80-- One Art
Title: One Art
Author: Kyun-yo
Word Count: 1539
Rating: T
Warning: Hinted alcohol abuse, murders, killing, blood... etc.
Summary: He has lost and gained things one by one.
Pairing: Yamamoto-centric.
Prompt: Losing; "the art of losing isn't hard to master"
Disclaimer: All characters (c) KHR by Amano Akira. I own nothing.
A/N: It's hard to make a fourteen year old Yama angst, so I'll bend it a bit and throw him into the future. Yeah, I'm really making things up, so just bear with me, lol. :D; I will try to make it as accurate as possible. ^^; -coughnotcough-
Some things won't make sense, just assume I made it up. 8D
OTL I'm really bad with grammar, but please bear with the tense shifts and stuff. D:\
----
---- 01
When was the time he had stopped believing that this was all a game?
Guns, blood, dying, injuries...
Were they all just part of the 'mafia-game'?
Even he, himself, doesn't remember the time when he came to accept the fact that he was in a mafia. Everyone had dismissed him as a baseball idiot, someone who couldn't comprehend the situation. But he knew more than that... much more.
At the peak age of fourteen, he was thrown into the world of mafia, only treating it as a fun roleplaying game. At the age of fifteen, as he began to experience more of the fights, he began to get the bigger picture.
It was not a game anymore.
It was now his life.
Yet his sparkling enthusiasm didn't falter.
--
At the age of seventeen, he had been on a total of twenty-one assassination missions and have completed each and every one without much difficulty. And he was still in high school.
Reborn was impressed with his performance and have given him a 'vacation', he would have Gokudera secure peace with the other families, now that some of the dangerous mafia has been eliminated.
Yamamoto could now concentrate more on his schoolwork as compared to the days when he played hooky in order to catch the target off guard.
He figured he didn't really need a vacation. He has always been slacking in school, so it didn't matter much. However after the long period of on and off absences, he somehow have gotten a bit more moodier.
He still jokes around with Tsuna and Gokudera, but sometimes when he was not with them, Tsuna catches him ignoring his fangirls and peers with only a passive laugh before he looked away.
His smile and enthusiasm seems to have disappeared; Yamamoto claims that it is because he hasn't been sleeping on the days he went on missions. He says jokingly, "What if they come back as spirits to haunt me? That would really be bad, huh?"
Tsuna looks worriedly at him as he gave his airy laugh. Gokudera says loudly to just ignore the baseball idiot-- he's just have another mood swing-- "What a girl." Reborn only nods sullenly in the background.
He had told Yamamoto, when they were in the future battling against the Milliefiore, with clear instructions to not forget that dazzling smile he always had. Reborn wasn't pleased with this aspect, but figured that it will come back sooner or later.
At age eighteen, Yamamoto smiled brightly again.
But it was only for their graduation picture.
---- 02
A few years later, he lost his father.
The old man was just carrying on the small sushi business as his son was out at work doing business as a Vongola. Of course the old man didn't treat it more than just a unknown company that sells some unknown products.
While he was sharpening his knives, ready to plunge into another day's work at the sushi bar, a group of assassins came and slaughtered him instead.
Human blood spilled on the sushi counter that day.
--
There was no funeral for him, because Vongola couldn't risk gathering all their family members for their opposing mafia rivals to kill in one place.
No one in Vongola's allied families knew who were the culprits.
He coped with the loss by drinking bottles of beer every day. He started with one cup at a nearby pub, and every day it escalated in numbers.
It didn't change the fact that he was still the best swordsman in Vongola, nor was his strength deterred. But whenever the Vongola family was off work and decide to unwind by playing some board games, Yamamoto would step out early without a goodbye.
Tsuna, now a successful Vongola boss, became worried of his behavior and asked that Gokudera follow the swordsman to see where he goes after work. Gokudera reluctantly obliged.
Yamamoto knew he was being followed, Gokudera didn't bother to hide his presence. The dark-haired man went into the usual bar he had always done for the past months and ordered the same usual drink that he always did.
Gokudera stood at a distance, eyes narrowing. He chewed his cigarette slowly as smoke fumed in aimless forms. He's watching Yamamoto take long thirsty shots of the beer. He noted that the man doesn't even bother to pour into the large beer mugs.
He was twenty-two. Young and handsome.
But he was wasted.
---03
Age twenty-three, the assassins of his father became revealed as occurrences of murder and attack on civilians appeared. He insisted that he be the one to go on the mission, but he was repeatedly denied.
Yamamoto did not move from the spot in the main office. He did not budge even though Gokudera and Tsuna tried their best to convince him--
"If you involve personal matters with this, it'll turn into more than a mere capture," Tsuna says, a frown on his face. Gokudera stands behind the Tenth, dark emerald eyes staring and examining the stern face of the man."I'm afraid I can't let you go."
"I can't guarantee the method, but I do assure you, Tsuna, I'll make sure that they don't attack anymore civilians," he says and then bows. "Please let me go."
"Takeshi-san--"
"Let him go, Tsuna." Reborn stands, tall and confident, by the door. The others didn't notice him come in and doesn't know how long he's been there. "I think that Yamamoto will be best fitting for infiltrating their slum and actually eliminating the problem. Send him in. He might solve the problem faster seeing how the low vermins are striking almost every day."
Tsuna's face flushes red and he stands from his seat, hands on the table. "Reborn! You can't just come in and barge--" He suddenly loses his breath and sighs heavily. "Fine." He sits back down onto the chair, exhausted. "Hayato-san, relay the information to Takeshi-san." His eyes shifted onto the tall young adult. "You may leave whenever you're ready."
Gokudera sneers under his breath, unimpressed by how his boss gave into the plea, but he goes along with. He takes long quick strides over to the swordsmand, gives a nod to Tsuna, and leaves the room. Yamamoto follows wordlessly afterwards.
Silence fills the room where Reborn and Tsuna sits. Tsuna looks at Reborn with a frown and he plays with the papers on his glass desk. "Reborn, I'm not very confident that Takeshi-san will actually... turn them in as I originally planned."
Reborn snickers, the rim of his hat casts a shadow over his eyes. "You're still so just even after all these years..." Reborn looks up to meet Tsuna's determined eyes. "No matter, this is what made you a great Vongola boss."
"Reborn," he says warningly, wanting to hear an answer. Tsuna is thinking that his decision will lead to an illfate, but yet he doesn't feel convicted enough to withdraw the swordsman from the mission.
"We've unleashed a wild beast," Reborn says with a widening grin. "An unpredictable man, he is... I wonder what he'll do..."
--
Gokudera recommended that Yamamoto track the movements of the mafia before he infiltrates. He said that if Yamamoto analyzed their activities, he would find the most opportune time to attack head on.
He also told him that because the odds are a hundred and counting to one, there are backups available if Yamamoto needed it. Only saying though, Gokudera said. He doubted mafia that killed civilians could ever harm the strongest swordsman in Vongola.
Yamamoto knew of the odds and the risks. He also knew that it wouldn't be easy like a walk in a park, yet he didn't pay much attention to 'analyzing'their activties.
He left on the night he was assigned; his blades were sharpened, his boxes ready, his suit and tie in check. At ten o' clock, he struck.
The base was not empty at the time, but filled with loitering mafiosi who were almost more than ready for the attack. It was then that the instructions to 'capture all alive' were thrown from all aspects of his mind, and he began the execution.
-
Five in the morning, he returns back to the base, his suit soaked in blood and sweat. It was torn in several places, but the swordsman himself was not in pieces.
Yamamoto gives Tsuna the report that he has been dreading to hear. All hundred and eighty one mafiosi, including the boss, has been eliminated. He has taken extra deliberate care to cover his tracks or any tracks that led the police to the Vongola. Tsuna was not listening to the report.
On Yamamoto's chin was a fresh scar, a deep nick in his skin.
"Oh this?" he says lightly, pointing at the open wound. "Some guy hit me there." Yamamoto smiles, but drops it quickly when he notices the boss' rather concentrated stare at the floor behind him.
"I'm really sorry, Tsuna... I couldn't help myself."
He scratches his neck, as he laughed despite Tsuna's horror.
His eyes are darker than usual, his smile fades from his lips.
"I just wanted to show Otousan the face of the man who killed him."
---Fin.
Author: Kyun-yo
Word Count: 1539
Rating: T
Warning: Hinted alcohol abuse, murders, killing, blood... etc.
Summary: He has lost and gained things one by one.
Pairing: Yamamoto-centric.
Prompt: Losing; "the art of losing isn't hard to master"
Disclaimer: All characters (c) KHR by Amano Akira. I own nothing.
A/N: It's hard to make a fourteen year old Yama angst, so I'll bend it a bit and throw him into the future. Yeah, I'm really making things up, so just bear with me, lol. :D; I will try to make it as accurate as possible. ^^; -coughnotcough-
Some things won't make sense, just assume I made it up. 8D
OTL I'm really bad with grammar, but please bear with the tense shifts and stuff. D:\
----
---- 01
When was the time he had stopped believing that this was all a game?
Guns, blood, dying, injuries...
Were they all just part of the 'mafia-game'?
Even he, himself, doesn't remember the time when he came to accept the fact that he was in a mafia. Everyone had dismissed him as a baseball idiot, someone who couldn't comprehend the situation. But he knew more than that... much more.
At the peak age of fourteen, he was thrown into the world of mafia, only treating it as a fun roleplaying game. At the age of fifteen, as he began to experience more of the fights, he began to get the bigger picture.
It was not a game anymore.
It was now his life.
Yet his sparkling enthusiasm didn't falter.
--
At the age of seventeen, he had been on a total of twenty-one assassination missions and have completed each and every one without much difficulty. And he was still in high school.
Reborn was impressed with his performance and have given him a 'vacation', he would have Gokudera secure peace with the other families, now that some of the dangerous mafia has been eliminated.
Yamamoto could now concentrate more on his schoolwork as compared to the days when he played hooky in order to catch the target off guard.
He figured he didn't really need a vacation. He has always been slacking in school, so it didn't matter much. However after the long period of on and off absences, he somehow have gotten a bit more moodier.
He still jokes around with Tsuna and Gokudera, but sometimes when he was not with them, Tsuna catches him ignoring his fangirls and peers with only a passive laugh before he looked away.
His smile and enthusiasm seems to have disappeared; Yamamoto claims that it is because he hasn't been sleeping on the days he went on missions. He says jokingly, "What if they come back as spirits to haunt me? That would really be bad, huh?"
Tsuna looks worriedly at him as he gave his airy laugh. Gokudera says loudly to just ignore the baseball idiot-- he's just have another mood swing-- "What a girl." Reborn only nods sullenly in the background.
He had told Yamamoto, when they were in the future battling against the Milliefiore, with clear instructions to not forget that dazzling smile he always had. Reborn wasn't pleased with this aspect, but figured that it will come back sooner or later.
At age eighteen, Yamamoto smiled brightly again.
But it was only for their graduation picture.
---- 02
A few years later, he lost his father.
The old man was just carrying on the small sushi business as his son was out at work doing business as a Vongola. Of course the old man didn't treat it more than just a unknown company that sells some unknown products.
While he was sharpening his knives, ready to plunge into another day's work at the sushi bar, a group of assassins came and slaughtered him instead.
Human blood spilled on the sushi counter that day.
--
There was no funeral for him, because Vongola couldn't risk gathering all their family members for their opposing mafia rivals to kill in one place.
No one in Vongola's allied families knew who were the culprits.
He coped with the loss by drinking bottles of beer every day. He started with one cup at a nearby pub, and every day it escalated in numbers.
It didn't change the fact that he was still the best swordsman in Vongola, nor was his strength deterred. But whenever the Vongola family was off work and decide to unwind by playing some board games, Yamamoto would step out early without a goodbye.
Tsuna, now a successful Vongola boss, became worried of his behavior and asked that Gokudera follow the swordsman to see where he goes after work. Gokudera reluctantly obliged.
Yamamoto knew he was being followed, Gokudera didn't bother to hide his presence. The dark-haired man went into the usual bar he had always done for the past months and ordered the same usual drink that he always did.
Gokudera stood at a distance, eyes narrowing. He chewed his cigarette slowly as smoke fumed in aimless forms. He's watching Yamamoto take long thirsty shots of the beer. He noted that the man doesn't even bother to pour into the large beer mugs.
He was twenty-two. Young and handsome.
But he was wasted.
---03
Age twenty-three, the assassins of his father became revealed as occurrences of murder and attack on civilians appeared. He insisted that he be the one to go on the mission, but he was repeatedly denied.
Yamamoto did not move from the spot in the main office. He did not budge even though Gokudera and Tsuna tried their best to convince him--
"If you involve personal matters with this, it'll turn into more than a mere capture," Tsuna says, a frown on his face. Gokudera stands behind the Tenth, dark emerald eyes staring and examining the stern face of the man."I'm afraid I can't let you go."
"I can't guarantee the method, but I do assure you, Tsuna, I'll make sure that they don't attack anymore civilians," he says and then bows. "Please let me go."
"Takeshi-san--"
"Let him go, Tsuna." Reborn stands, tall and confident, by the door. The others didn't notice him come in and doesn't know how long he's been there. "I think that Yamamoto will be best fitting for infiltrating their slum and actually eliminating the problem. Send him in. He might solve the problem faster seeing how the low vermins are striking almost every day."
Tsuna's face flushes red and he stands from his seat, hands on the table. "Reborn! You can't just come in and barge--" He suddenly loses his breath and sighs heavily. "Fine." He sits back down onto the chair, exhausted. "Hayato-san, relay the information to Takeshi-san." His eyes shifted onto the tall young adult. "You may leave whenever you're ready."
Gokudera sneers under his breath, unimpressed by how his boss gave into the plea, but he goes along with. He takes long quick strides over to the swordsmand, gives a nod to Tsuna, and leaves the room. Yamamoto follows wordlessly afterwards.
Silence fills the room where Reborn and Tsuna sits. Tsuna looks at Reborn with a frown and he plays with the papers on his glass desk. "Reborn, I'm not very confident that Takeshi-san will actually... turn them in as I originally planned."
Reborn snickers, the rim of his hat casts a shadow over his eyes. "You're still so just even after all these years..." Reborn looks up to meet Tsuna's determined eyes. "No matter, this is what made you a great Vongola boss."
"Reborn," he says warningly, wanting to hear an answer. Tsuna is thinking that his decision will lead to an illfate, but yet he doesn't feel convicted enough to withdraw the swordsman from the mission.
"We've unleashed a wild beast," Reborn says with a widening grin. "An unpredictable man, he is... I wonder what he'll do..."
--
Gokudera recommended that Yamamoto track the movements of the mafia before he infiltrates. He said that if Yamamoto analyzed their activities, he would find the most opportune time to attack head on.
He also told him that because the odds are a hundred and counting to one, there are backups available if Yamamoto needed it. Only saying though, Gokudera said. He doubted mafia that killed civilians could ever harm the strongest swordsman in Vongola.
Yamamoto knew of the odds and the risks. He also knew that it wouldn't be easy like a walk in a park, yet he didn't pay much attention to 'analyzing'their activties.
He left on the night he was assigned; his blades were sharpened, his boxes ready, his suit and tie in check. At ten o' clock, he struck.
The base was not empty at the time, but filled with loitering mafiosi who were almost more than ready for the attack. It was then that the instructions to 'capture all alive' were thrown from all aspects of his mind, and he began the execution.
-
Five in the morning, he returns back to the base, his suit soaked in blood and sweat. It was torn in several places, but the swordsman himself was not in pieces.
Yamamoto gives Tsuna the report that he has been dreading to hear. All hundred and eighty one mafiosi, including the boss, has been eliminated. He has taken extra deliberate care to cover his tracks or any tracks that led the police to the Vongola. Tsuna was not listening to the report.
On Yamamoto's chin was a fresh scar, a deep nick in his skin.
"Oh this?" he says lightly, pointing at the open wound. "Some guy hit me there." Yamamoto smiles, but drops it quickly when he notices the boss' rather concentrated stare at the floor behind him.
"I'm really sorry, Tsuna... I couldn't help myself."
He scratches his neck, as he laughed despite Tsuna's horror.
His eyes are darker than usual, his smile fades from his lips.
"I just wanted to show Otousan the face of the man who killed him."
---Fin.