It’s About Time We Worked Together: Yamamoto/Gokudera (Katekyo Hitman Reborn!), Part I
Author: Lamp lampazo_libre
Fandom: Katekyo Hitman Reborn
Pairing: Yamamoto Takeshi/Gokudera Hayato
Spoilers: Till chapter 270.
Word Count: 6000+
Disclaimer: Everything goes to Amano Akira.
Beta: saying_sooth
Notes: My eternal thanks to
saying_sooth for being a wonderful beta;
rodickparker for infinite encouragement and constant help through the whole
process;
pectus_pectoris for providing edited pictures from the whole manga;
and
lawliet69 for suggesting the idea at first place.
Special thanks to ship_manifesto mods for the extensions.
Series Intro.
Basically, as any site or Wikipedia will tell you, Katekyo Hitman Reborn is a shounen manga/anime series about mafia.
Don’t be fooled.
If you expect criminal affairs, drug trafficking and jazz music in the background - don’t hold your breath. As for badass guys in suits, through - that’s an entirely different matter. You’ve come to the right place. The series is rather famous for its number of hot male characters, and on the other side, its absolute minority and relative bleakness of female ones. It’s practically crammed with apparent and not so apparent fanservice. So, no matter how exotic and ecce
ntric your tastes are, you’ll find someone to suit your tastes.
The story revolves around a teenage boy, Sawada Tsunayoshi, No-Good Tsuna, who’s been living his mediocre life in your common Japanese town, Namimori, until one day forty-centimeters-high baby Reborn appears in his house, announcing that Tsuna is the future boss of one of the most influential mafia families in the world, the Vongola; and furthermore, that he, Reborn, is going to be Tsuna’s very own home tutor in order to whip him into shape for this position.
It turns out that being a mafia boss requires the ability to literally light a special flame on your forehead after you’re been shot in the said forehead, and to use this flame to fight all sorts of bad guys who have even weirder abilities, in order to maintain and keep your position.
The series has
its own mythology: the boss of Vongola family is The Sky, and has a matching Sky ring, evidence of his position and simultaneously one of his power (Flame) sources. His six guardians (essentially, the keepers of magical rings that have various kinds of Flames) have different attributes that somehow collaborate with the Sky - namely Storm, Rain, Sun, etc.
It’s actually better than it sounds, but I must admit that there are a lot of questionable moments in the manga setup, for example, the fact that the universe was created by the mafia.
So, throughout the series, Tsuna and his eventually gathered set of guardians - mostly, his schoolmates - go through various tournaments of increasing complexity, gain a lot of allies and enemies (half of whom eventually turn into allies as well) power up, and currently are in the ten-years-later future, struggling to defeat another family leader in order to save the world.
This manifesto is for two of Sawada Tsunayoshi’s guardians, his closest henchmen, Gokudera Hayato and Yamamoto Takeshi.
I must say beforehand, through, that since we are talking about two boys, and it’s a Shounen, teenage-oriented series, this pairing isn’t and will never be truly confirmed as canon. So, how you interpret this relationship - as romantic one or just as a damn close friendship, is purely your matter of choice.
Gokudera Hayato.
The Storm Guardian, “59.”
&
nbsp;
Introduced in the third chapter of the manga, Gokudera is Tsuna’s first subordinate, most loyal follower and self proclaimed Right Hand Man.
Hayato Gokudera is three-quarters Italian, one-quarter Japanese, the fruit of a brief affair between a boss of one of Italian mafia families and young half-Japanese pianist. Despite being formally a bastard, he’s accepted as his father’s son, claimed as his legitimate wife’s younger child and is raised in the family castle along with his older (half-)sister.
He is able to see his true mother several times per year, but even then, she’s introduced to him as a piano teacher. However, even those brief but enjoyable encounters stop at the age of three, when his mother dies in strange circumstances that suggest his father’s hand in the whole affair.
Moody, ill-tempered little Hayato lives in the castle, until at the age of eight he overhears a conversation about his true origins, and all hell breaks loose. He brands his father a murderer, abandons his family and runs away from his house. He spends six years travelling around Italy, presumably living on the streets, being rejected everywhere because of his mixed roots, and at the beginning of the series ends up in Japan, summoned by Reborn to join the Vongola family.
Although his childhood did make a huge impact on him and form a decent chunk of his personality, Gokudera is not quite your common resident angstbasket who stops to brood every now and then about his oh-so-traumatizing past.
A constant outsider, always lonely, Gokudera is desperately in search of a place to stand, of someone to be useful to. However, after being repeatedly kicked through his whole life, he develops an exaggeratedly tough, defensive attitude to
add to his initial volatile personality. According to Gokudera, the best defense is offence, so during his first encounter with Tsuna, Gokudera immediately tries to blow him up, and, since self-preservation is not his top priority, nearly finishes himself in process. After Tsuna prevents the explosion and, frankly, saves Gokudera’s life, Gokudera promptly hands his infinite loyalty to his new boss, someone who is finally going to need him, someone who is, hopefully, going to give his stray life a purpose.
Having been seriously hurt more than once in his life, Gokudera is overly cautious and even his initial Weapon Of Choice - dynamite, is picked to allow him stay out of anyone’s close range. Even in combat, he is inside of his supposedly-safe bubble of solitude.
All of Gokudera’s life experience leads him to the conclusion that affection is the plague that has to be avoided by any costs - all the people he w
as somehow attached to only hurt him in various ways. His mother died, his father was presumably the cause of her death, his sister literally fed him poison (accidentally, but that’s not the point in his eyes.) However, starved for affirmation after being constantly rejected, he desperately, although unconsciously, desires to finally belong somewhere. The situation itself is rather contradictory, and Gokudera deals with it by trying to conceal (usually without any particular success) any sign of his emotions, masking them under deliberately rough behavior and snappish outbursts.
The one and only exception is his endless and open loyalty to Tsuna, which is validated by two reasons. One: Tsuna is so innocent and transparently good that Gokudera immediately sees - is practically forced to see - there is no harm meant, and that’s essential for his little insecure world, where practically everyone means harm. Two: Loyalty is somehow the noble
type of emotion to have and show, and it doesn’t have any hidden, deeply personal layers beneath, something that can be used against him and make him look weak - and the little scared boy inside of Gokudera is terrified of nothing more than of looking weak.
Take away his pride, and he will have nothing to give at all, so he holds onto his pride with claws and teeth.
All his demonstrated badassery, over-accessorized get up, rude behavior, chain-smoking delinquency, constant cursing and insulting everyone around just for the Hell of it, even his flashy dynamites serve one and only one purpose - to make him look tough, independent and invincible
However, all this façade only shows
how much he wants to be seen and recognized.
If you take it away, you can see an intelligent, even nerdy kid, who has a dorky softness for occult designs and gets easily excited over mentions of mythic monsters.
Gokudera does, did and will do everything possible and impossible to show that’s he’s useful, not useless. The affirmation of his utility comes in the form of his figure of authority’s approval - ultimately, in the Tenth’s praise. Thus, Gokudera’s reaction to it is often exaggerated to the point of cheesy and grotesque.
Basically Gokudera goes out of his way to be a royal jerk around everyone except Tsuna. Lately, though, he seems to relatively mellow around certain people, but just a little,
and he still defends like a hawk his position of Right Hand Man from potential (imagined) usurpations.
Yamamoto Takeshi.
The Rain Guardian, “80”.
Takeshi Yamamoto, one of Tsuna’s classmates and second in line of his followers, is presented a couple of chapters later than Gokudera. Tsuna and Yamamoto seem to be in nodding acquaintance since elementary school, but only start to hang out together after the beginning of the canon timeline, when Yamamoto joins Tsuna’s Mafioso Family.<
/p>
Yamamoto is a typical Japanese kid, with a common name, brown eyes/black hair color scheme and a dad who owns a sushi restaurant. He’s ever-friendly, easy-going, popular, has a light and optimistic personality, is rather mediocre at studying - mainly because of not bothering about it at all - and fantastic at baseball.
Frankly, at the beginning of the series, baseball is Yamamoto’s life - when he breaks his arm and is unable to play, he attempts to jump from the school roof. Thankfully, he’s saved by Tsuna, and is invited to join the Family. Yamamoto embraces the idea with astonishing easiness - thinking though, that it’s an entertaining role-play mafia game - an
d starts participating in Family activities with fair vigor.
At first glance, he seems to be a rather dumb baseball jock, but soon, with increasing frequency, we start to find evidence of Yamamoto being far deeper and more perceptive than he looks - or chooses to look. He’s able to judge other people’s characters with surprising accuracy and more often than not make observations of almost frightening insightfulness. After a while, it becomes apparent that, although naïve in some aspects and genuinely a nice and kind person, Yamamoto is much smarter and more self-aware than he presents himself.
Yamamoto loves a challenge. The prize is not important; he just loves the process and winning.
He’s able to dedicate all of himself to his goal - and when he does so, when he’s reall
y into anything he does, all cheerfulness slips off him in a moment - and we can see a determined Yamamoto, sharp and dangerous. This is first Yamamoto the baseball star, and later, Yamamoto the natural hitman , given this title by rather-harsh-in-his-judgments Reborn.
Used to being the all-around star and being admired by everyone around, including his new “Boss” Tsuna, he’s a little surprised and rather amused by Gokudera’s refusal to go along and his sheer dislike of everything Yamamoto does. The moment said dislike is somehow presented in the form of competition, Yamamoto immediately accepts it. However, he treats that like a game too, which is what drives Gokudera, who takes everything a little too seriously, nuts.
The canon history.
The moment Gokudera and Yamamoto meet each other, in the very beginning of the manga, Gokudera’s first wish is, typically, to kill Yamamoto for daring to steal the Tenth’s precious attention.
Nevertheless, after a quick trial where Yamamoto proves his capability to be a good fighter and protector to the boss (Yamamoto thinks the trial is a game), Gokudera has togruntingly accept the fact that Yamamoto is not completely useless. Nothing more yet, because he is barely able to tolerate Yam
amoto’s presence and always ready to fight to protect his self-proclaimed position of Tsuna’s Right-Hand Man.
Yamamoto, physiologically unable to reject any sort of challenge and genuinely amused by Gokuderathe “interesting guy”, accepts this strange sort-of-rivalry, and thus it begins.
While the series goes through Daily Life Arc, we learn quite a few things about our boys.
Despite Gokudera claiming he hates Yamamoto’s company, they end up showing everywhere together. Literally, everywhere.
School , street walk , countryside picnic , snowball fight , New Year celebrations . Tsuna’s house, it seems, they don’t visit one by one at all. And although they always provide some kind of excuse , it’s amazing how much time they spend with each other, studying, resting, having a summer vacation , having a winter vacation, being on a cruise, the list goes on. They don’t seem to part at all, for crissakes - a fact that is once presented by Gokudera in adorably in-denial manner.
Of course, they grow more and more familiar , learning a lot of things about each other. Gokudera soon is able to
use Yamamoto’s character traits for his own purpose. learns to deal with Gokudera’s explosive temper , and does this on every occasion. Things get pretty physical in those times, see?
By the way, for two friends, they seem to share a lot of close physical contact , and I’m not even talking about times when they quarrel.
To add suggestiveness to the picture, they seem weirdly embarrassed when found out in the middle of it.
Aside from verbal fights between them that show us an oddly irritated Yamamoto, we also see him genuinely mad when fighting a punk that had just taken Gokudera down. Gokudera, actually, is the only one who can drive Yamamoto out of his cheerful, sunny element like that. The feeling is mutual: if around other people explosive-Gokudera is at least somehow civil, he becomes outright hostile around Yamamoto. It’s apparent as day that there is some kind of tension between them, whatever the nature of this tension may be.
E
ven clearer is that they have more interest in each other than in their respective armies of fangirls.
Sometimes, in the middle of action, Gokudera forgets that he’s grumpy loner who’s supposed to hate Yamamoto’s guts, and they make an awesome tag team , an exceptionallyeffective duo that can actually watch each other’s back. And look hot in process. Actually, they can make a great team not only in battle - they even sell bananas at sum
mer festival together.
This pattern is somehow punctuated by pleasant accents, for example: once, Gokudera, in the bliss of being reassured of the steadiness of his position in the family after a proper Right-Hand-Man-fail breakdown, teasingly ruffles Yamamoto’s hair, mocking and calling him, of all names, Yamamocchan. The nickname was picked up by the fandom in a heartbeat.
When Gokudera is transformed into a knee-high cursing baby, Yamamoto doesn’t even see the difference, because he can, in his own words, feel Gokudera. On top of that, until Gokudera is turned back into his usual form, Yam
amoto fairly enjoys carrying around his sputtering and kicking reduced-rival.
And that’s an initial exposition, because the actual action starts after that.
Kokyo Arc.
The story moves to the first serious action arc, where, basically, a creepy guy who is able to possess people, who died and got reincarnated several times - he’s going to become one of guardians later - and his sidekicks, the Kokyo gang, are after Tsuna’s ass.
The gang terrorizes the Namimori town and knocks off strong guys one by one. Gokudera is taken down, and when Yamamoto arrives to the scene, he snaps so hard , it’s even pointed out by Tsuna. After beating the living daylight out of the opponent, worried Yamamoto rushes to Gokudera to see whether he’s okay, and doesn’t leave his side later in hospital.
Turns out Tsuna and the crew have to go and assault the enemies. The expedition kicks off, and the first one to take a battle is Yamamoto, leaving Gokudera to worry . But the minion is taken care of, and again the boys show that they already work as a team . When Gokudera is down , Yamamoto shields him, and then, as Yamamoto is defeated, the one who cries out for him is Gokudera.
ign="left">Further battle ensues, but our pair doesn’t participate due to being beat up. However Tsuna gets the work done after all, and we move on to the next arc.
The Varia Arc.
Essentially, a year after previous events, a bunch of really tough guys arrives in the town to challenge Tsuna’s position as Vongola’s boss. Tsuna and his guardians each have to hold a battle against their respective opponents to prove his or her right to own a Flame ring. Stakes are high - frankly, either they will have to win or will be dead after the end of tournament.
After an obligatory ten days training, where Gokudera sorts out his Instinct for survival issues, and Yamamoto learns that his father is conveniently the last master of a unique sword-fighting style, the battles begin.
First of the two to fight is Gokudera. He puts up a great fight, looks stripterrific and wins, but unfortunately, his opponent is a mentally challenged freak who doesn’t value his life in the slightest, so the duo ends up fighting for the ring with the perspective of being blown up in a couple of seconds. The tension rises, and Yamamoto and Tsuna have to shake Gokudera’s mind with a rather mushy heated speech about friendship and fireworks. Epiphany ensues, and Gokudera steps out alive of post-explosion smoke - much worse to wear and without the ring.
The first person he goes to is Yamamoto, because, although Gokudera hates to admit it, he has to entrust all his faith into his rival . Yamamoto intuitively chooses the right way not to humiliate Gokudera further, an
d relieves the tension by a bright honest smile.
Next day, the crew, featuring a bandaged up Gokudera, watches Yamamoto fighting his own opponent. Engrossed by the view, Gokudera shows us a whole spectrum of emotions: from desperately worried in one tense moment to weirdly proud when Yamamoto does well.
Yamamoto wins the fight and saves the ring, and a couple of days later is the final showdown.
After a nasty accident involving all guardians suffering from prolonged, paralytic poison in different buildings, both Yamamoto and Gokudera get free from it and
meet in the middle of the battle , looking really relieved to see each other safe. They instantly join forces to free the remaining guardians, touchingly worrying about each other wounds in their own respective ways.
They burst into the building to fight the enemy and end up being all wrapped in, um, tentacles. After pulling some well-coordinated impromptu teamwork, they work it out, and rush to help their leader on the main battleground.
<
p align="left">Some shounen beating and talking happens; Tsuna’s party, of course, wins; and the dynamic duo witnesses it standing side by side, looking proudly into each other eyes.
Fanfare, and we move the present, biggest so far arc.
Ten Year Later Arc.
In this arc, Tsuna and the crew are transferred ten years later into the future, where they find out that TYL (Ten Years Later, I’ll refer to it like that from now on to save us the time) Tsuna is dead, and so are some other characters. Others are being hunted, and, all in all, the whole world is about to be ruined by Big Bad of the arc, Byakuran, and his army of subordinates. The Vongola struggle to defeat the enemy, cheesily, to save the world, and most importantly, to return back home to the past.
So, the first one to be transfe
rred into the future is Tsuna himself, who spends about three minutes talking to a very upset and very hot TYL Gokudera , and almost immediately Gokudera switches places with his older counterpart. The pair after a while encounters TYL Yamamoto, who’s not-so-ugly-looking, and the older Yamamoto smugly comments on how amazing Gokudera has been in the last ten years.
Later, in the base, TYL Yamamoto bitterly reveals the situation to guests from the past, and Gokudera, frenzied, punches him for letting the Tenth die. It’s told, through, that TYL Gokudera was there too at ti
me of Tsuna’s death, and Gokudera is crushed. The meeting ends, and no one is happy. That night, Tsuna cries himself to sleep, Gokudera, who’s sharing the room with boss, is restless, and TYL Yamamoto isn’t shown.
About 5% of Yamamoto/Gokudera fanfiction and fanart revolves around this night, the only canon interaction of TYL Yamamoto and regular Gokudera, with its endless possibilities.
The next day, the trio goes to investigate the situation further and immediately gets involved in a fight with the enemy’s soldiers. In the middle of the fight, regular Yamamoto is switched with his TYL counterpart; however, not knowing the situation at all, he still manages to handle it well. While no one - most importantly Yamamoto
- can’t hear, Gokudera lets himselfto praise another with a gentle expression.
Interlude #1.
Two days later, the team must split to complete two missions at one time, and Gokudera and Yamamoto are assigned to fight one of Big Bad’s six highest-ranked officers, Gamma, a guy with the capability to release about six million volts in one blow and a slightly sardonic sense of humour.
As they arrive at the battlefield, Gokudera wastes no time in stating how much exactly he hates the other, so he won’t team up with Yamamoto for anything. Period. Yamamoto tries to laugh it off, as usual, but Gokudera is d
ead serious and is determined to use even weapons to make his point.
Apparently, Yamamoto has had enough of Gokudera’s PMS-ing woman antics, because he actually snaps.
With an offended expression, in a harsh, dry tone, he promises Gokudera not to interfere in the fight if Gokudera wants it so.
Meanwhile the enemy floats above them on his rocket boots, genuinely enjoying the scene.
So, Gokudera proceeds to fight alone, and, naturally, is instantly put at a gigantic disadvantage, because Gamma is tenfold stronger and more experienced. While
Gokudera gets electrocuted, Yamamoto stands behind the tree with a grim expression and looks like he is mentally resolving himself to something.
So, when Gamma is about to deliver the final blow, Yamamoto interferes.And when Yamamoto sets his mind on something, he does it thoroughly, so he punches Gokudera good five meters away with the dull side of his sword.
After a none-too-gentle landing, a perplexed Gokudera is about to demand an explanation when Yamamoto turns to him with the expression of dead calm anger, and finally speaks his mind.
Essentially, he’s fed up with Gokudera being the arrogant jerk he is, and he thinks Gokudera needs to finally stop suffocating Tsuna with attention and start trusting other people, because that’s what a proper Right Hand Man should do.
And the point comes across.
Yamamoto turns away from a transfixed and astonished Gokudera and is about to attack Gamma. But when he almost gets himself fried by Gamma’s lightning, he’s kicked out of the blow zone by Gokudera.Gokud
era covers his saving of Yamamoto’s life with some awkward excuse of Boss being devastated by his death, but, really, no one’s fooled.
Some gears have finally shifted in Gokudera’s head.
Storm, rain and downpour references and their variations have long ago became so cliché in Yamamoto/Gokudera fandom, that they are even annoying nowadays, but the phrase itself, of course, is still great.
So, the duo teams up, and Gokudera voices his plan. It&r
squo;s actually pretty lame, but no one cares at the moment.
Of course, they pull it off, and Gamma seems to be taken down.
The pair exchanges a couple of relieved phrases, Yamamoto is back to his sunny attitude, and Gokudera is smug.
However, turns out that the pretty little plan didn’t work out as well as was intended, and Gamma is alive and kicking. And kicking is what he does, electrocuting and beating the Hell out of both boys.
It’s really not pretty.
Both are taken down, and Gamma proceeds to interrogate - more like torture Gokudera. It’s still not pretty. Bleeding, beaten up Yamamoto tries to stop him, but of course, the only thing he’s succeeded at is receiving a massive amount of
electroshock, to Gokudera’s horror.
Half-fried, Yamamoto blacks out, and, refusing to tell anything, Gokudera soon follows.
The situation seems desperate, but just when Gamma is ready to finish them for good, another guardian shows up and saves the day.
Gokudera wakes up in a hospital room at the base, and, overwhelmed with guilt and shame, promptly apologizes to Tsuna, who welcomes him back.
Speechless with the fact that Yamamoto is alive, Gokudera shows an opened, raw with emotions expression for a moment, and then goes into habitual, defensive mode, his safety zone.
The pair recovers from their wounds, and proceeds to training.
Gokudera wallows in his feeling of utter uselessness, struggling to figure out a complicated weapon his future self had left, and simultaneously stresses himself with family issues.
Reborn reveals the truth about Gokudera’s rather traumatizing past to Yamamoto and Tsuna, and Yamamoto decides to cheer him up by making sushi all together.
Despite how lame it sounds, that actually works.
Later, Yamamoto continues to cheer him up whenever opportunity presents itself. The duo exchanges a pair of positively gentle expressions.
In the end, Gokudera finally figures out his bloody weapon, and guess who takes time to interrupt his own training in order to spy on him? You are right, take a cookie.
The anime offers us their dialogue in the middle of the training period. The event takes place in the locker room, and Yamamoto spends the whole time half-naked. For some reason.
After several days, Tsuna decides to invade the main enemy’s outpost in Japan, the Melone Base, and the crew throws a party the evening before. Yamamoto and Gokudera get drunk together, with adorably identical expressions, and after that everyone goes to sleep. The fandom explodes with drunken sex fanfiction.
At night, the invasion begins. After several battles and a couple of Yamamoto’s touch-downs on Gokudera, the company eventually split, leaving together Yamamoto, Gokudera, the unconscious woman Lal Mirch they carry on their backs in turns, and the Sun guardian, Ryohei.
They encounter yet another enemy, and Gokudera and Yamamoto share about a billion panels, fanboying at Ryohei owning the said enemy.
After the minion is taken down, the three of them continue their way through the base, trying to reach their destination - the mysterious machine in the very center of it.
Interlude #2.
The structure of Melone base makes it possible to move parts of it relative to each other, and the trio is caught in the middle of said movement. Suddenly Gokudera and Ryohei start to rise with a part of t
he floor, and Yamamoto, who is carry Lal Mirch now, is being left down.
And Gokudera makes a gesture that would’ve been unspeakable earlier.
Risking losing his own hand and looking desperate, he reaches out for Yamamoto to hold onto him, but, unfortunately, it’s too late.
To say that Yamamoto is astonished at Gokudera’s action is a gross understatement.
If that expression doesn’t show outright affection, I don’t know what does.
A frenzied Gokudera keeps banging at the walls in a doomed attempt to make them open, but to no avail.
Seeing as there’s no way to do anything, everyone decides to just continue with their goal.
The anime doesn’t show this exact expression, but they do make two absolutely identical flashbacks of this scene, making both Yamamoto and Gokudera remember it with somber expressions.
Both Yamamoto and Gokudera have their respective battles - Gokudera’s opponent is their old acquaintance Gamma, and the brutal battle ends with a draw, both participants unconscious. Yamamoto ends up knocked out after an infamous suddenintroduction to the wall.
The invasion ends up more or less in success -they reach their goal, but thin
gs turn out to be different from what it seemed. During the obligatory long shounen exposition talk, Yamamoto, brought to the room with the rest of guardians, is still unconscious.
When he finally wakes up, Gokudera tries to half-heartedly cover his relief, being grumpy about Yamamoto“making other people worry.”
Anyway, the crew goes back to their base to train again for yet another upcoming battle, and for some reason, Gokudera, who earlier had been sharing a room with Tsuna, switches and becomes Yamamoto’s roommate.
All in all, they seem much closer than before - Gokudera doesn’t even attempt to throw away Yamamoto’s arm when it is put around his shoulder, and Yamamoto’s expressions become more and more open.
The manga’s diplomatic language calls their interactions “being energetic.”
However, training is training, and soon Yamamoto’s personal tutor, the angry and pretty swordsman Squalo, whom Yamamoto fought back in Varia arc,(remember, half of the enemies end up being kind of allies in the end) arrives to snatch him away for some outside training. Gokudera isn’t amused in the slightest.
Separation doesn’t last more than a couple of chapters, and right before the battle, Yamamoto comes back. Gokudera, of all people present, immediately scowls him for almost being late, and Yamamoto takes Gokudera’s right to lecture him as a given.
The battle they are going to requires putting a sexy suit, um, because. Unfortunately, Yamamoto is an amateur in wearing formal stuff, so he needs help in putting on his neck tie. But since he has Gokudera, it’s not a problem, and the work is done.
The battle happens, and although Yamamoto defeats the needed target and even gets praise from Gokudera, they still lose.
The whole Vongola company, with new allies, retreats to rest for a while and prepare for announced FINAL battle.
Right now, the battle has just begun, and we all are looking forward for upcoming interactions of the dynamic duo.
Continued in part II .
Fandom: Katekyo Hitman Reborn
Pairing: Yamamoto Takeshi/Gokudera Hayato
Spoilers: Till chapter 270.
Word Count: 6000+
Disclaimer: Everything goes to Amano Akira.
Beta: saying_sooth
Notes: My eternal thanks to
saying_sooth for being a wonderful beta;
rodickparker for infinite encouragement and constant help through the whole
process;
pectus_pectoris for providing edited pictures from the whole manga;
and
lawliet69 for suggesting the idea at first place.
Special thanks to ship_manifesto mods for the extensions.
Series Intro.
Basically, as any site or Wikipedia will tell you, Katekyo Hitman Reborn is a shounen manga/anime series about mafia.
Don’t be fooled.
If you expect criminal affairs, drug trafficking and jazz music in the background - don’t hold your breath. As for badass guys in suits, through - that’s an entirely different matter. You’ve come to the right place. The series is rather famous for its number of hot male characters, and on the other side, its absolute minority and relative bleakness of female ones. It’s practically crammed with apparent and not so apparent fanservice. So, no matter how exotic and ecce
ntric your tastes are, you’ll find someone to suit your tastes.
The story revolves around a teenage boy, Sawada Tsunayoshi, No-Good Tsuna, who’s been living his mediocre life in your common Japanese town, Namimori, until one day forty-centimeters-high baby Reborn appears in his house, announcing that Tsuna is the future boss of one of the most influential mafia families in the world, the Vongola; and furthermore, that he, Reborn, is going to be Tsuna’s very own home tutor in order to whip him into shape for this position.
It turns out that being a mafia boss requires the ability to literally light a special flame on your forehead after you’re been shot in the said forehead, and to use this flame to fight all sorts of bad guys who have even weirder abilities, in order to maintain and keep your position.
The series has
its own mythology: the boss of Vongola family is The Sky, and has a matching Sky ring, evidence of his position and simultaneously one of his power (Flame) sources. His six guardians (essentially, the keepers of magical rings that have various kinds of Flames) have different attributes that somehow collaborate with the Sky - namely Storm, Rain, Sun, etc.
It’s actually better than it sounds, but I must admit that there are a lot of questionable moments in the manga setup, for example, the fact that the universe was created by the mafia.
So, throughout the series, Tsuna and his eventually gathered set of guardians - mostly, his schoolmates - go through various tournaments of increasing complexity, gain a lot of allies and enemies (half of whom eventually turn into allies as well) power up, and currently are in the ten-years-later future, struggling to defeat another family leader in order to save the world.
This manifesto is for two of Sawada Tsunayoshi’s guardians, his closest henchmen, Gokudera Hayato and Yamamoto Takeshi.
I must say beforehand, through, that since we are talking about two boys, and it’s a Shounen, teenage-oriented series, this pairing isn’t and will never be truly confirmed as canon. So, how you interpret this relationship - as romantic one or just as a damn close friendship, is purely your matter of choice.
Gokudera Hayato.
The Storm Guardian, “59.”
&
nbsp;
Introduced in the third chapter of the manga, Gokudera is Tsuna’s first subordinate, most loyal follower and self proclaimed Right Hand Man.
Hayato Gokudera is three-quarters Italian, one-quarter Japanese, the fruit of a brief affair between a boss of one of Italian mafia families and young half-Japanese pianist. Despite being formally a bastard, he’s accepted as his father’s son, claimed as his legitimate wife’s younger child and is raised in the family castle along with his older (half-)sister.
He is able to see his true mother several times per year, but even then, she’s introduced to him as a piano teacher. However, even those brief but enjoyable encounters stop at the age of three, when his mother dies in strange circumstances that suggest his father’s hand in the whole affair.
Moody, ill-tempered little Hayato lives in the castle, until at the age of eight he overhears a conversation about his true origins, and all hell breaks loose. He brands his father a murderer, abandons his family and runs away from his house. He spends six years travelling around Italy, presumably living on the streets, being rejected everywhere because of his mixed roots, and at the beginning of the series ends up in Japan, summoned by Reborn to join the Vongola family.
Although his childhood did make a huge impact on him and form a decent chunk of his personality, Gokudera is not quite your common resident angstbasket who stops to brood every now and then about his oh-so-traumatizing past.
A constant outsider, always lonely, Gokudera is desperately in search of a place to stand, of someone to be useful to. However, after being repeatedly kicked through his whole life, he develops an exaggeratedly tough, defensive attitude to
add to his initial volatile personality. According to Gokudera, the best defense is offence, so during his first encounter with Tsuna, Gokudera immediately tries to blow him up, and, since self-preservation is not his top priority, nearly finishes himself in process. After Tsuna prevents the explosion and, frankly, saves Gokudera’s life, Gokudera promptly hands his infinite loyalty to his new boss, someone who is finally going to need him, someone who is, hopefully, going to give his stray life a purpose.
Having been seriously hurt more than once in his life, Gokudera is overly cautious and even his initial Weapon Of Choice - dynamite, is picked to allow him stay out of anyone’s close range. Even in combat, he is inside of his supposedly-safe bubble of solitude.
All of Gokudera’s life experience leads him to the conclusion that affection is the plague that has to be avoided by any costs - all the people he w
as somehow attached to only hurt him in various ways. His mother died, his father was presumably the cause of her death, his sister literally fed him poison (accidentally, but that’s not the point in his eyes.) However, starved for affirmation after being constantly rejected, he desperately, although unconsciously, desires to finally belong somewhere. The situation itself is rather contradictory, and Gokudera deals with it by trying to conceal (usually without any particular success) any sign of his emotions, masking them under deliberately rough behavior and snappish outbursts.
The one and only exception is his endless and open loyalty to Tsuna, which is validated by two reasons. One: Tsuna is so innocent and transparently good that Gokudera immediately sees - is practically forced to see - there is no harm meant, and that’s essential for his little insecure world, where practically everyone means harm. Two: Loyalty is somehow the noble
type of emotion to have and show, and it doesn’t have any hidden, deeply personal layers beneath, something that can be used against him and make him look weak - and the little scared boy inside of Gokudera is terrified of nothing more than of looking weak.
Take away his pride, and he will have nothing to give at all, so he holds onto his pride with claws and teeth.
All his demonstrated badassery, over-accessorized get up, rude behavior, chain-smoking delinquency, constant cursing and insulting everyone around just for the Hell of it, even his flashy dynamites serve one and only one purpose - to make him look tough, independent and invincible
However, all this façade only shows
how much he wants to be seen and recognized.
If you take it away, you can see an intelligent, even nerdy kid, who has a dorky softness for occult designs and gets easily excited over mentions of mythic monsters.
Gokudera does, did and will do everything possible and impossible to show that’s he’s useful, not useless. The affirmation of his utility comes in the form of his figure of authority’s approval - ultimately, in the Tenth’s praise. Thus, Gokudera’s reaction to it is often exaggerated to the point of cheesy and grotesque.
Basically Gokudera goes out of his way to be a royal jerk around everyone except Tsuna. Lately, though, he seems to relatively mellow around certain people, but just a little,
and he still defends like a hawk his position of Right Hand Man from potential (imagined) usurpations.
Yamamoto Takeshi.
The Rain Guardian, “80”.
Takeshi Yamamoto, one of Tsuna’s classmates and second in line of his followers, is presented a couple of chapters later than Gokudera. Tsuna and Yamamoto seem to be in nodding acquaintance since elementary school, but only start to hang out together after the beginning of the canon timeline, when Yamamoto joins Tsuna’s Mafioso Family.<
/p>
Yamamoto is a typical Japanese kid, with a common name, brown eyes/black hair color scheme and a dad who owns a sushi restaurant. He’s ever-friendly, easy-going, popular, has a light and optimistic personality, is rather mediocre at studying - mainly because of not bothering about it at all - and fantastic at baseball.
Frankly, at the beginning of the series, baseball is Yamamoto’s life - when he breaks his arm and is unable to play, he attempts to jump from the school roof. Thankfully, he’s saved by Tsuna, and is invited to join the Family. Yamamoto embraces the idea with astonishing easiness - thinking though, that it’s an entertaining role-play mafia game - an
d starts participating in Family activities with fair vigor.
At first glance, he seems to be a rather dumb baseball jock, but soon, with increasing frequency, we start to find evidence of Yamamoto being far deeper and more perceptive than he looks - or chooses to look. He’s able to judge other people’s characters with surprising accuracy and more often than not make observations of almost frightening insightfulness. After a while, it becomes apparent that, although naïve in some aspects and genuinely a nice and kind person, Yamamoto is much smarter and more self-aware than he presents himself.
Yamamoto loves a challenge. The prize is not important; he just loves the process and winning.
He’s able to dedicate all of himself to his goal - and when he does so, when he’s reall
y into anything he does, all cheerfulness slips off him in a moment - and we can see a determined Yamamoto, sharp and dangerous. This is first Yamamoto the baseball star, and later, Yamamoto the natural hitman , given this title by rather-harsh-in-his-judgments Reborn.
Used to being the all-around star and being admired by everyone around, including his new “Boss” Tsuna, he’s a little surprised and rather amused by Gokudera’s refusal to go along and his sheer dislike of everything Yamamoto does. The moment said dislike is somehow presented in the form of competition, Yamamoto immediately accepts it. However, he treats that like a game too, which is what drives Gokudera, who takes everything a little too seriously, nuts.
The canon history.
The moment Gokudera and Yamamoto meet each other, in the very beginning of the manga, Gokudera’s first wish is, typically, to kill Yamamoto for daring to steal the Tenth’s precious attention.
Nevertheless, after a quick trial where Yamamoto proves his capability to be a good fighter and protector to the boss (Yamamoto thinks the trial is a game), Gokudera has togruntingly accept the fact that Yamamoto is not completely useless. Nothing more yet, because he is barely able to tolerate Yam
amoto’s presence and always ready to fight to protect his self-proclaimed position of Tsuna’s Right-Hand Man.
Yamamoto, physiologically unable to reject any sort of challenge and genuinely amused by Gokuderathe “interesting guy”, accepts this strange sort-of-rivalry, and thus it begins.
While the series goes through Daily Life Arc, we learn quite a few things about our boys.
Despite Gokudera claiming he hates Yamamoto’s company, they end up showing everywhere together. Literally, everywhere.
School , street walk , countryside picnic , snowball fight , New Year celebrations . Tsuna’s house, it seems, they don’t visit one by one at all. And although they always provide some kind of excuse , it’s amazing how much time they spend with each other, studying, resting, having a summer vacation , having a winter vacation, being on a cruise, the list goes on. They don’t seem to part at all, for crissakes - a fact that is once presented by Gokudera in adorably in-denial manner.
Of course, they grow more and more familiar , learning a lot of things about each other. Gokudera soon is able to
use Yamamoto’s character traits for his own purpose. learns to deal with Gokudera’s explosive temper , and does this on every occasion. Things get pretty physical in those times, see?
By the way, for two friends, they seem to share a lot of close physical contact , and I’m not even talking about times when they quarrel.
To add suggestiveness to the picture, they seem weirdly embarrassed when found out in the middle of it.
Aside from verbal fights between them that show us an oddly irritated Yamamoto, we also see him genuinely mad when fighting a punk that had just taken Gokudera down. Gokudera, actually, is the only one who can drive Yamamoto out of his cheerful, sunny element like that. The feeling is mutual: if around other people explosive-Gokudera is at least somehow civil, he becomes outright hostile around Yamamoto. It’s apparent as day that there is some kind of tension between them, whatever the nature of this tension may be.
E
ven clearer is that they have more interest in each other than in their respective armies of fangirls.
Sometimes, in the middle of action, Gokudera forgets that he’s grumpy loner who’s supposed to hate Yamamoto’s guts, and they make an awesome tag team , an exceptionallyeffective duo that can actually watch each other’s back. And look hot in process. Actually, they can make a great team not only in battle - they even sell bananas at sum
mer festival together.
This pattern is somehow punctuated by pleasant accents, for example: once, Gokudera, in the bliss of being reassured of the steadiness of his position in the family after a proper Right-Hand-Man-fail breakdown, teasingly ruffles Yamamoto’s hair, mocking and calling him, of all names, Yamamocchan. The nickname was picked up by the fandom in a heartbeat.
When Gokudera is transformed into a knee-high cursing baby, Yamamoto doesn’t even see the difference, because he can, in his own words, feel Gokudera. On top of that, until Gokudera is turned back into his usual form, Yam
amoto fairly enjoys carrying around his sputtering and kicking reduced-rival.
And that’s an initial exposition, because the actual action starts after that.
Kokyo Arc.
The story moves to the first serious action arc, where, basically, a creepy guy who is able to possess people, who died and got reincarnated several times - he’s going to become one of guardians later - and his sidekicks, the Kokyo gang, are after Tsuna’s ass.
The gang terrorizes the Namimori town and knocks off strong guys one by one. Gokudera is taken down, and when Yamamoto arrives to the scene, he snaps so hard , it’s even pointed out by Tsuna. After beating the living daylight out of the opponent, worried Yamamoto rushes to Gokudera to see whether he’s okay, and doesn’t leave his side later in hospital.
Turns out Tsuna and the crew have to go and assault the enemies. The expedition kicks off, and the first one to take a battle is Yamamoto, leaving Gokudera to worry . But the minion is taken care of, and again the boys show that they already work as a team . When Gokudera is down , Yamamoto shields him, and then, as Yamamoto is defeated, the one who cries out for him is Gokudera.
ign="left">Further battle ensues, but our pair doesn’t participate due to being beat up. However Tsuna gets the work done after all, and we move on to the next arc.
The Varia Arc.
Essentially, a year after previous events, a bunch of really tough guys arrives in the town to challenge Tsuna’s position as Vongola’s boss. Tsuna and his guardians each have to hold a battle against their respective opponents to prove his or her right to own a Flame ring. Stakes are high - frankly, either they will have to win or will be dead after the end of tournament.
After an obligatory ten days training, where Gokudera sorts out his Instinct for survival issues, and Yamamoto learns that his father is conveniently the last master of a unique sword-fighting style, the battles begin.
First of the two to fight is Gokudera. He puts up a great fight, looks stripterrific and wins, but unfortunately, his opponent is a mentally challenged freak who doesn’t value his life in the slightest, so the duo ends up fighting for the ring with the perspective of being blown up in a couple of seconds. The tension rises, and Yamamoto and Tsuna have to shake Gokudera’s mind with a rather mushy heated speech about friendship and fireworks. Epiphany ensues, and Gokudera steps out alive of post-explosion smoke - much worse to wear and without the ring.
The first person he goes to is Yamamoto, because, although Gokudera hates to admit it, he has to entrust all his faith into his rival . Yamamoto intuitively chooses the right way not to humiliate Gokudera further, an
d relieves the tension by a bright honest smile.
Next day, the crew, featuring a bandaged up Gokudera, watches Yamamoto fighting his own opponent. Engrossed by the view, Gokudera shows us a whole spectrum of emotions: from desperately worried in one tense moment to weirdly proud when Yamamoto does well.
Yamamoto wins the fight and saves the ring, and a couple of days later is the final showdown.
After a nasty accident involving all guardians suffering from prolonged, paralytic poison in different buildings, both Yamamoto and Gokudera get free from it and
meet in the middle of the battle , looking really relieved to see each other safe. They instantly join forces to free the remaining guardians, touchingly worrying about each other wounds in their own respective ways.
They burst into the building to fight the enemy and end up being all wrapped in, um, tentacles. After pulling some well-coordinated impromptu teamwork, they work it out, and rush to help their leader on the main battleground.
<
p align="left">Some shounen beating and talking happens; Tsuna’s party, of course, wins; and the dynamic duo witnesses it standing side by side, looking proudly into each other eyes.
Fanfare, and we move the present, biggest so far arc.
Ten Year Later Arc.
In this arc, Tsuna and the crew are transferred ten years later into the future, where they find out that TYL (Ten Years Later, I’ll refer to it like that from now on to save us the time) Tsuna is dead, and so are some other characters. Others are being hunted, and, all in all, the whole world is about to be ruined by Big Bad of the arc, Byakuran, and his army of subordinates. The Vongola struggle to defeat the enemy, cheesily, to save the world, and most importantly, to return back home to the past.
So, the first one to be transfe
rred into the future is Tsuna himself, who spends about three minutes talking to a very upset and very hot TYL Gokudera , and almost immediately Gokudera switches places with his older counterpart. The pair after a while encounters TYL Yamamoto, who’s not-so-ugly-looking, and the older Yamamoto smugly comments on how amazing Gokudera has been in the last ten years.
Later, in the base, TYL Yamamoto bitterly reveals the situation to guests from the past, and Gokudera, frenzied, punches him for letting the Tenth die. It’s told, through, that TYL Gokudera was there too at ti
me of Tsuna’s death, and Gokudera is crushed. The meeting ends, and no one is happy. That night, Tsuna cries himself to sleep, Gokudera, who’s sharing the room with boss, is restless, and TYL Yamamoto isn’t shown.
About 5% of Yamamoto/Gokudera fanfiction and fanart revolves around this night, the only canon interaction of TYL Yamamoto and regular Gokudera, with its endless possibilities.
The next day, the trio goes to investigate the situation further and immediately gets involved in a fight with the enemy’s soldiers. In the middle of the fight, regular Yamamoto is switched with his TYL counterpart; however, not knowing the situation at all, he still manages to handle it well. While no one - most importantly Yamamoto
- can’t hear, Gokudera lets himselfto praise another with a gentle expression.
Interlude #1.
Two days later, the team must split to complete two missions at one time, and Gokudera and Yamamoto are assigned to fight one of Big Bad’s six highest-ranked officers, Gamma, a guy with the capability to release about six million volts in one blow and a slightly sardonic sense of humour.
As they arrive at the battlefield, Gokudera wastes no time in stating how much exactly he hates the other, so he won’t team up with Yamamoto for anything. Period. Yamamoto tries to laugh it off, as usual, but Gokudera is d
ead serious and is determined to use even weapons to make his point.
Apparently, Yamamoto has had enough of Gokudera’s PMS-ing woman antics, because he actually snaps.
With an offended expression, in a harsh, dry tone, he promises Gokudera not to interfere in the fight if Gokudera wants it so.
Meanwhile the enemy floats above them on his rocket boots, genuinely enjoying the scene.
So, Gokudera proceeds to fight alone, and, naturally, is instantly put at a gigantic disadvantage, because Gamma is tenfold stronger and more experienced. While
Gokudera gets electrocuted, Yamamoto stands behind the tree with a grim expression and looks like he is mentally resolving himself to something.
So, when Gamma is about to deliver the final blow, Yamamoto interferes.And when Yamamoto sets his mind on something, he does it thoroughly, so he punches Gokudera good five meters away with the dull side of his sword.
After a none-too-gentle landing, a perplexed Gokudera is about to demand an explanation when Yamamoto turns to him with the expression of dead calm anger, and finally speaks his mind.
Essentially, he’s fed up with Gokudera being the arrogant jerk he is, and he thinks Gokudera needs to finally stop suffocating Tsuna with attention and start trusting other people, because that’s what a proper Right Hand Man should do.
And the point comes across.
Yamamoto turns away from a transfixed and astonished Gokudera and is about to attack Gamma. But when he almost gets himself fried by Gamma’s lightning, he’s kicked out of the blow zone by Gokudera.Gokud
era covers his saving of Yamamoto’s life with some awkward excuse of Boss being devastated by his death, but, really, no one’s fooled.
Some gears have finally shifted in Gokudera’s head.
Storm, rain and downpour references and their variations have long ago became so cliché in Yamamoto/Gokudera fandom, that they are even annoying nowadays, but the phrase itself, of course, is still great.
So, the duo teams up, and Gokudera voices his plan. It&r
squo;s actually pretty lame, but no one cares at the moment.
Of course, they pull it off, and Gamma seems to be taken down.
The pair exchanges a couple of relieved phrases, Yamamoto is back to his sunny attitude, and Gokudera is smug.
However, turns out that the pretty little plan didn’t work out as well as was intended, and Gamma is alive and kicking. And kicking is what he does, electrocuting and beating the Hell out of both boys.
It’s really not pretty.
Both are taken down, and Gamma proceeds to interrogate - more like torture Gokudera. It’s still not pretty. Bleeding, beaten up Yamamoto tries to stop him, but of course, the only thing he’s succeeded at is receiving a massive amount of
electroshock, to Gokudera’s horror.
Half-fried, Yamamoto blacks out, and, refusing to tell anything, Gokudera soon follows.
The situation seems desperate, but just when Gamma is ready to finish them for good, another guardian shows up and saves the day.
Gokudera wakes up in a hospital room at the base, and, overwhelmed with guilt and shame, promptly apologizes to Tsuna, who welcomes him back.
Speechless with the fact that Yamamoto is alive, Gokudera shows an opened, raw with emotions expression for a moment, and then goes into habitual, defensive mode, his safety zone.
The pair recovers from their wounds, and proceeds to training.
Gokudera wallows in his feeling of utter uselessness, struggling to figure out a complicated weapon his future self had left, and simultaneously stresses himself with family issues.
Reborn reveals the truth about Gokudera’s rather traumatizing past to Yamamoto and Tsuna, and Yamamoto decides to cheer him up by making sushi all together.
Despite how lame it sounds, that actually works.
Later, Yamamoto continues to cheer him up whenever opportunity presents itself. The duo exchanges a pair of positively gentle expressions.
In the end, Gokudera finally figures out his bloody weapon, and guess who takes time to interrupt his own training in order to spy on him? You are right, take a cookie.
The anime offers us their dialogue in the middle of the training period. The event takes place in the locker room, and Yamamoto spends the whole time half-naked. For some reason.
After several days, Tsuna decides to invade the main enemy’s outpost in Japan, the Melone Base, and the crew throws a party the evening before. Yamamoto and Gokudera get drunk together, with adorably identical expressions, and after that everyone goes to sleep. The fandom explodes with drunken sex fanfiction.
At night, the invasion begins. After several battles and a couple of Yamamoto’s touch-downs on Gokudera, the company eventually split, leaving together Yamamoto, Gokudera, the unconscious woman Lal Mirch they carry on their backs in turns, and the Sun guardian, Ryohei.
They encounter yet another enemy, and Gokudera and Yamamoto share about a billion panels, fanboying at Ryohei owning the said enemy.
After the minion is taken down, the three of them continue their way through the base, trying to reach their destination - the mysterious machine in the very center of it.
Interlude #2.
The structure of Melone base makes it possible to move parts of it relative to each other, and the trio is caught in the middle of said movement. Suddenly Gokudera and Ryohei start to rise with a part of t
he floor, and Yamamoto, who is carry Lal Mirch now, is being left down.
And Gokudera makes a gesture that would’ve been unspeakable earlier.
Risking losing his own hand and looking desperate, he reaches out for Yamamoto to hold onto him, but, unfortunately, it’s too late.
To say that Yamamoto is astonished at Gokudera’s action is a gross understatement.
If that expression doesn’t show outright affection, I don’t know what does.
A frenzied Gokudera keeps banging at the walls in a doomed attempt to make them open, but to no avail.
Seeing as there’s no way to do anything, everyone decides to just continue with their goal.
The anime doesn’t show this exact expression, but they do make two absolutely identical flashbacks of this scene, making both Yamamoto and Gokudera remember it with somber expressions.
Both Yamamoto and Gokudera have their respective battles - Gokudera’s opponent is their old acquaintance Gamma, and the brutal battle ends with a draw, both participants unconscious. Yamamoto ends up knocked out after an infamous suddenintroduction to the wall.
The invasion ends up more or less in success -they reach their goal, but thin
gs turn out to be different from what it seemed. During the obligatory long shounen exposition talk, Yamamoto, brought to the room with the rest of guardians, is still unconscious.
When he finally wakes up, Gokudera tries to half-heartedly cover his relief, being grumpy about Yamamoto“making other people worry.”
Anyway, the crew goes back to their base to train again for yet another upcoming battle, and for some reason, Gokudera, who earlier had been sharing a room with Tsuna, switches and becomes Yamamoto’s roommate.
All in all, they seem much closer than before - Gokudera doesn’t even attempt to throw away Yamamoto’s arm when it is put around his shoulder, and Yamamoto’s expressions become more and more open.
The manga’s diplomatic language calls their interactions “being energetic.”
However, training is training, and soon Yamamoto’s personal tutor, the angry and pretty swordsman Squalo, whom Yamamoto fought back in Varia arc,(remember, half of the enemies end up being kind of allies in the end) arrives to snatch him away for some outside training. Gokudera isn’t amused in the slightest.
Separation doesn’t last more than a couple of chapters, and right before the battle, Yamamoto comes back. Gokudera, of all people present, immediately scowls him for almost being late, and Yamamoto takes Gokudera’s right to lecture him as a given.
The battle they are going to requires putting a sexy suit, um, because. Unfortunately, Yamamoto is an amateur in wearing formal stuff, so he needs help in putting on his neck tie. But since he has Gokudera, it’s not a problem, and the work is done.
The battle happens, and although Yamamoto defeats the needed target and even gets praise from Gokudera, they still lose.
The whole Vongola company, with new allies, retreats to rest for a while and prepare for announced FINAL battle.
Right now, the battle has just begun, and we all are looking forward for upcoming interactions of the dynamic duo.
Continued in part II .