Chapter Initial Notes:
Where I'm it's still 11: 25 pm 04/07, so I'm on time, as promised.
Edit: I was just re-reading this and the amount of orthographic mistakes that I passed by last night is unbelievable, I'm so sorry for that. I will correct them in a couple hours.
Lesson learned, no more last-minute checks, but on my defense, I had a test on Friday and while I was finishing this chapter suddenly 3k became 5k and things went off the rails from there.
Edit 2: Okay, so I have checked this thing consciously this time. So it should be fine. Please tell me if I missed anything.
Chapter II: Meet The Plastics
The next morning, as usual, Tsuna got up before the sun began to rise, and headed to the gym to start the day off right after such a busy week.
As she went down the stairs still fresh out of bed to get her first coffee of the morning, she was stopped dead halfway when she noticed her mother working down in the kitchen.
Already up.
Cooking.
- "Good morning, Tsu-chan!"- Nana greeted her enthusiastically. Tsuna blinked a few times and decided that she hadn't drunk enough coffee yet to deal with this, opting for simply smiling at her mother.
She knew there was only one thing that could put her mother in such a good mood so early in the morning and she really didn't want to know anything about it.
but... for her disgrace, she was a good daughter.
So she was basically obligated to ask.
- "Good morning Mom, what are you doing up so early?" - She asked her mother lightly as she headed to the kitchen for a cup of her precious black gold.
- "Ara Tsu-chan, you see, a couple of days ago a letter arrived from a private tutor sent directly from Italy. One of your father's postcards also arrived recommending him! He says that this tutor is an acquaintance of his and has helped several of his friends' children, It will be very good for you! Your dad mentioned that he would be arriving this morning!" - Her mother mentioned happily while showing her an envelope that until then had been innocently placed on the entrance table - And Yep, as always, her intuition was correct.
Tsuna definitely did not have enough caffeine in her system to deal with this.
- "If you say so, but Mom, don't you think I'm doing well enough in school already?" - Tsuna asked her mother softly.
- "Yes honey, but a little help never hurts"- Nana responded with a smile. Tsuna blinked again, downed her coffee in one gulp, and immediately poured herself another one.
She had perfect grades and had just won first place in a tournament that would be her ticket to the big leagues. How her mother believed that this… tutor could help her in any way was beyond her.
A letter of recommendation from The Mister himself, eh?
Ha.
Those letters could as well be lined with gold and diamonds with of how much her mother clung to every word written on them.
But It was fine. Her mother loved him - for some reason - and if those letters made her mother's whole week when they arrived, well, she was not going to complain.
- But Tsuna wasn't blinded by the rose-colored glasses that seemed to keep her mother tied up. -
Her dear daddy had not appeared at home in a record time of almost 3 years. If it weren't for the generous amount of money deposited into the bank account for household expenses religiously every month on the same date, Tsuna would be convinced that the man had finally decided to abandon them and play "little house" in another place.
- No way would she consider those postcards that he deigned to send every so often as if they were actually something -
- "Well, if you say so…"- she mentioned, giving in as she began to climb the stairs to get ready.
-"Sweetie! Aren't you going to have breakfast?" Tsuna looked at the scrambled eggs for a moment and then decided to sit at the table and grab some toast so her mother's efforts wouldn't be wasted. - Someone had to appreciate them - So happy, Nana turned around to continue cooking.
Tsuna just watched her mother while she ate her toast and drank her coffee, deciding if perhaps she finally had enough energy to touch this even with a three-meter stick.
-"Mom, what are you cooking?" - She finally asked the older brunette, choosing to ignore the elephant in the room.
-"Lunch Tsu-chan! I'll prepare your bento!"- And again, Tsuna blinked.
Okay… This was officially weird.
But soon with enough caffeine in her system, Tsuna decided she could live with it.
She finished eating her toast, drank the last of her coffee, and stood up from her seat thanking her for the food, slowly heading upstairs to change. But not before stopping at the entrance to look at the happy letter that had been returned to its place of honor on the entrance table.
This was too specific to be a scam and the postcard indeed had the handwriting of Iemitsu, who had decided to show signs of life for the first time in months and just to fuck with her life.
Tsuna no longer knew whether to laugh or cry
Now she really needed that punching bag.
…
With the sun already halfway over the horizon, after a particularly exhausting hour in the gym, Tsunayoshi was ready in her immaculate uniform and was checking the last details of her appearance, from the bathroom upstairs, still with the door closed she could hear the doorbell ringing and her Mother happily greeting someone.
She checked the time on her phone twice before deciding if it was worth going downstairs to check who it was.
It was still 15 minutes too early for the girls to get through, leaving the very real possibility that the third party at the door was a stranger.
- A stranger who found it very pertinent to stop and ring their doorbell during the school day's travel period and in the middle of a weekday. And considering that Tsunayoshi lived in a typical suburban house where the average tenant was a family with at least one school-age child, the stranger either lacked the social awareness or lacked the manners to not realize that he would most likely be interrupting the middle of the very busy morning routine of a young family with a whole day ahead of them. Deeply inconsiderate. -
Tsuna took a breath, counted to three, and let go. She straightened her clothes once again and looked at herself in the mirror one last time, smoothing a non-existent stray hair back into place, as she finally made a decision.
There was not a single blemish in her appearance.
She looked at the clock one last time before opening the door.
There were less than 10 minutes left for the girls to come for her.
It would be fine.
She squared her shoulders and went down the stairs with a smile already drawn on her lips ready to greet the guest to, again, just like earlier that same morning, see herself stopping dead in the middle of the descent.
In the doorway next to her Mother was what could only be described as a baby. In a suit. Hat and all. Talking casually to her Mother as if it were any Tuesday and they were both a pair of grown-ups.
Tsunayoshi watched the exchange for just a few moments with a frozen smile on her face before forcing herself to continue forward to hide her bewilderment from the stranger.
Honestly, she would almost find the whole situation hilarious, if it weren't for the fact that this was most likely Iemitsu's doing.
That… and the fact that her intuition had begun to buzz like crazy, as only a few times in her entire life, warning her about not letting her guard down with the newcomer.
Tsunayoshi would be a fool to ignore her now simply due to appearances, but while she could tell that the stranger was dangerous, her intuition didn't seem to consider him posing any immediate danger to her or her mother. That is to say, she could tell that the stranger had no intention of harming them directly, what's more, Tsunayoshi could tell that the stranger did not seem to have any interest in her mother at all, so he did not represent a problem to her at all.
His attention seemed to be rather directed towards her.
Good. She could work with that.
She resolved to treat the baby-man as cordially as possible while she measured him and saw what this was all about.
She was very interested to know what all the fuss was about.
She and her almost non-existent sense of conservation - Hana's words, not hers - were very curious.
-"Oh, Tsu-chan! Here you are! Please attend to our guest while I go get the tea."-
Her mother said without bothering to explain further before disappearing through the kitchen door, leaving her alone with the stranger.
Well, let's see what this is about.
-"Ciaossu! Are you Tsuna?" - A pair of onyx eyes looked at her revealing nothing more than what she could identify as a slight curiosity, like a wild cat looking at a newcomer. -More like a scientist looking at their new experiment rat. - Her intuition supplied-
- "Indeed" - She agreed, stretching her smile.
- "From today I will be taking care of you" - The infant stated. Something in his tone made her notice that he was not saying it lightly, it was more of a mere courtesy, he said it as if it were an absolute fact.
Interesting.
- "Is that so?" - Tsuna asked, raising her eyebrows, without missing a beat - "So, to what do I owe the pleasure?" -
- "Don't worry, Miss Student Council President. I hear congratulations are in order" - Is that your way of telling me you've been keeping an eye on me?
- "Wow… You are very well informed" - I hope you know I don't find a single fucking funny thing on being watched.
- "Of course. Obtaining information is a basic skill in my field of work, Tsuna" - And he didn't even bother to deny it.
- "You already seem to know who I am, but education comes first, I am Tsunayoshi Sawada, charmed. You may call me Tsunayoshi" - Tsunayoshi added scathingly but without leaving aside her polite tone. I don't care who you think you are, I don't know you yet to come up taking such confidence.
She knew perfectly well that her interlocutor did this to weigh and measure her in the same way she was currently doing with him. Tsuna was more than capable of playing along, but she wasn't going to waste an opportunity handed to her on a silver platter like this to set some boundaries.
- "And you still haven't told me yours" - Tsunayoshi pointed out, while she crouched slightly, resting her hands on her knees to approach her interlocutor.
- "I am your private tutor, Reborn" - Of course he was… as if not. Her dear daddy would never cease to amaze her, would't he?
-"Is that the case? So tell me, Mr. Reborn, at the risk of sounding superficial, How can someone of your… age be a tutor?"-
- "Simple, I am a super-developed genius. I may be a baby but my mind works like that of an adult."-
- "Fascinating! And what brought someone so extraordinary to my door?"-
- "To give you tutoring of course!… your father is an old friend of mine and I mentioned, I think my help would serve you well."-
- "Now… Excuse me, Mr. Reborn, there seems to be some kind of misunderstanding here. I have impeccable grades. I don't think there's much you can help me with..."-
Tsuna mentioned innocently and for a few seconds, she and Reborn maintained a staring contest before Reborn broke his mask leaving out a smile.
- "Okay, I will reveal my true identity to you.
I am the assassin tutor Reborn; The world's No.1 hitman.
And I'm here to make a mafia boss out of you." -
He mentioned casually while taking out a presentation card from his jacket to hand it to her and his pet chameleon transformed into a gun in his hand.
You have to be fucking with me.
Such a blatant introduction had Tsuna raising her eyebrows again, she had controlled her expression but decided that a lack of reaction to the title would raise questions.
-To anyone else, he might be clearly just a baby who could pass for a gifted child, what's more, if Tsuna were anyone else she herself would have laughed in his face at such a statement. She might have even considered it adorable. -
But Tsuna isn't just anyone, and that presentation that could have passed as an imaginative comment made by a child to anyone else, Tsuna saw for what it really was:
The little bastard was talking seriously.
Tsuna could be bothered to do the tap dance of pretending not to know that the killer is serious and that he's just joking because of his childish appearance.
It's a risky move, she knows, but she decided that showing the hitman that she at least knew how to play wouldn't be a bad idea. Not if you want this relationship to start off on the right foot at least.
- "Mafia boss, huh? And what mafia would that be?"-
Reborn's smile stretched even further.
After his discoveries the day before he had scavenged through the school archives and walked around undercover asking questions to the passing Namimori's students.
- Perfect grades, and multiple decorations in competitions organized by both the school itself and the district, all of them ranging from sports competitions, passing by art and poetry contests, to mathematics Olympiads. -
A true marvel both physically and intellectually.
Right now he could say that the mockery behind the girl's words was not born out of disbelief. But it didn't seem to be a mockery directed particularly at him either.
Fascinating.
Anyone else might think that the girl was simply playing along, but Reborn had way too many years of experience reading people to not be able to see the truth.
The girl knew he was serious and didn't seem particularly surprised by his announcement.
Whether the girl had any knowledge of the underworld enough to know who he was before showing up, or whether if it was a budding hyper intuition that was already latently making an appearance, was something that Reborn was not yet able to determine, but with all his years of experience in the underworld, Reborn already believed he could tell with certainty at least one thing about the girl in front of him:
The girl had the wood.
- Looks like we wouldn't be feeding pearls to pigs after all -
He still lacked information. It would take him longer than he expected to determine which method would be appropriate to use with her...
but in the meantime...
Reborn pointed his gun at the girl and fired.
The bullet passed close to her but without even leaving a scratch on her cheek.
Oh?
Not only was the girl not scared by the shot, but she stayed still in her place, without even shaking a single hair.
It was not paralysis in the face of fear.
No.
The girl didn't even flinch at the shot and simply raised an eyebrow in his direction without losing her polite smile or batting an eye.
Reborn could almost feel the challenge that now was openly displayed in her gaze.
- Every second he liked the brat more -
- " So tell me Tsunayoshi, Are you used to not dodging bullets?"
- "Under normal conditions? Of course, but you're here to train me as a mafia boss, right? So beyond the damage you could cause me, I suppose that anything that produces a permanent deterioration in any of my abilities or my death is off the table, right?
After all, I'm worth more alive and in one piece than dead.
Besides, I'm just a civilian, so there was no way you could count on the fact that I was going to dodge the Bullet and well... I guess they don't give you the title of the best hitman in the world by having a bad aim, don't they?"
Tsunayoshi finished her reasoning with a shit-eating smile.
And Reborn matched her smile.
Screw Iemitsu's report.
He had found a diamond in the rough.
The doorbell rang behind them.
- Saved by the Bell -
- "Well Mr. Reborn, I'm sorry for the rudeness, but my friends have come for me. I would love to stay and keep chatting but if I don't leave now, I will be late for school.
It will be a pleasure to continue this conversation after class" - Tsuna decided to end the conversation as she straightened up.
- "Go ahead, I won't keep interrupting you. I still have a couple of details to talk out with your Mother" - Reborn turned, acknowledging the time out.
- "It will be a pleasure to continue this in the afternoon.
Have a nice day little Mister" - Tsuna said with a little jeer in her tone as a goodbye while she grabbed her bag and walked out the door.
Now she was definitely having that conversation with Kyoya.
Kyoko and Hana were waiting for her at the door, they only gave a quick greeting to her mother before leaving for school. Takeshi, who was conspicuous by his absence like Ryohei, could only accompany them twice a week since the rest of the days they went to school very early to train, so he would only join them back in the classroom.
Of course Tsuna also has her training with the Jiu-Jitsu club, but all of these are in the afternoon.
During the entire trip to school, Tsuna continued to review fragment by fragment her previous encounter, carefully analyzing whether, in the middle of the moment, she had not missed anything that could come to bite her in the butt later while she recapitulated.
- Okay, this is what we got so far:
now there is a hitman - who also happens to be a baby- in my house.
knows her sperm donor. - Which is no guarantee of anything really.-
came all the way back from Italy to train me as a mafia boss. From the Vongola family, the same one Iemitsu works for, to be precise. Which brings us to point four:
poses no direct threat to her or her mother. - Well, that's not counting her peace of mind -. So for now we'll just stay alert.
can tell from miles away that guy has the ego up to fucking space. Although assuming that if what he says about being N1 is true, he probably has reasons to have it, but that doesn't take away point six:
's going to be a real pain in the ovaries to put up with him.
You see, Tsunayoshi is a person who really appreciates her freedom. And it's not like she hasn't earned it of course, between her grades and people singing her and her mother's praises for raising her at parent-teacher conferences, her mom has never asked her major questions about her business. - None really - she assumes it's because she trusts that she is smart and responsible enough to know how to make her own decisions.
Whether or not her mother knows about her sneaking through in - or out - the window late at night to sneak into Takeshi's house or simply to relieve some stress by accompanying Kyoya on his patrols as a form of light night walk is beyond her.
But that's how things have always been between them. It's a kind of mutual understanding that the two have always had.
- She doesn't tell her and her mother doesn't ask and so the latter can feign blissful oblivion. -
A question from Hana directed at her brought her out of her thoughts. Of course, as lost as she was, Kyoko and Hana quickly noticed that she had something on her mind.
Tsuna didn't even bother to pretend that wasn't the case, that would have been an insult to her friends' capabilities, they were too perceptive not to notice. - Tsuna knew better. There was a reason those two were her best friends after all. - But beyond the initial question of rigor, given her refusal to respond by deflecting the question, both were quick to understand and neither of them delved deeper into the topic, resuming their previous conversation as nothing to tell her about some of the relevant events of the week.
It was times like these that she loved Hana and Kyoko.
Despite having gone to the same school together all their lives, it was not until their last year of middle school that the three became friends. Kyoko and Hana had been best friends for as long as they could remember and towards the end of middle school they had basically adopted Tsunayoshi into their group and since then the three of them had been inseparable.
- Tsuna loved the ease that both had to take her mind away from the problems and complications of real life and immerse her in a bunch of shameless gossip.
She loved how they could both tell when she simply had too much on her mind and needed help distracting herself.
When she wasn't ready to talk things out yet and they simply trusted her to tell them later, without pressuring her.
Or when she just needed space.
They had always been like that.
Respecting Tsuna's own boundaries even before Tsunayoshi herself learned how to enforce them.-
Thus, the walk to school passed by between some new students, a fight between the Disciplinary Committee and a rival school, a couple of embarrassing love confessions, and a few pranks on some unfortunate student.
Tsuna wasn't going to fill them in on the situation until, well… she herself knew exactly what the situation was.
...
The morning classes moved quickly. Although Tsuna didn't have a hard time with school, after her prolonged absence due to the championship, now she had to make the effort to pay attention in class to pick up the thread.
She didn't even notice when the bell rang for lunch.
As soon as she walked out the door of her homeroom, an arm was put over her shoulders. Tsunayoshi didn't even need to look to know who that familiar weight came from.
-"Hey"- She greeted with a half smile, turning to see Takeshi, leaning against him and clasping his hands, not bothering to recognize the side-eye looks that people crossing the hallway were giving them.
-"Hey."- Takeshi answered back, matching her smile while both stopped for a second to turn around to wait for the others to gather their lunches and follow them.
-"Roof?"- Tsunayoshi asked.
-"Roof it is."- Takeshi answered, directing their march while having a pleasant chat telling her everything about his practices and the situation at his father's restaurant. - Dad asks when are you coming to celebrate that first place with us! It's on the house. He misses having you around after class. -
-"And… this is exactly why people think you guys hook up" – Hana pointed out with mockery with Kyoko scolding her for using such language with a very obviously exaggerated scandalized note without any real reprimand in her words dragging her brother behind her. Takeshi and Tsuna simply let out a snort without even bothering to separate before leading the way to the rooftop.
.
.
.
As Tsuna and her friends made their way down the hallway talking, laughing, and responding to everyone's greetings and smiles, to the rest of the simple teenagers who saw them pass, they were definitely quite a spectacle.
Not only because of the variety of its individuals, but above all because it was made up of the most popular people in the school.
If we were in the typical clichéd American high school, it could be said that they were the classic group of the popular.
All of them fine-looking
Untouchables
Always the talk of the hallways.
Everyone stops when they see them passing, everyone wants to talk to them. Everyone wants their attention. Everyone wants to sit at their table.
Everyone wants to be like them.
It was almost as if they existed in another world parallel to their own, living the real-life teenage dream.
If we had to classify them solely based on stereotypes, they would be: Ryohei as the brainless jock, Takeshi as the attractive and popular boy, Kyoko as the pretty face of the group, Hana as the girl who wasn't that pretty but had a brain and finally Tsunayoshi, as The Queen Bee herself.
The Mythic Bitch.
- If the school were an ecosystem, she would undoubtedly be The Apex Predator. -
You see,
Many Things were said about Sawada Tsunayoshi:
They say she is Namimori High School's Sweetheart. The boys, The girls, They all like Tsunayoshi. She gives them butterflies when she bats her siren siren eyes.
They say it is alarming honestly, how charming she can be. She laughs like God, her mind is like a diamond.
They say when she walks by, you want to be her.
They say she will go far.
They say she has the brightest future ahead.
They say she will be someone.
They say she is undefeated. Only fifteen but she walks the streets so mean.
They say her daddy is not around. And her mommy is on her own.
They say she joins Hibari's walks for the thrill of the kill. Every person in school is aware of her stare, when she tosses her hair they get perfectly still.
They say she can smell your fear. Like a lioness, only with less fur, Do not mess with her, She is the apex predator.
But
Not everything was just appearances.
Namimori Highschool prides itself on the lack of bullying in its classrooms and hallways, not only because of the incessant patrolling of the Disciplinary Committee, but because of the influence of Tsunayoshi herself with her - already legendary at this point - no-nonsense policy.
She has never allowed any type of harassment whatsoever in what she considers to be her domain. A lesson that newcomers were always quick to learn.
Not If they wanted to last.
Her affable but always protective nature towards the other girls at school and her somewhat brusque but open disposition to help have made most girls see her as some kind of older sister to turn to if needed, no matter how superficial or serious the situation was.
- Needless to say, the school's female population is her main electoral base -
But her popularity was not limited only among girls.
As a prominent member of the school's athletic community - and champion for two consecutive years in the sports day as the representative of her grade alongside with Takeshi - Her particular sense of humor is particularly well received among the varied school athlete teams.
- Another of her important electoral bases -
It also helps that Takeshi makes sure to always make it clear to the boys at school - both athletes and not - that they can't just talk freely about her. Always with the enthusiastic support of the baseball team behind him to help with the lesson, of course. Completely outraged at whoever dared to disrespect such a respected figure of their school.
- especially when it comes to their captain's girlfriend-
You see, Tsunayoshi is beautiful.
You would need to have no eyes for not seeing it.
As a child, Tsunayoshi and her relentless desire to not shy away from boy's games, although they turned her into a true social butterfly from an early age, never made her particularly feminine. In fact, she perfectly remembers that on more than one occasion, when she was covered in dirt and leaves after her adventure of the day, even some adults mistook her for a boy.
And then puberty hit her
and it hit her hard.
Thanks to her foreign heritage, being taller than most of the boys at school - which in Japan wasn't particularly difficult to say - and having developed earlier than several of the girls in her grade, Tsunayoshi was still in the later stages of her childhood when she began to attract the attention of the opposite sex.
The response from her classmates wasn't anything particularly remarkable, they used to make jokes to tease her about it, knowing that at the end of the day, Tsunayoshi wouldn't take it very seriously, after all, Tsunayoshi was their friend.
It was the attention from the older boys that made her begin to feel self-conscious about her new look.
Of course Tsunayoshi was too prideful to allow herself to look self-conscious about the unexpected new share of attention.
Tsunayoshi was tough, she didn't shy away from fights with boys. She could fight on equal terms with Kyoya who was already beating kids at least a couple of grades above him.
Tsunayoshi knew she didn't have much to worry about, but she did not like that feeling of self-consciousness under alien scrutiny.
That's how she ended up getting into the world of martial arts
And that's how she reconnected, after years of distance during her childhood with Takeshi.
Ah, Takeshi.
What might be say Takeshi.
Always the shining knight in golden armor, ready to save the day.
- Although he knew very well that the damsel in question would not hesitate to blow out his teeth -
Takeshi and Tsunayoshi have always been purely platonic, but even so, the entire school was completely convinced that they were together. Their close friends knew better of course…
But it's not like it was difficult to understand why.
They could always be seen chatting next to each other, how their shoulders always touched each other when walking through the hallways, how Takeshi always put his arm over her shoulders, or how Tsunayoshi had few qualms about his personal space, never Hesitating to lean against him and the constant touches of her hands that always ended up on his clothes or even to rearrange a nonexistent hair out of place on the black-haired man's head.
But despite their absolute comfort in each other's personal space, they both knew it had never gone beyond that, of superficial touches, tight hugs, and entire conversations about everything and nothing held in shared whispers in the privacy of their rooms late at night.
No matter what the others thought - Or what they never bothered to deny - they both knew how things worked. There was no need for names or labels, and that was what they were both comfortable with.
A label would put their friendship in a box, depriving it of the much-needed abstraction, the diluted limits that they both needed.
Although they knew well that as long as they kept what they had only between the two of them nothing would change, they both sensed that a name would have made things different.
Unnecessarily… complicated.
And what Takeshi and Tsuna loved most about their friendship was precisely that while the world seemed to be coarser every day and life itself seemed to be more complex every day, it was simple.
Easy.
An island of peace and calmness in the sea of storms that was teenage life.
It was their home. Their temple.
And that was the quintessential of their friendship.
Tsunayoshi had been there when Takeshi's mother's illness was eating her alive.
Takeshi had been there when Tsuna's father hadn't come home in months and her mom wasn't doing well.
They were each other's rock and safe place.
That's why Tsunayoshi didn't give a damn if half the world thought they were together, even if they weren't.
Go ahead and criticize her.
For not giving Takeshi his freedom. For not allowing him to open up to the world and find someone who loves him on a romantic way.
For not giving him space. For wanting to be the owner of his time. For not setting limits. For monopolizing him completely.
Tsunayoshi didn't give a fuck.
If wanting to have the one who was her pillar, her float in an ocean of stormy waters completely for her, was selfish.
Then Tsunayoshi was the most fucking selfish person on the planet.
but you know what?
Let me tell you a little secret.
He is not interested in asking for his freedom either.
Do you know why?
Because he was hers.
Since a long time ago, and way far from where any words nor reason could reach him.
That's why she loved him the most.
She could tell him what to believe, what gods to worship, when to pray, what bridge to jump off.
She could say horrible things.
Do questionable things.
Commit unspeakable acts.
The whole world could hate her.
But he would always be there to hold her hand.
Because at the end of the day...
He was Tsuna's Takeshi.
In a way that words were not enough to describe.
In a way that no one will ever understand.
And at the hour of truth, that's all that once upon a time has actually mattered to her.
Final Notes:
Did you notice the amount of Heathers and Mean Girl references? Yeah, my middle school me would be so proud.
One little thing:
I forgot to talk about it in the previous chapter, but I love to title my chapters by the names of songs that represent what's inside the mind or heart of that chapter's main character(s), so the chapter titles are basically a big spoiler of the plot and general tone of the chapter itself. xp
(Of course, you can always use them as the chapter's soundtrack and listen to them while reading. That's actually what I do to write some parts of them when I need inspiration for a particular scene lol)
The lyrics of the songs that appeared in this chapter scratch out are from; Carmen - Lana Del Rey and Apex Predator - Mean Girls Musical. (I thought at 3 am that it was a good idea to include song lyrics on that part but now while I'm checking this I realize it might be a little bit too cringey. I'm sorry, that was my middle school-me coming back from death to make me include that. please skip that part if it is too much for you. - Or I might regret my life choices and just delete it myself, idk - )
If anyone is interested in knowing exactly why I chose the song, you can ask me in the comments, I would love to tell you :)
I know that info-dumping is not everyone's tea.
Freak Fact:
If you notice, Reborn did not use the dying will bullets on this Tsuna. I have the whole idea that Rebon used them in the canon to be able to break the seal that Nonno had placed on Tsuna's Flames and well, since our Tsuna's Flames here were never sealed (I will deal with that topic later in the story), It wasn't necessary for Reborn to get the bullets out so quickly.