once break started, he could figure out the negative or inverted aspect of his flames, in anticipation of coming up with flames that froze rather than burned.
Hibari continued to nail him on sparring days, and not only when it was Tsuna against him. He would do it if Tsuna was sparring with someone else, to shatter the idea that it would only happen under those circumstances. And as much as he hated to admit it, his senpai was right to do so.
Yes, in an ideal world (hah!) he would have his little family around him during instances like that, but it was better to plan around the idea that there would be times when they would not be.
Exams came and went, with a fair amount of stress on his part, but afternoons in Mementos wailing the tar out of shadows meant he would go home each day fairly relaxed and ready for the next exam's studying session.
Finally free of the exams, all he had to do was wait for the results. Hopefully he had not done too badly. While taking them he saw no reason to believe he was doing poorly, so he hoped that perception was valid.
Break was used to the fullest. Mornings were sparring or learning new things (or in the case of the trio, continuing to get caught up on things). That saw a lot of Tsuna being handcuffed, or tied, or blindfolded and then handcuffed or tied. All to turn him into something of an escape artist.
Mornings were also used to try to figure out the idea of negative flames. Or, as Shoichi put it…
"One example is negatively charged particles on the subatomic level t-that—" Shoichi broke off the second he saw Tsuna's expression.
"Yeah, that went right over my head," he said, complete with a swoosh hand gesture.
"Okay." Shoichi was quiet for a moment, then said, "T-This will seem a little out there, but… Body t-temperature. Assume you feel fine, but the t-temperature rises. You start to sweat, and vasodilation occurs."
His brow went up, absently noticing that (around them, anyway?) Shoichi was stuttering less.
"In essence, blood vessels become wider to allow more of your blood t-to cool. And, the sweat evaporates, which also cools your skin. But t-then maybe you get a bit too cool, maybe because it's evening and the outside t-temperature dropped. You get goosebumps, and vasoconstriction happens. T-That allows your skin and blood to better retain heat, because t-there's less surface territory to lose it. The biological system is intended to regulate your body t-temperature, to keep you as comfortable as you can be barring other factors.
"So you can kind of see it as swinging from positive—d-dilation—to negative—constriction—in an attempt to achieve homeostasis. Or you could call it neutrality, I suppose. Flames seem to be positive, by default. Open, d-dilated, in that sense. If you flipped that, in t-theory flames would be more constricted, more focused. I'm not sure any of t-this is helping."
He wasn't sure, either, but he appreciated the attempt. It still made a certain kind of sense, like the swinging of a pendulum, with the idea of finding middle ground. Flames were still flames, but maybe that middle state could do what he wanted.
"Your [Sky Laser] might be an example of constriction," Shoichi added as an afterthought.
Huh… And the opposite of a laser would be what, a flamethrower? And if he could alternate between those two quickly enough, he could hit that flash point in the middle? Which meant he needed something like a thick iron wall or whatever, that he could aim attacks at until he could figure this out.
He saw Hibari nod in his peripheral vision.
Three weeks wasn't even close enough to figuring it out, never mind the time it took for Hibari to get the wall he wanted to use as his test target.
School started up again, which meant he was back to learning new things and having to devote a fair chunk of time to that each evening. Sadly, it also meant their lunch was down to just the four of them, still using Hibari's private spot. On the other hand, they could talk during lunch without irritating his senpai, so there was that.
Even so, they still kept their voices low, if only so what they said did not filter down to the lower roof. So not much change there, aside from losing three people.
Someone (he suspected Mukuro) had arranged for them to still be in the same class, so they had their own little bloc in their classroom, just like before, which, good. He felt a little odd being the one in the back corner, with the other three around him, but he wasn't going to protest. It was a form of protection, even as he wondered what he had done to inspire any of it.
Mukuro shot him an amused look and, of course, declined to explain.
He still had to do at least two spars on Saturdays, but the rest of his time (when he wasn't being ambushed and restrained in some way to increase his speed when it came to getting free) was spent on that thick, stainless steel wall.
[Sky Laser] translated well enough to the outside. So did [Flamethower], once he had worked that one out inside Mementos. That was another difference between outside and Mementos. Inside they had FP. He was limited in how many times he could quickly toss out flame attacks. He would run out and have to wait for that pool to replenish.
Outside, however, he seemed to be limitless. Or rather, limited by how exhausted he became doing it.
Still, he was beginning to sense that flash point at the center, swinging between laser and flamethrower, constricted and dilated.
Requests came in around once a week, which only proved that people would do the stupidest or meanest things for the silliest of reasons. Like the housewife consumed by jealousy over what others had and resorted to stealing those things. Or the employee who deleted his company's critical data due to a grudge toward its overtime policy.
And there were still bullies, school children. Those on the younger side were dealt with in Mementos. Those a bit older were also dealt with in Mementos, and then snapped up by Hibari and Tetsuya as members of the newly-instated Disciplinary Committee, and set to patrolling for other offenders. That resulted in more requests in Mementos, and more Disciplinary Committee members.
"To keep things separate, we are the core," Hibari stated at one of their Sunday practices.
"Doing so makes us a part of the Disciplinary Committee, and we wear the same armband," Tetsuya said, "but sets us apart at the same time."
"So either way, no one's gonna be thinking there's anything shady goin' on," Ken said. "Just like, command level."
Hibari nodded.
And presumably, once they moved to middle school, they would also wear them.
"But as you can see, ours have our colours," Tetsuya added. "People won't understand what they mean aside from … command level."
All to the better. A simple and effective way of misdirecting attention, all while looking to protect the people in the city, though the protection of children was prioritized.
It wasn't until the last week of July, during their summer break, that Tsuna finally hit that flash point and froze the wall.
Everyone stared for a long moment, then Hibari stepped up behind him and laid a hand on his shoulder. He could feel the warmth of Hibari's skin through his t-shirt, and it was as good as a spoken word of approval.
"Now I just need to be able to do it faster."
Hibari squeezed, moved his hand to pet his fluffy hair, then returned to the sparring.
He took a short break to drink some water and watch a bit of the spar happening, then got back to work. He needed to know he could reliably hit that flash point, and then that he could be faster. An attack was no good if it took him forever to accomplish it.
Some experimentation, for he remembered that flame attacks could be variable in strength, produced a very weak laser, and similarly a flamethrower attack. It also meant he could last longer before he ran out of steam, because he wasn't pushing himself so hard.
He froze the wall faster that way, finding that flash point sooner. Not as quickly as he would like, but still faster.
Unfortunately, this wouldn't work on shadows. Just using those two attacks to try to land on that flash point would kill them long before he hit it. The wall was his best option.
It was another week before Hibari drifted over to him and said, "Omnivore. You use your intuition to dodge," before drifting off again.
Huh… So why couldn't he use it for this? Good question. 'Thank you, senpai!' he thought as he focused on the wall again. He started again, that time leaning on his intuition as he flipped back and forth. Tsuna got it almost immediately, which made him do a little fist pump and hiss, "Yes!"
Now…? Could he just hit the flash point from the start? Without the pendulum swing?
He took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly, then hit the wall with his power. He froze it on the first try. The first thing he was going to try once they hit Mementos was the same attack, hitting the flash point immediately.
And he did, once they had teleported down to Ikari no Michi and gained initiative on the first lurching shadow. He giggled inappropriately at his success, at seeing Ken whack the shadow and shatter it to pieces, and at seeing a notification for his new [Zero Point Breakthrough] attack. Why it was called that…?
Then, as he was starting to do more often, he wondered as he watched Tetsuya use [Storm Onibi] if he could use his flames to drain health. Or, possibly, use them to drain … something … to replenish his FP. He absently punched a shadow as he pondered the idea.
The problem was, at first glance, that he would have to be fielding flame attacks, not whatever a shadow could throw at him. He was going to have to think about that one some more. He would sooner shoot himself in the face than experiment with his family tossing flames at him, and potentially harm them.
And, it might only be possible, assuming it was, because he was a Sky.
Repelling attacks, though, might work against anything? Maybe? Except for the part about not knowing where a bounced-off attack would land, though presumably not anywhere near his family, because it would reflect forward or diagonally, not sideways. That and needing to get a shield like that in place before an attack on him even hit.
Again, something to think about.
A week later and he was still thinking about it. 'Maybe if I think of it like a buff? Of course, in Mementos terms that'd mean a, what? A shield that reflected attacks? But outside, fights don't follow the same rules, and it'd only protect me from the front. A sphere would still work, but that would put my family in harm's way from a repelled attack. I suppose I could test it in a solo fight on the first Path?'
If his friends ducked around a corner where they couldn't be hit by a reflected attack…?
Time would tell.
Ω
On Wednesday Tetsuya had grave news. "Members of the Disciplinary Committee have come to me with a disturbing tale, which we need to investigate. However, it will involve some arguably unethical actions on our parts. They have reported that there is a second year being abused by his mother. The mother is Watanabe Yua, the boy is Itsuki."
"This could be a potential…" He trailed off, then said, "Personal unconscious."
Tetsuya nodded. "Potentially. Like the Phantom Thieves did with their major targets."
"So we either need one of us to go into their minds to get proof," Mukuro said, "or infest their home with bugs and cameras. Either is deeply intrusive."
"Child abuse is illegal," he pointed out unnecessarily. "I think that justifies taking a peek. I could rationalize this by saying I was born mafia, but that's not it. Child abuse is vile and disgusting, and that's all I need. I could easily say my own childhood has been abusive. It would be faster to ghost their minds, but that assumes either Hibari-san or Mukuro-san would feel comfortable doing so."
Mukuro nodded. "I'll do it. I just need to know where to find her." He looked at his phone a moment later, to see the text message Tetsuya shot off in response. "We have a few hours before lunch, so I'm going to do that now, if there are no objections."
No one said a word, so Mukuro got up. "I'll be back."
And he was, inside of an hour. "Confirmed. The woman takes out her every frustration on the boy. She's been doing it for so long that it's normal for him to be beaten. She's careful not to cause damage in places that will show, so other than his demeanor, no one's really noticed. The husband is the usual overworked salary-man who doesn't get home until late because he's out drinking every night with work colleagues, and she's careful never to do anything when he's present. He just thinks his kid is introverted and deferential."
Tsuna scowled. He wasn't the only one. But how to get into an individual's unconscious mind?
A subtle nudge had him look at the interface where—what entity was responsible for this, anyway? Because there was suddenly an option called "Palace" that had not existed the previous day.
"Huh…" He added the woman's name to the name field, it appearing as if his mind was typing it, and said, "Just a normal house? Where they live, I mean."
Mukuro nodded.
So he added that to the location to the location field. "This last bit, though… Name, location, and perceived location. What does that mean?"
Shoichi coughed. "Maybe like the saying, 'My home is my castle'?"
A look bounced around the room, settling on Mukuro, who grimaced. "She seems to think she's—well, almost like she's on a stage. What the public sees is what the audience sees, but everything real happens backstage. I think. Based on what I saw in her mind."
After a slow blink he tried "stage", which resulted in a disembodied woman's voice saying, "No candidates found."
Tsuna and Shoichi shrieked in surprise.
Once he calmed down he tried "backstage", which likewise produced, "No candidates found."
What was it they called where movies and shows were filmed? Tsuna tried "set" instead, which failed, then "soundstage", which made that part of the interface display morph to a code, not that he had a chance to properly see it, because—
"Beginning navigation," was announced.
—the world went wonky, rather like it did when entering Mementos. When it resolved it looked like … the exterior of a film set? Also, they were dressed normally.
"I have no idea," he muttered as he looked around.
There was an entrance, complete with security guards, a parking lot, and a large warehouse-like building. Or possibly like the middle school's gymnasium.
"Something tells me we can't go in through the front gate," Tetsuya said, gesturing at the line of ghostly "people" that looked like silhouettes in grey or black or white lined up to enter, presumably prospective members of a studio audience.
Hibari snorted softly and stalked off around the side, so Tsuna scrambled to follow. There was a stepped box hedge along the side, butted up against a tall chain link fence. Hibari hopped up onto the hedge, used it like a staircase, and hopped over the fence at the top and onto the roof of a side building, then down the metal staircase on the far side.
Tsuna eyed the hedge suspiciously (could they really support that much weight?), then followed, with the others behind him. The main building had an unguarded door at the center back, which they went through, into a long hallway. And, given that the ever-changing layout of Mementos made no sense, he did not expect this place to make sense, either.
He noticed, however, that there were pot plants or fountains or other convenient blocking items to hide behind, should it be needful. And they were, as what looked like a security guard turned into the hallway from up ahead.
The next thing he knew he had zipped over behind a plant urn and crouched, as if he had hit a button on his game controller to seek concealment. A peek around the edge showed that the guard was rather burly and wore a mask. A look back showed that everyone was similarly "hidden".
The guard trundled down the hallway, blue cap in place and baton in hand, idly swinging the thing, and moved right past him, never noticing he was there. No matter that it looked human, it wasn't, not with a black void for skin and no eyes framed by the mask.
Tsuna shifted and jumped the guard, clinging to its back as he reached around to rip off that mask, just as he had once ripped off his own. It was only then, as the guard splashed out and was replaced by the usual shadow creatures, that he realized he was in costume again.
Hibari, Chikusa, and Shoichi joined him in facing a Kaiwan, Scathach, and Girimehkala, which were not exactly difficult.
"Huh…" he said after their defeat. "Right."
Hibari opened a door to the right and went inside, which turned out to be … an employee break room? Table, chairs, a coffee machine (likely non-functional, and which reminded him that lunch would have been soon, and what time would it even be when they exited?), and a bulletin board with various things stuck to it.
A sparkle caught Tsuna's attention, so he went to investigate. There was a map tacked to the cork, so he grabbed it and brought it to the table so he could spread it out. Accordingly, the mini-map he had long since grown used to updated. Sadly, it was an incomplete map, as not everything was revealed.
"Why am I just not surprised that there's a ridiculous hallway to room ratio?" he muttered.
Shoichi tapped a spot on the map. "That looks like an actual soundstage, which might be our goal."
"And we've all suddenly gained the ability to make like ninja," Mukuro said. "The concealment thing."
"That guard shadow was creepy," Ken said, grimacing. "And instead of whacking them before they can whack us, we have to rip off the mask to get initiative? Good thing I'm not bothered by blood."
"If that's the goal," Tetsuya said, "we have a lot of walking to do over multiple floors. Still checking rooms isn't a bad idea, if only because there might be treasure chests."
"Possibly mid-bosses," he said. "The video games I play often have those, and those sometimes have gimmicks that need to be figured out."
Hibari shot him a look and, once again, he just sort of knew what his senpai was thinking.
"We have two and a half weeks before school starts," Tsuna said, "so we should have time to figure this all out. The sooner the better, if only to spare that poor kid more abuse, but we can afford to use caution."
"Let's continue," Chikusa said.
Tsuna tucked the map away and went to the door, then opened it just a crack so he could peek out. There were no indicators on the map, but it paid to be careful. This wasn't Mementos, after all. The map, something he had mostly ignored except for navigation purposes, had suddenly become a lot more important.
With no shadows in sight, he slipped out and into concealment again. He was about to zip to the next spot when he realized the plant above his head was subtly sparkling, so he stood up and punched it. He got a plastic frame for his troubles—which, baffling—and that was tossed into inventory as vendor trash.
Then he zipped off to the next concealment spot. His family zipped their way down the hallway, pausing to investigate side rooms, open any chests, punch any sparkly things and collect vendor trash, and made it to the end. It was a T-split which, according to the map, turned almost immediately on either side.
Hibari made the choice of which way to go by heading to the left, which unfortunately had no concealment spots. The hallway turned right just a short ways down. The map showed rooms tucked into the space to the left, but so far as Tsuna could tell, they were accessed from a different floor.
None of the shadows they encountered were particularly tough given that they had already worked out their reaction data. What was weird was the voice they could hear.
«"If you could just do things right I wouldn't have to punish you!"»
Everyone stopped short and shared a look. "That sounded like it came over a public address system," Tetsuya said.
A guard trundled into view around the corner, and in the next second everyone had zipped over behind a water cooler that barely covered one of them, never mind the line of people stretched out behind Tsuna.
Thankfully, the guard only walked so far before doing an about-face. Tsuna took it as his cue and ghosted up behind it, jumped it, and ripped off the mask.
They had only made it through about half of the ground floor before everyone started making noises about food. There was no real sense of time inside, so their stomachs were the only reliable indicator in some ways. Interestingly enough they had happened upon more break rooms, and they were always clear of any shadows, so they were able to catch a short rest.
"Omnivore," Hibari said from his perch at the window of the most recent. "Teleportation options are between these rooms."
"Well that will save time," Mukuro said. "We don't have to run the gauntlet each time we come here."
Ken grimaced. "Can we go now? My stomach is trying to gnaw its way out."
Hibari let out a soft sigh, then teleported them back to the initial saferoom so they could leave the dungeon by the rather silly route. But once they got back to their initial entry point, Hibari hit the exit option, and they found themselves back in the workroom. Tsuna scowled as soon as he saw the clock; it was shortly before time for dinner.
"Right, same rules as Mementos, and I need to get going."
Ω
"When it found a match," Shoichi said, "it changed the keywords to a code. It looked a lot like a national identification number."
"Because that's not scary," Chikusa said as they walked to the practice field.
If going into either meant losing both morning, lunch, and afternoon, well, the obvious was obvious. True, they could take lunches in with them, but why waste the morning? Though, bringing in snacks was not a bad idea.
Lunch featured yakisoba, and then after cleanup, back into Watanabe's Palace. They arrived outside again, so Hibari teleported them to the last safe room they found before venturing out to keep working toward what they thought was their goal.
«"If you loved me, you'd do better than this."»
Tsuna scowled and jumped a shadow, ripping its mask off.
He was starting to have fun with punching various objects with that low-key sparkle effect to gain vendor trash, and he wasn't the only one. Ken especially liked smacking those, and Hibari would whack one with a tonfa as he prowled by, though he left any items behind for others to pick up.
In addition to guards, they ran into workers as well. Production staff, camera people, secretaries, and food services. Nothing like sneaking up behind a food worker, ripping off the mask, and seeing a serving tray go flying, it and the contents vanishing as they hit the ground.
«"No wonder you don't have any friends. This, this right here, is why no one likes you."»
He scowled again. It reminded him in a way of the defect's occasional whining about how his "little tuna-fish" didn't like "Papa", or his wheedling entreaties to "play" when Tsuna would rather be anywhere else, and ended up tossed around anyway. 'As if terrifying a small child is going to make them seek out your company,' he thought disgustedly.
The first floor was just as much of a maze, though a large chunk in the center was blocked off. He could only assume it was because of the (presumed) seating in the stage area requiring a higher than normal ceiling. Stairs in two of the corners (at least on the map) went up and down, the downward ones leading to the otherwise inaccessible areas on the ground floor. Two only went up, and a final one went up, but from a room that would need to be accessed from the second floor.
He got the awful feeling that they would come at the sound stage from catwalks overhead. Then again, he had no idea what they would be facing once they did get to that point. The Phantom Thieves made calling cards for a reason, and they had yet to figure out why.
«"I never did that! Now you're just making things up, so you can play the victim."»
Tsuna rolled his eyes that time, then huffed when his stomach growled. He was relieved when the next room they entered was a safe area. It meant they would not lose any progress through the far too big building filled with far too many nonsensical hallways.
Ω
Friday saw them getting through most of the first floor, and parts of the ground floor they had originally missed, the two stairwells in the southern part of the building. Not, of course, the center. Those two southern stairwells also led up to otherwise inaccessible rooms.
«"Stop sniveling. It didn't hurt that much."»
The final two, in the north part, were just a little odd. The first upward-only staircase was blocked off by a metal grille, with no visible way to open it. Hibari stalked past after staring at it for some time, headed for the final accessible stairwell.
Tsuna could hear something moving around overhead as they approached the stairway, and slowed. "I'm not the only one who can hear that, right?" he whispered.
"I hear it loud and clear," Ken whispered back. "Almost sounds like flapping. Wings?"
"Probably a Wind shadow, then," Tetsuya opined.
Hibari resumed moving, and they climbed the staircase slowly. Like all the others it was U-shaped, so they had to get up and around the bend to have any hope of seeing what awaited them. Tsuna got halfway up when he could see a massive set of dusty golden wings and what looked like a tail.
Hibari looked back and pointed at Ken and Mukuro, who moved closer to him and Tsuna, then proceeded up into the room.
All Tsuna could think once he saw the creature was that it looked Egyptian.
Tsuna went first and swapped to a Persona with Electric damage, then used [Zionga]. His hunch paid off, as it was weak to it, but his attack did not land the Shock ailment. It, a Garuda, responded with [Assault Dive] on Hibari, knocking a chuck of his health off, and in return was hit with [Freila]. Ken healed Hibari, and Mukuro used [Eiga].
Tsuna used [Zionga] again, and it responded by buffing itself using [Tarukaja]. Which, not nice. So far the only weakness was to Electric. They ran through Physical and Gun, but it wasn't weak to those, either.
"This is just a bit stronger than we're used to," Shoichi said.
Hibari grunted as if he was personally offended by that as Tsuna used [Zionga] again and whittled off another chunk of its health. Garuda used [Magarudyne] which, not good. Another decent chunk of health taken, but for all four of them.
He rather wished he already had a Lightning, because they could have helped knock down the thing's health faster (except for the part where said Lightning would more than likely be weak to Garuda's element of Wind). Hibari attacked, clearly deciding that it was far more satisfying to physically go after it rather than use Nuclear, and Ken busted out [Mediarama] to fix everyone up. Mukuro used [Psio], which unfortunately was not a weakness, but neither did the Garuda resist, null, or repel it.
"Aside from possibly having to switch in Shoichi as a second healer," Chikusa said, "this seems fairly straightforward."
It was.
It was, dare he think it, a bit boring. And then he immediately prayed that he had not just jinxed them. If a boss was coming up—which, really? of course there was—it was even odds there would be some sort of gimmick to deal with. He could hope not, and pray not, but…
When the Garuda died it dropped 8,250 XP, ¥28,000, and a Life Ointment.
«"Why do you make me hurt you? Is it because you know you deserve this?"»
Tsuna scowled up at the ceiling. Of course there were no speakers they could shoot out, so they had to keep hearing such awful things. Meanwhile, Chikusa went over to the far wall and pressed the very conspicuous red button. A sound of rattling metal came from some distance.
"That grille?"
"Let's go," he said. "Hopefully there's another safe room nearby."
The metal grille had indeed retracted once they backtracked to the final stair, and just off the top was a safe room. Everyone took a seat to relax a little.
"That was … something," Shoichi said. "I mean, okay, mid-boss battle to get at what it guarded so we could progress, but…"
"Why a flappy thing that doesn't fit?" Ken asked.
"Kinda."
Ω
The second floor shifted in tone, not just in what the various rooms represented, but in what they were hearing. The first non-safe room they entered looked like a dressing room for an actor. Tsuna at least had fun punching a number of sparkly things and collecting the resulting vendor trash. The next room was similar, but not quite as fancy. There were two dressing tables instead of just one fancier one, and not nearly so much in the way of sparklies.
«"You wake up like this every morning. It's clear you want it."»
Tsuna sent a sharp look at the ceiling, not sure he wanted to unpack the meaning in that one. He switched focus to his family and saw that they all looked uncomfortable.
They traversed a few more hallways and rooms, taking out shadows that initially resembled costumers, makeup artists, and hair stylists, slowly working their way toward the end goal. He knew that's what they were, because they all had tags on their uniforms with their job titles.
«"You'll never find anyone as good as me."»
He frowned.
The next time that hated voice sounded they had just taken out a room full of various shadows.
«"Let's just focus on the good. No one will ever love you the way I do."»
Mukuro heaved a sigh. "I was afraid of this."
Tsuna's brow went up. "This?"
"It was just a glimpse," Mukuro said. "I didn't think anything of it until we started hearing stuff on this floor. She kept it pretty … secluded? And I was looking for evidence of physical abuse."
"Then what?" Chikusa asked.
"I think she's…" Mukuro grimaced. "I think she's sexually abusing him, too. Her husband works all day, drinks at night with his colleagues, comes home for dinner, then watches a bit of TV before bed. He doesn't have time for her, basically. And with her wailing on the kid and browbeating him, well…"
"There is a lot of potential double meaning in what we're hearing," Tetsuya said thoughtfully, his expression a grimace of distaste.
Tsuna, for his part, was trying not to throw up. Shoichi didn't look much better off. He was clutching his stomach and swallowing repeatedly. Hibari's face was a cool blank, but his eyes were furious.
Ken was taking out his anger on the nearest bench, trying to reduce it to splinters with his fists and feet. "Bitch needs to be exposed!"
"…Yeah." For someone who had started all this with an eye toward dealing with his father, this alone exposed problems in Namimori well beyond mere bullies. He shook his head and started walking. The only way they could resolve this was to get to the end. Because gathering evidence outside? That would involve a whole lot of hidden cameras and evidence that would most likely not be admissible evidence. Either was a deep invasion of privacy, but one actually stood a chance of success.
Ω
«"You asked for it. There's no reason why I shouldn't take advantage of your clear desire."»
Tsuna grimaced as he jumped another shadow and ripped off its mask. After those were dealt with they made a brief stop in the nearby room—it turned out to be a safe room—then continued to the final staircase on the level.
They headed downward onto a platform that led to a series of catwalks. Below them was a stage, illuminated by banks of lights, which kept them in shadow. The stage set looked like a typical living room, though one of the long sides was open to the audience, innumerable black, grey, or white silhouettes of people in tiered-style seating.
At the back-center of the stage was a gaseous white orb with an rainbow-slick aura. A woman lounged on a sofa, legs crossed at the ankles, her attention occupied by a glossy magazine as muted traditional music played.
After a long look at everything he could possibly see, he gestured back toward the staircase. The others took the hint, and they crept back off, up the stairs, and into the safe room.
"Why do I get the feeling we need that orb?" he said.
"Maybe because your intuition is sayin' so?" Ken opined.
"Omnivore?"
"Uh…" He "leaned" and "listened", so to speak. "Yeah. That orb is a representation of her twisted desires? I think. But it doesn't have an actual physical form. This must be why the Phantom Thieves used calling cards. I'll have to show you, outside, what they looked like, the ones I could get images of."
"So a calling card was used to make these orbs take a tangible form?" Chikusa said. "Something that could be stolen? Like a treasure."
Mukuro nodded. "Presumably. And with her sitting there on stage, we'll have to fight her before we can take it."
"My question is, what happens when we do?" Shoichi said. "Does everything just collapse?"
Tsuna shrugged. "No idea. But if the Phantom Thieves targeted that many people and walked away each time, I have to assume we'll have time to get out if it does. Hopefully through the doors for the audience into that soundstage on the ground floor, and straight out the front door."
"Unless we want to get in more time training," Tetsuya said, "I think we should leave now, and figure out a calling card, as well as how to deliver it and know that she's seen it."
The next thing he knew the world warped and they were back at the initial saferoom. It wasn't a long journey to get back to their starting point (though annoying that they could not just exit from any saferoom), and then the workroom. Unfortunately, he had to get home to help prepare and eat dinner.
Ω
He settled in on his cushion and accepted a cup of tea from Tetsuya with a nod of thanks.
"We did some preliminary work," Tetsuya said, "having tracked down images of the calling cards the public was able to see. Clearly, some were delivered privately. Kamoshida Suguru, Madarame Ichiryusai, and Kaneshiro Junya. The first card seems more than a little rough, both in the wording and the logo. The others, though… Lust, vanity, and gluttony. They seemed to be taking a seven sins approach?"
"Well, we could probably call Watanabe out on lust," Ken said. "Not just, you know, the obvious. She's got a lust for control. Or power."
"The wording, though…" Shoichi looked pained. "So… Watanabe Yua-san, a d-disgusting sinner of lust, who preys on her own family…"
"…You use your position as an adult and mother to shamelessly abuse that power, subjugating an innocent child physically, mentally, and sexually…"
"We have decided to make you confess with your own mouth. We will steal your distorted desires without fail, and all your crimes shall be exposed."
"Signed with the logo."
He nodded. "Sounds good. We're borrowing quite a bit, but haven't we already been?" He shrugged. "We just need to make it, though I'm not sure about the colours. Maybe pink because it's lust?"
Shoichi shook his head. "According to stuff I've found online, it'd be blue. It goes back to Dante Alighieri and his Divine Comedy."
Tsuna blinked at that. "Okay. Clearly, Mementos does not follow that scheme."
Shoichi shook his head again. "It does, with minor alterations. Pride is violet, Sloth is light blue, and indigo is just a darker shade of blue edging into purple."
"I stand corrected. So, creating the actual card. Should we go with a neutral brown instead of the sin colour, if only because we're using our flame colours for the Disciplinary Committee core armbands, and people might start making connections we don't want them to make otherwise?"
"Good point," Tetsuya said, then started messing with something on his laptop.
"I assume we need gloves and scissors and card stock… Lots of it, because in the three public cases, multiple copies of the calling card were placed. I feel horrible for the boy and the husband, because this is going to devastate them, but she needs to be stopped. And we need delivery."
Tetsuya pulled a stack of magazines out from under the table, and followed them with a pack of latex gloves. Scissors and glue were next. "Start cutting while I print out the base on card stock."
A powdery scent filled his nose as the pack of gloves was opened and people started wearing sets, then came the sound of scissors cutting paper. By the time he and Tetsuya needed to get lunch started quite a bit of work had been accomplished.
The back and front of each printed card (well, sheet of cardstock with perforations to easily separate them into cards) had the circles of the Phantom Thieves' cards, except brown instead of red. The back had their logo, while the front had the message, with a much smaller logo as the signature.
There were twenty-four of them in total, four sheets worth.
After lunch they talked about delivery.
"Well, we can sneak up to the house at night and push one or more through the mail slot."
"Maybe dump some inside the front wall, or some over the back wall. That way no outsider would see them, but she'd get the point?"
"And the son? If he saw even one and read it, and is aware of the website, he'd know what was coming."
"And that what she's doing is wrong, or at least that others think so."
"And the husband, if he went outside. No work on a Sunday, so maybe not, but the kid might leave the house and see them, or the husband go out back and see them."
"We'll have to do this ourselves," he said, "which means blending in long enough to do any of it without being noticed."
"I can," Mukuro said. "I can use my Mist Flames to escape notice. I'll just have to wear gloves for the delivery."
The cards were all sitting in an open cardboard box, having each been chucked in once the glue dried.
"And knowing when she's read one?" he asked. "Curtains are usually closed at that hour. If someone was close enough maybe they could hear her reaction. It's risky, though. Also…" He stopped and leaned on his intuition again. "I think that once we do get a reaction, we have to go in the same day and get that item that represents her twisted desires."
"Because if we don't," Shoichi said, "she'll rationalize it away and it just won't work a second time?"
"Yeah. I also don't know if there'll be a delay between stealing the item and her confessing. That part was never made clear."
Ken shrugged. "So we'll figure it out as we go."
"I'm thinking maybe 2am," Mukuro said. "I suppose I should check the weather report, though. Maybe 5am would be better? That'd be right around sunrise, and dark enough still to add to my use of flames to conceal myself."
Shoichi was already checking his laptop and looked up to say, "Weather should be fine, but I agree with the 5am thing."
"Okay."