Parallel world theory (Multiverse theory) is the idea that there are many different universes. These universes make up everything that exists-time, space, matter, energy, physical laws and the constants that describe them. If the physics is right, this is the explanation for everything noted previously. But for me, I don't have to wait for scientists to tell me if this is correct. My life has brought me to the conclusion that parallel worlds exist.
Let me show you.
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"Babies come into the world screaming for a reason." I remembered my father kneeling against the hospital tiles on one knee. His hand held tightly to mine as he got down to my eye level to say, "Your brother is not screaming because he is hurt but because he is greeting the world. He is announcing how healthy he is."
I remember the view from my father's side as the nurse took him away. The boy who would be my brother was still crying as if my father was correct and he was trying to dominate the world with just his tears and shrill wails. I would never understand my father's expression but he looked proud as our newest family member was taken to be cleaned.
"Fon, can I leave her with you?" My father warily passed my hand to Fon who was nodding eagerly, "I will tell you the condition of your sister."
Fon's hand was smaller than mine but he held tightly to me. I never doubted that Fon was my uncle but seeing him, after I had seen my baby brother, I realized Fon was small and my father was big. I wondered if my baby brother would remain small or grow like my father.
"I wonder if he will grow big." I mused, surprising Fon who didn't think I had any thoughts about a brother who's face I had yet to see, "I wonder if father will get angry if I ask if he will protect him too."
Fon got his arms around my head with much difficulty-a hug to the best of his abilities, "Your father will protect you both."
"I want to see him."
My father had returned, steps light and quiet as he closed the door behind him, "You will. Come with me."
My brother was resting when we came upon him. He looked to be very much at peace. A mop of black hair was sitting atop his red-faced head. He looked slightly disfigured-face squished in a displeased grimace as if he was just about to cry. He was so tiny and he couldn't even open his eyes yet.
I remember wondering aloud how I looked, "Was I sleeping here too?"
"No." My father said, "You were not healthy when you were born."
I looked up at him, surprised to be hearing something so heavy from my father who kept all his secrets and then some.
"You did not scream or cry like your brother. You were silent, small… much too small."
I did not know until later that he meant I was born premature. At the time, I could only take it to mean I was an herbivore. I was the thing my father hated most and I couldn't stand the thought.
"What's his name?"
"Kyoya." My father declared, "Hibari Kyoya."
Kyoya. I thought about it for a moment. I liked the way it sounded. It was so much nicer than my own name—Hibari Kira. But we shared a last name. We are family.
I suppose our last name isn't the only thing we share. The same black hair, the same parents, the same blood… We'll share our childhood together. This is my brother-Hibari Kyoya.
"I want to meet him."
"He's here. You will be able to hold him soon enough."
"Not my brother." I smiled bravely and boldly when my father looked down at me. I knew what he was thinking, "Domenico Cavallone."
"Your mother will not allow it."
I knew he would say that but the past is the past. I'm no herbivore. I want answers and I want them now. It has to be before my brother gets old enough to defend himself.
I remained silent. At four and a half years of age, I knew my father's words were absolute. He was our alpha. There was no arguing with my father but I would get the meeting I desired. This is the one world out of a billion parallel worlds where I get to meet Domenico Cavallone.
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I overheard my father saying he was going to a yakuza stronghold. For some reason, his workforce couldn't supply him with backup today so he asked Fon to accompany him instead. I was worried but when I asked my mother about it, she only said they would be fine.
I couldn't just sit and wait. I grabbed my father's spare tonfas and I went with them. I snuck into the backseat of the car before they got in and waited in silence, crouched behind the driver's seat with a blanket over my head.
Fon was chatting quietly with my father on the way in but the minute they were both seated, they went silent. They had noticed me.
My father let out a long sigh, "Kira, you cannot be serious."
"I want to go with you!" I told him, holding up his tonfas, "I'm strong too!"
Looking back, how stupid was that statement? I was five years old. Strength was not something I could've possibly possessed.
My father was smart. He knew just what kind of person I was and just what I would do if he told me to get out. He sighed again.
"Fon could you look after her? I'll go in alone." He said.
Fon had his own idea, "How about we bring Weifeng? She can sit in the back with her and I'll go in with you."
Father froze. He was against this idea. Mother was strong. It couldn't be denied but ever since the incident with Domenico Cavallone, she had lost her motivation to fight. Domenico was her best friend at one point and he had back stabbed her. What did he do? Well, let me tell you.
Just a few short weeks before Kyoya was born, my home was attacked. The culprit was a group of mafiosos under the Condoriano Family. They invaded our home when my father was away.
At the time, my mother tried to fight them off and she would have succeeded if she hadn't been eight months pregnant. She couldn't fight them off while trying to protect her unborn child and me.
The result of the battle was clear. They left my mother alive to relay the message and took me hostage. I was taken to a dirty warehouse in the town neighboring Namimori and the demands were made:
"Domenico Cavallone, bring us the money you owe us or the child gets it."
Turns out, Domenico had borrowed money from the Condoriano Family to keep his family off the streets but the Cavallone Family was a no-name flock of herbivores at the time. Of course they didn't have the means to repay their debts. So, Don Cavallone Nono did the only thing he could've done-he lied.
When the Condoriano Family came to collect, he told their boss who he had "borrowed the money for" and told him to come get it directly from us. The Condoriano Family had tried to negotiate with my father but he didn't speak Italian so he met their demands with violence. He didn't know anything about their deal with the Cavallone or even why he was being attacked. He just sent them scrambling home.
Unable to defeat my father and unable to locate Domenico and his immediate family, they came for me instead. They wanted their money back and this is the only way they thought they would be able to get it. Well… They were wrong.
They took me, drugged me to keep me quiet, and my father came looking for me. Domenico felt bad so he came to "help search" but he already knew exactly where I was because the Condoriano's had sent him the exact location where they expected to make the exchange for their hostage. And so, Domenico came to share the information with my father without giving away his secrets but my father was a sharp man. He knew something was up but he came to rescue me first.
If it isn't assured enough that the Captain of Japan's Secret Services came to get me with his personal squad backing him, Fon also came with him.
The Condoriano Family was wiped out that day. We returned home and my mother shooed away her best friend.
In the weeks to come, I recovered. Thankfully, whatever drug they used to quiet me had no side effects and I was left as good as new. Kyoya was born and when I realized how small and helpless he looked, I remember how small and helpless I was at the time. If I wanted to keep Kyoya safe, I needed strength. I needed to learn combat and following my father to work was my idea of a good way to learn.
That's the end of that story but our story with the Cavallone was just beginning.
Anyways, on Fon's suggestion, my mother got in the car with us. Something in her eyes changed that day. She got out of the car as my father's partner. Fon smiled as if he had known he'd be replaced.
When they entered the hideout, the screams were deafening. Fon held a finger to his lips and smiled, motioning for me to get out and follow him.
Inside, I saw the massacre of the yakuza group. The group seemed a hundred men strong but they were no match for my parents. It was astounding. My eyes went wide with admiration as I beheld the glory of their combat skills. I wanted to find someone to fight with me just as my parents fought together as equals and as partners.
At the battle's climax, I heard someone screaming as they rushed towards the entrance. He was just a bit older than my mother with a child in his arms. In his haste to escape, the man tripped over a corpse. When he fell, the child in his arms slipped from his arms and landed flat on his face. The little boy looked horrified when he looked up. His chocolate covered orbs were sparkling with tears.
He spotted me and stretched out a desperate hand, "Help.. Pl-Please help me!"
My father had always told me that the ability to fight ran in my genes. His blood and my mother's blood combined within me. Both of them had descended from a long line of infamous fighters and they found that combat was their calling at a young age. It would appear that I would follow in their footsteps starting today.
My body moved. Grasping my father's spare tonfas, I ran to fight off the boy's pursuers. Of course at the ripe age of five, I was so easily knocked aside. The tonfas went clattering in opposite directions as I hit the floor.
The boy stopped. He was in the middle of running to his father's aid. My tonfas went skidding across the floor and hit his boot. He looked just as horrified as he had a moment ago but he did the unexpected. He reached down and picked up the tonfa. When the attacker reached for me, he threw it at the back of his head with all his might.
The attacker was definitely surprised and this was the opening Fon needed to swoop in and put him down. In the aftermath, I came to learn the names of the two Fon had saved.
The man who had fallen over the corpse rose to his feet looking sheepish and fearful. He addressed my mother in a quiet voice, "How did you know I was here?"
My mother was stiff, "I didn't. I came to help my husband with his work."
My father curtly stated, "I didn't know you were here either, Cavallone. This was a mission assigned to me."
"Well… it seems I'm in your debt." The man with the dirty blonde hair was Domenico Cavallone. This was the man who betrayed our family, "Again…"
"Even if you severed your head it wouldn't be enough to repent for what you've done to my daughter." My mother said in a cold tone, "But… I saw what your son did."
Domenico was puzzled. He hadn't seen the way his son had thrown the tonfa at the attacker… Although his son was the whole reason I had stepped into the fight in the first place.
"Did Dino do something?"
My mother smiled at the child beside Domenico, putting her hand out, "Do you remember me?"
"You're the lady with the pretty eyes that Papa told me about!" The little boy declared with a proud smile, "I met you when we were playing hide and seek with your daughter!"
I realized hide and seek was the way Domenico and my mother had filtered my kidnapping for his son. Domenico looked nervous when his son ran right up to my mother without a single ounce of fear. Honestly, I'd be scared too if I had stabbed someone as powerful as my mother in the back.
On this day, my mother forgave Domenico for what he did to us thanks to Dino's actions.
This is the one world out of a billion parallel worlds where my mother forgave Domenico Cavallone.
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As the years went by, I saw Dino often. Domenico came to visit us whenever he had a chance. Much to my father's chagrin, Dino and I got along very well-too well. Dino was just one more to add to my very short list of people to protect. As much as my strength was for Kyoya, it was for Dino.
I trained daily. On the days where my father couldn't train me, I went through the motions with Fon. Actually, I preferred training with Fon. I had lost my grip on the tonfas I had taken into battle that day I attempted to rescue Dino. But my hands were too small, my fingers too short. I lost my grip and they went flying. If Fon hadn't jumped in, I would've lost my life there.
So if weapons were too big for my small hands, I would have to learn to fight without them and Fon was the ideal teacher. He was small and agile. We had similar fighting styles for a while but I digress.
There wasn't a single day where I didn't train in the next handful of years. Even on the days where the Cavallone Family came to see us, I trained.
Dino, on the other hand, was an herbivore. He didn't believe in fighting. He didn't want to hurt anyone or be hurt and he certainly didn't have any grace in his daily life so how in the world would he ever learn to fight without falling over his own feet?
But Dino was not in a position where he got to choose his own fate. His father was clear on his future career title-Don Cavallone Decimo.
At the age of eleven, I met the greatest hitman in the world. Reborn was Dino's tutor in all things mafia. Little by little, the crybaby I knew grew into a young man with adequate combat skills. Reborn was a strict tutor who came with them all the way to Japan so that Dino wouldn't miss a single day of training.
I was astounded. I never thought Dino would become anything more than a puppet leader but in just two short years, Reborn had turned Crybaby Dino into a decent fighter. He was nothing compared to me or my family who had been blessed with natural fighting talent but he was average! Average was a far cry from his herbivorous self!
Furthermore, Reborn was a hitman of unparalleled skills. Not even Fon could guarantee a victory against Reborn. This was unheard of in my small world. This was when I realized just how ignorant I was of the world outside of Japan. Here, my father was considered powerful but out there, in the big world, was there someone stronger?
At the age of thirteen, I asked Reborn, "If I go to Italy, will I meet more people as strong as you?"
The baby-sized hitman smiled mysteriously, "Yes. Will you come to Italy with us next time?"
I nodded before anyone could stop me.
Fon sighed quietly, murmuring, "You have sold your soul for a life of combat."
But that's exactly what I was looking for. Somewhere in my years of training, my goal to protect had become twisted. I enjoyed the challenge of fighting and I enjoyed the thrill of dominating others with my strength alone.
When I walked the streets, I was just a little girl. When I was sparring or picking fights, I was a fighter regardless of my size or age or gender. I was freed from the judgment of others. I was free to show the world that I am Hibari Kira.
Dino smiled dopily, "Well, if you come with us, you can stay at my house and we can be together every single day!"
I smirked, rolling my eyes where he could see me, "Will you charge me rent in the form of mafia services?"
Dino's family was poor and weak. They were crumbling and in danger daily. Despite my jokes, this is exactly what I was looking for to get stronger.
"H-Hey!" Dino pouted, "It'll be free of charge, of course! I wouldn't make you fight for us… I mean, you're…"
"I'm what?" I demanded, narrowing my eyes on him in a deadly glare.
His face turned pink and then red. He looked like he was about to explode if I pressured him any more.
I snorted at him and returned to my room to pack my things. My father was displeased but my mother was on my side. This is the one world out of a billion where my father doesn't object to my mafia activities. He simply told me not to bring my work home as it is not permitted in his household and I agreed.
I promised that whenever I return to Japan for visits, I would hang up my mafia mantle and just be his daughter-his power hungry, extremely combat-oriented, dangerous daughter.
I am just Hibari Kira.