I can't recall the exact point when I became hooked on this manga.

[makeste]

But I can guarantee that if for some reason I still wasn't feeling it before chapter 10, then by the time I reached the end of this chapter, I was a fan for life.


1. You know, cover page of chapter 10, it hadn't occurred to me earlier, but now that you mention it, these two almost look as though they could be related! Whoa, how crazy is that? What a mysterious world we live in!

So anyway, this chapter finds our hero Sawada Tsunayoshi searching for ways to beat the heat, and overreacting to things that actually seem quite normal. "OMG LAMBO'S TAKING A NAP IN MY ROOM! OMG REBORN'S WEARING A YUKATA AND EATING NOODLES!" Tsuna, for once in your life, calm down and just be glad that for once no one is trying to kill you.

2. You see? You see how long that moment of quiet peace lasted?! He's got to learn to appreciate the little things. Now there's a hot chick in his room trying to feed him poisonous food. Life is short, Tsuna.

Also, many thanks to Reborn for noting the lack of female characters in this manga so far and adopting more diverse hiring practices. Now if only he'd do this more often.

3. This page is awesome. Bianchi just lives in her own little world. "You're just a kid, Tsuna, you shouldn't be concerned with things like the fact that I'm trying to kill you." And if that weren't enough, she then comes out with her brand new slogan for Poison Cooking II: "Twice the killing rate!" Hell, sign me up!

She's teaching him home ec. I'm so jealous.

4. Reminding us all that the Daily Life chapters never could get more than a couple of pages without some new character randomly showing up to be tossed in the midst of whatever weirdness is currently happening, Gokudera arrives unannounced and uninvited, because that's what he does. He's also looking 8Dier than we've ever seen him thus far, I think. There's a goddamn musical note floating next to the side of his head. Man, no wonder he shows this side of himself so rarely; even I feel this bizarre urge to like. Trip him or tug on his ears or mess up his hair or something. HE JUST LOOKS SO EASY TO MESS WITH. Quick, someone go hide his shoes!

Tsuna is all, "Hey, Gokudera, what's up! GO AWAY," and in response, Gokudera tells him, "IF THERE'S A PROBLEM TENTH I WILL FUCK THAT SHIT UP FOR YOU." Interestingly, not only does Tsuna not flip out over this, he actually gives it serious consideration. Starting to see the pros of having your own personal bodyguard at your beck and call, eh, Tsuna?

Then Gokudera spots Bianchi and spontaneously dies.

5. Man, where's Yamamoto to go, "lol what?" when you need him? Anyway, Gokudera flees while Bianchi looks on with sororal fondness. Reborn assures a disbelieving Tsuna that they really are siblings, while casually divulging major spoilers for the plot some 200 or so chapters down the line. I wonder if Amano had already planned out all the details of Gokudera's backstory even now. Probably not, or else Reborn would have shown a little more discretion before blurting out the details of his secret past. (It is supposed to be secret, isn't it? Until recently, we were all under the impression that this knowledge--that Gokudera and Bianchi have different mothers--was something Gokudera's father was willing to kill to suppress, right? ??)

6. Tsuna finally finds Gokudera embracing his only friends, the trees, and then Gokudera starts spilling all the details of his secret past himself, because the hell with it. It is very dramatic, and also hilarious. Much like Gokudera himself. There are a few surprises:

• GOKUDERA IS RICH LOL.
  
• And he grew up in one of those mafia castles that are just all over the fucking place.
  
• HE PLAYED PIANO! AWW, THAT'S ADORABLE.
  
• SPEAKING OF ADORABLE, HE WAS ALSO ADORABLE.
  
• And his dad was kind of a dick.

This is one of the only panels we've ever gotten of Gokupapa, incidentally. I note that he looks nothing like either of his children. He looks like one of the generic butt-ugly background Mafiosi that we're always loling at, actually. This worries me, since characters like that invariably end up doing nothing important in the manga ever. NOOOOOOOOO.

7. How did Gokudera even know about Romeo?! HE LEFT WHEN HE WAS EIGHT AND SHE WAS TWELVE ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT THEY OCCASIONALLY MET UP FOR LUNCH AFTERWARD TO DISCUSS THEIR LOVE LIVES OR SOMETHING. Somehow, this doesn't jive with my mental image of the Gokudera siblings! At all!!

Well, he has a photo of him, so maybe Bianchi just wrote him a letter. That sounds very much like something she would do, actually.

8. This is easily the most horrible thing Tsuna has ever done to Lambo, or anyone else. LET'S TAKE THE FIVE-YEAR-OLD CHILD AND USE HIM TO DISTRACT THE HOMICIDAL POISONOUS WOMAN SO THAT I DON'T HAVE TO TAKE HOME EC WITH HER. You are going to hell, Tsuna.

Lambo, demonstrating admirable self-defense instincts, denies ever owning or using such a thing as a "ten-year bazooka", but look how much he's sweating, Tsuna. You know you can get him to crack if you keep pushing. And I have to wonder why the Bovino boss even gave the five-year-old child a bazooka if he didn't want him to use it (LOGIC WHAT LOGIC HAHA), but that's beside the point, I suppose.

So Tsuna reasons that if Lambo won't willingly shoot himself, he can get Reborn to bully him into shooting himself (the special hell, Tsuna. The special hell), and walks out to the yard where Reborn is using Leon to dry his backside. Tsuna asks Reborn to "beat up Lambo lightly," and Gokudera's dad is totally not the only dick in this chapter, you guys.

9. S-sob oh Daily Life, you're just the arc that keeps on giving. I. I don't even.

• CHECK IT, REBORN DOIN' A POSE SHITT P WOULD BE PROUD OF.
  
• AND HERE'S LAMBO, ALL SET TO JUMP OFF THE FUCKING ROOF, BECAUSE WHY NOT.
  
• DIIIIIIIIIIIE, REBORNNNNNNNNNNNN!
  
• h-his skeleton. o.m.g.

And then we get TYL!Lambo drenched to the skin in a kiddie pool. You're welcome, ladies.

10. Man, for a minute there, Lambo must have thought he'd won the jackpot. "My younger self summoned me to get it on with a random Italian chick!" Oh, you wish. But your life is not that awesome, Lambo.

On the other hand, we, the audience, had already been expecting this.

To Tsuna's credit, he apparently did not realize the danger he was placing Lambo in after all! He says. I don't know, though, something about the eagerness with which he shouted, "BIANCHI COME HERE LOOK!!!1"... I just can't help but suspect the worst.

In the end, Reborn showed mercy on them all and sent Bianchi off to hunt for an eel somewhere in the countryside, while Tsuna and Gokudera had perhaps their first real moment of honest bonding as friends, under the mutual shadow of fear cast by their most fearsome adversary to date.

This chapter almost made me sad while reading it, because as amazing as the crack in KHR still is even now, it doesn't come close to approaching the glory days.

Also, dismahboomstick, I hope you had a happy birthday several days ago orz!