[Fic]:Suono Di Violenza (Act 1. Part 1/2)
Title: Suono Di Violenza
Fandom: Katekyo Hitman Reborn!
Rating: T
Genre: Gen, Family
Status: WIP
Disclaimer: Not mine. Amano-sensei owns Reborn!
Summary: Following the death of Vongola Nono, Tsuna immediately left his home for Italy, learning more about himself on the way. AU. Tsuna-centric.
Note: Took place 4 years later, particularly on the 1 to 3 days after Vongola Nono's death. Tsuna had yet to control Hyper Dying Will Mode completely. There will be copious amount of Hibari later on. Written for the writing shuffle challenge, so this fic is loosely based on the song "This Is War" by 30 Seconds To Mars.
Acknowledgement: A sincere thank you to rachel-chanx3, who listened to my random ramblings, betad this chapter, and nudged me to write even though she was super busy with work.
Act I.
Tsuna could feel the impact of the Ninth's death before the news even reached his ears.
On the news, the remains of an airplane washed up on Osaka Bay. According to the police, it appeared to be privately owned, but its owner had yet to be found. It was said to be a bad omen, how close it was to Kansai International Airport. The news said that measures would be taken to tighten security.
Tsuna didn't thought much of it, but Reborn was unusually quiet when they watched the TV coverage of the aircraft's pieces being dragged on shore.
QQQ
Tsuna was sitting in class, listening to an analysis of fall as a symbol in poetry when he felt chilly shivers crawling up his spine to his fingers. He dropped his pencil, and it fell with an ominousclack on the floor, but luckily, Gokudera caught it with his foot before it rolled off to oblivion.
Gokudera handed the pencil back to Tsuna. "Are you alright, Tenth? You seem a little pale."
"I'm fine, Gokudera-kun," Tsuna whispered back, not wanting Gokudera to be worried. He turned back to the lesson, but he couldn't focus with the feeling of anxiety curling in his guts.
Outside, fall left a trail of crimson maple leaves in its path. The sky was cloudy, promising rain as the weather forecaster had said. A broken tree branch banged against the glass window, startling the Tsuna, but then a strong wind swept it away.
Tsuna felt restless. He wanted to walk out of class and do…something, even though the weather was bad. Gokudera must have sensed his unease because he asked Tsuna again, "Tenth, are you sure you're alright?"
"I'm fine," Tsuna insisted, and the teacher shot Tsuna a glare. Tsuna slumped in his seat a little, feeling embarrassed.
However, Gokudera was Gokudera, and he felt no obligation to follow the classroom courtesy when Tsuna's well-being was at stake. "Tenth, you know you could ask anything from me."
"Yes, I know," Tsuna whispered hastily, shooting a nervous glance at the teacher. "Thank you, Gokudera-kun, but I'm fine, really."
Tsuna's hope of keeping this quiet was dashed when Yamamoto, who was within hearing distance, added, "If you're feeling unwell, you could ask to go to the nurse's office."
"Tenth said that he is fine!" Gokudera said irritably, simply for the sake of disagreeing with Yamamoto. Then, "Do you want to go to the nurse's office, Tenth?"
"It's alright; I don't need to," said Tsuna, now aware that the whole class had heard their conversation. His classmates were probably used to Tsuna's life interrupting their lessons, so Gokudera's outburst did not earn a single reaction, for which Tsuna was glad. "I'm fine, really." Gokudera looked like he wanted to protest, so Tsuna added for good measure, "Please let it go. For me?"
Gokudera said nothing after that, and Tsuna returned to what was left of the lesson. After class, Gokudera approached him again, checking to see if Tsuna was fine. Yamamoto asked after him too, but Tsuna reassured both of his friends that he was indeed healthy. Perhaps Tsuna was not the only one feeling restless because of the inactivity in their mafia double life for the past month.
"You look pale, Tsuna," Yamamoto pointed out.
"That's what I said!" Gokudera glared at Yamamoto, as if Yamamoto had stolen his words. "I'll take you to the nurse right away, Tenth!"
"It's okay, really!" Tsuna protested, but Gokudera took him by the arm and dragged him to the nurse's office, Yamamoto following, and, before Tsuna could stop him, Gokudera pushed the door open with a loud bang, demanding someone to take care of Tsuna. He ushered Tsuna to a bed and told the nurse that Tsuna needed to be checked right away.
Suddenly, the curtain separating them from another bed was yanked aside, revealing one very irritated Hibari.
"You interrupted my nap," said Hibari. "I'll bite you to death."
"Hiieeee!" Tsuna jumped, terrible memories from the last time he accidentally woke Hibari from his sleep came back. Today, like every other day, was not his lucky one. Unfortunately, being the Vongola heir did nothing to improve his luck.
However, before Hibari could give Tsuna a thorough beating with his tonfas, Gokudera stopped him. "Don't touch the Tenth!"
"Crowding?" Hibari said darkly, tightening his grip on his tonfas. "I'll bite you all to death."
Gokudera whipped out his dynamite. "I'll protect you, Tenth!"
You're not helping the situation! Tsuna wanted to slap his forehead in exasperation and maybe hide in a hole somewhere so that nothing worse could crawl its way into his life, but then Gokudera started lighting the fuze of all his dynamites.
"No!" Tsuna pushed himself to his feet, intending to stop the two from destroying the nurse's office, but that was when he felt it. His stomach lurched, and he felt a chill stinging the back of his eyes. As if the whole world was put on slow motion, Tsuna watched his feet hover over air, frozen in time. His heart began to race, and Tsuna wondered what was wrong with him because it seemed like his feet would never touch the ground.
Then a sharp clatter pierced through his eardrums, the vibration jolting through his body all the way to his toes. It shocked Tsuna back to regular time, and before he could steady himself, he fell face first on to the ground.
"Ouch!" Tsuna landed on his nose and chin, but luckily, no blood. His hands and elbows were scrapped when he tried to cushion his fall, but other than that, no major injuries.
Something wet on the ground touched his palm.
Water?
Tsuna's eyes trailed up to the shattered vase on the ground. It was on the bedside table only a moment before.
A strange calm settled over him.
Move, his mind commanded. Now.
Suddenly, Tsuna felt his world lurch again as someone yanked him by the arm and tossed him aside, but he was ready this time. Tsuna swung his feet out and they skid across the floor, a hand on the ground planted him firmly in place.
His mind told him before his eyes did that Hibari was the one who did that. Before he could ask Hibari what was going on, Hibari answered for him. "You were in the way, herbivore."
Tsuna instinctively looked at the spot where he was a moment before. A bullet hole punctured the pale white ceramic tile.
A sniper, possibly two or more. He needed to eliminate them as fast as possible. Tsuna quickly checked to see if Gokudera and Yamamoto were fine and was glad to see that they were not hurt. It seemed that they had intuitively duck after they heard the first bullet shattering the vase.
The wind rushed in, and the curtain fluttered, blocking them from sight of the open window. Tsuna immediately took this opportunity to move himself from sniper's viewing range. He examined the position of his family members.
Hibari was crouching behind a cabinet. Gokudera and Yamamoto were on his left, already out of sight of the window. It was likely that the sniper never even saw them in the first place.
Tsuna's body was tense, ready for a fight. Beside him, Gokudera had his dynamite ready, and Yamamoto tightened his grip on his baseball bat.
Eliminate, his mind commanded. He needed to find that sniper and execute him immediately. It would be a difficult find but an easy kill-
Hibari gave him a look. Tsuna wasn't sure what it meant, but he instinctively turned to the window, waiting for another attack. However, as sudden as it had come, the unsettling feeling within his guts disappeared, and a calming peace washed over him. Tsuna felt that the danger had passed.
"They've retreated," Tsuna said, understanding that it was true because his instinct had told him so. "For now."
With the passing danger, fight slowly drained from Tsuna. It wasn't until he felt the familiar warmth of his Dying Will Flame receding away that he realized that he must have naturally drawn it out without knowing.
That was new.
Tsuna could still feel the bitter taste in his tongue as his mind echoed. Eliminate. Eliminate. Eliminate. He clutched his head and rubbed his temples roughly, trying to get the thought to go away because no, he didn't want to kill anyone. That wasn't his thought.
It wasn't.
"They're not going to get away with disrupting the peace of Namimori High School," Hibari said, rising to his feet, and Tsuna was surprised that Hibari trusted Tsuna's intuition even when Tsuna didn't trust himself. Hibari gave him another look, and if Tsuna wasn't too busy being wary of what Hibari was going to do next, he would think that it was a sign of grudging acknowledgement.
Hibari promptly walked out of the office, and Tsuna had no doubt that he was going to gather up the Discipline Committee to search for the snipers.
"Tenth!"
"Tsuna!"
"Are you alright?"
"I'm-I'm fine," said Tsuna, body trembling. Now that the danger had passed temporarily, his mind finally had the chance to embrace fear. It bloomed like spreading ice in his lungs, and Tsuna shivered.
"Tenth?" Tsuna felt a sharp sting on his middle finger that immediately spread and numbed his right hand.
"Oh no."
"What's going on?" Yamamoto asked, and Tsuna didn't know how to answer him because he didn't know either.
"I…I don't know what's going on," Tsuna admitted as he quickly pulled his ring off with shaky fingers, but then his hand slipped and he dropped the ring on the ground with a heavy clank. He picked up his ring, and even though it looked the same as usual, Tsuna sensed that something was wrong.
QQQ
Tsuna still didn't feel completely safe when he got home, in his room, within range of Reborn's reassuring presence. Gokudera and Yamamoto were with him; they had walked Tsuna home in case whoever attempted to kill him was planning an ambush.
Before Tsuna could have a chance to catch his breath and tell Reborn what had happened, Reborn leapt from where he was waiting on Tsuna's bed with crisp words, "We have to move right away."
"What?" Tsuna blinked. "Move?"
"I've just received news that the Ninth was assassinated," said Reborn, the fedora shadowed his eyes from Tsuna's sight. "The Varia is taking care of the situation as best as they could on short notice." Tsuna took this to mean that the assassination team was already on the move to find and eliminate the culprits. "We have to get you to Italy immediately."
Gokudera and Yamamoto looked at each other. Gokudera was the first to speak, "Someone sent snipers after the Tenth this morning at school."
"Wait," Tsuna said, everything happening too fast for him to take it all in. "What about-I can't-"
"Then we have to get you out of Namimori as quickly as possible," said Reborn. "There's a good chance that whoever assassinated the Ninth is coming after you. They'll come back. Staying here is not safe because they probably know you live here."
"I-I," Tsuna clenched his fists. "What about my mom? What about everybody else?"
What about my family?
Gokudera-kun. Yamamoto. Onii-chan….Lambo….I-pin.
Kyoko-chan.
"The longer you stay here, the more danger they will be in," Reborn said. "Pack your essentials. We're going to move before they attack."
"It'll be alright, Tenth! You'll be safe; I'll make sure of it!" Gokudera tried to comfort him, but his comfort wasn't the first thing on his mind right now.
"I'm not going to leave my mother here!" Tsuna declared. "I'm not going to run and leave Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto-kun and everyone else here."
"Your guardians will be leaving with you, but everyone else has to stay here. You can't risk their lives," said Reborn. "The CEDEF will be making a pit stop here before they head to Italy as well."
CEDEF. That meant that Iemitsu was coming.
Tsuna glanced up at Gokudera and Yamamoto. "I don't want to put you guys in danger." I don't want anyone in danger for my sake.
"We'll get through this," said Yamamoto with a big grin. "We've been through rough patches before."
Tsuna turned to Gokudera.
"I'll always be by your side, Tenth," Gokudera said. "Whatever decision you make-I trust you."
Tsuna felt a little reassured with his friends' confidence. They trusted him with their lives, and there was no question that Tsuna returned the sentiment. Reborn was right: he couldn't possibly stay in Namimori.
"How soon can CEDEF get here?" Tsuna asked Reborn.
"There's a good chance that they'll be here by tomorrow morning."
"I will be leaving for Italy with my guardians," said Tsuna. "But only after I talk with the CEDEF."
"But Tenth," Gokudera protested. "Waiting until tomorrow-I'm afraid that's too risky."
"I have something I want to say to them," Tsuna said. He wasn't going to back down from this, not in times like these. It was essential that he met up with the CEDEF. "And I will not leave until I say it."
"You could leave a message with someone else here," said Yamamoto. "Or you could contact them by phone?"
"We have to minimize contact by communication devices," Reborn said, jumping on Tsuna's desk to peek through a gap between the window curtains. "I suspect that there is a leak in our network."
"A mole?" Gokudera sounded angry.
"No," Reborn leapt from Tsuna's desk. "Possibly. Contact to Italy had been blocked for the past few days before and after the Ninth's assassination. That's why we received the news late. However, our enemy might also have been receiving faulty information. You all heard the news of that washed up aircraft, correct?"
"Was it one of ours?" Gokudera asked.
"Ours?" Tsuna and Yamamoto said at the same time. No one ever said anything about them owning an airplane.
"Yes," said Reborn. "The plane that was shot down was one of the Vongola's privately owned aircrafts." Then, to Tsuna and Yamamoto. "The Vongola monopolized a part of Japan's air transportation."
Tsuna did know that the Vongola was powerful, but it had not occurred to him to see them-to see himself-as real mafia, one that could take in the concept of monopoly easily as breathing.
"Why did they shot it down?" Yamamoto asked.
"My guess is that they were aiming for Tsuna," Reborn said. "They might have thought that we would send Tsuna to Italy as soon as we received the news about the Ninth, but our faulty communication network saved us."
A heavy silence fell between them.
"I'll wait until the CEDEF gets here," Tsuna was the first to break it. "I know that I'm being risky, but there is something I have to do."
Reborn gave him a contemplative look. "Do you want to speak to your father, Tsuna?"
Tsuna thought about this for a moment before replying. "No, I want to speak to Sawada Iemitsu."
"I see," Reborn said, and even though most of his face was shadowed by his fedora, Tsuna could see the hint of a smile.
Act I. Part 2/2 >>>