[Fic] Windshear [Part 33/?]
Ah, I'm so happy for my sister! Her exams are over as of today, and a few days ago, she got an email from one of her teachers who said she had "true talent" for writing! See, she's ecstatic, 'cause she never ever thought she was talented in anything. *Squeeee* So proud!
Now, if only she'd post stuff online~
Enjoy~ ♥
Windshear Part [33/?]
Authors: kagayachou and evocates
Characters/Pairings: Yamamoto, Hibari, Byakuran, Mukuro, Tsuna, Kyoko, Lambo, Gokudera, Ryohei, Belphegor, Squalo, Xanxus, Chrome, Ken, Chikusa. Yamamoto/Hibari.
Rating: PG-13
Words: 4376
Summary: It's time to clean up.
Eyeing the half-demolished room, Lambo couldn't help but wince. A dreadful feeling, of standing in quicksand, rushed out from the pit of his stomach to the top of his head, the tips of his toes, and his trigger finger twitched with want - No, he needed a bigger gun to fire.
Because getting blood on the carpet and a few bullet holes here and there were one thing. Letting strangers blow rooms up was something Reborn would kill him for.
Lambo let out a soft, whiny whimper of frustration and slipped his handgun back into its holster beneath his jacket. He took a deep breath, and tried to stay calm. He squeezed his eyes shut. He grit his teeth.
"Can't. Tolerate," came out shakily before he gave a great, feral-eyed growl and reached behind his back to heft a bazooka over his shoulder.
"Lambo-san... has a new gun to play with!"
Yamamoto's head snapped back immediately at the sound of the teenager's voice. He and Kyoko were huddled on the floor on the other side of the ruined wall, their heads ducked down to avoid the impact and the debris. He had instinctively covered as much of her head and body as he could with his own body, because he knew that he could take more injuries and he didn't want her to take any.
Hibari would be so angry at him for thinking this way, he thought wryly, before shaking that man out of his thoughts and refocusing back on the situation.
"You all right?" He whispered to Kyoko. The young woman looked understandably shaken, but she managed a nod and opened her mouth to say something. However, Yamamoto held a finger to his lips.
When he lifted himself to his feet, he found the barrel of the bazooka pointed right at him. Quickly, he held his hands up - the universal signal of surrender.
"Hey, Lambo..." he said, voice low and calm. "Relax. Relax, don't use that while you're indoors. Reborn will be even madder if you managed to destroy the place yourself."
A long silence hung in the air, tension drawn taught as Lambo stared at Yamamoto blankly, the bazooka still pointed at his face. Then, he exhaled slowly and shakily, his fingers growing lax on their grip on the bazooka.
"I- I'm just..." Lambo stared at his toes, feeling incredibly disappointed with himself. "I found out about the bombs and I got here too slow..."
"If there's one bomb there's got to be more." Yamamoto zeroed in on the important thing first. "Tell me what you found out, Lambo. We need to get Sasagawa-san out of here, for one thing..." He turned back to her, holding out a hand.
Kyoko stared at his hand for a moment before giving him a shaky smile. She met his eyes before shaking her head, pushing a hand against the floor, and stood up by herself, willing her legs to not shake. She didn't want to depend on him too much - he was already doing so much to help her, to get her to somewhere safe, and she honestly didn't want to become another burden.
Her smile steadied a little as she stepped forward. The gun was a heavy weight on her hand. "Don't bother with me, Yamamoto-kun," she said quietly, determination bright in her eyes. "Leave me at a room and I'll hide." Biting down on her lip, she thought of everyone else in the mansion - the servants, Tsuna's subordinates, all of whom deserved none of this.
"Please make sure everyone is safe."
Yamamoto looked at her with a vaguely unsure expression, briefly hoping that she didn't take his hand because she didn't want to be a burden rather than because she was still so scared of him she didn't actually want him to touch her.
"We're... we've sent the message out. Those who can fight are defending the base. Those who can't are being evacuated," Lambo explained. Yamamoto nodded silently, and then brushed a hand through his hair, closing his eyes as he shook out the dust.
"We can't just leave you alone in a room," he answered as he looked back into her eyes. "There're bombs to defuse...
"Lambo," he turned to the Thunder guardian. "We were heading for the eastern tunnels, the ones that lead to the nearest Foundation HQ. Sasagawa-san," he looked towards her. "Lambo can lead you there. Defusing bombs are my forte."
At those words, Kyoko breathed out a sigh of relief. They were safe - or, even if they weren't now, they would be. It took a burden off her shoulders, enough for her smile to change and become truly sincere. Reaching out, she placed a hand on Yamamoto's wrist, squeezing it lightly.
"Thank you."
Then, she turned around to Lambo. She remembered taking care of him when he was still a child; remembered his tantrums and watched as he outgrew them. And yet... yet she couldn't repress the shiver that crawled up her spine when she saw the bazooka on his shoulder and the still-feral light in his eyes.
"Let's go, Lambo-kun," she said quietly, steeling herself and trying to hide her caution. They didn't need to be distracted by her silly fears.
Yamamoto waved them off with a wry but optimistic grin until Lambo stopped looking back and Kyoko's footsteps could no longer be heard.
"Giannini-san," he sighed into his headset. "Bomb sweep... in ten."
"A-at once, Yamamoto-kun! Pin-point search has been activated. I'm evacuating all of our men now," the technician replied.
"Thank you," Yamamoto smiled briefly, then waited in stoic silence.
A minute later, the headset crackled. Giannini told him which rooms the invaders had gone through, or rather, which ones he'd have to sweep.
"It doesn't look good, Yamamoto-kun... there's more than I expected..."
"We're still good," Yamamoto chuckled lightly. "Everyone will still have a place to sleep when they come home tonight."
Giannini laughed nervously, "I'll be running along in a minute, Yamamoto-kun. Just sealing off the machines..." The line went dead.
Yamamoto leaned against an untouched wall and closed his eyes, ignoring the feel of something wet and warm soaking through the bandages and down his side.
***
"VOIIIIIIIIIIIII!" Squalo shouted into the headset, as his customary start to every conversation. He made to continue, but was suddenly distracted by another idiot in a white suit rushing at him, a stiletto knife brandished in his hand. Squalo scowled, swinging his sword and cutting the weak little weapon off at the hilt, before shoving his own blade into that idiot's chest.
He pulled out his sword and swiped it through the water he was hip-deep in, darkening the red even more. Then, he paused, reaching up to readjust his headset calmly as if he had not made another kill; as if his leather uniform was not stained with blood. As if he had not managed to completely annihilate every single opponent that had threw themselves at him.
"Xanxus!" he barked into the headset. "Where the fuck are all of you?"
There was a wet gurgle coming from the other end, and then the sound of a gun being fired, a bullet hitting its target at close range, it seemed.
Xanxus fired another shot for good measure, and then answered, "Where you left us, trash. Your prey dead yet?"
"No," Squalo bit out the word, scanning his surroundings again at the reminder. His face was set in a dark scowl. "That piece of shit is hiding from me."
After a bout of silence, Xanxus snapped back at him. "Flood him out and get the hell back here, trash." He lowered his voice then. "And don't make me come after you."
"I don't need you to remind me like you're my mother," Squalo spat right back, but there was none of the usual venom in his voice. "And you won't have to."
"Then don't keep me waiting," Xanxus growled. With that, he switched off the line and Squalo scowled at the sudden silence.
Making a disgusted noise, he hung up on his side as well before continuing to wade through the water. His opponent was here - he saw him going in this direction. Squalo narrowed his eyes.
"VOIIIIIIIIIIIII!" he screamed out into the air, slicing his sword through the water and creating a huge wave. "Stop hiding, you fucking coward!"
Not that he expected the man to answer; it was the returning ripples that drew his eyes towards a certain direction. Squalo smiled then, and it was not pretty.
***
There was water everywhere. Water and darkness, clouding and fogging up the air until it became so thick that it was almost difficult to breathe, much less see. The silence was heavy, broken periodically by the sounds of splashing water.
"Ushishishshishi..." a voice rang out, light and playful yet terribly disturbing. "Game over, the Prince has won~ Everyone else is a slowpoke~"
There was a flare of light chasing away the shadows, illuminating the walls and the water like a bright summer's day.
"Oi!" Ryohei waved and waded over, sun flame flaring from his ring. "Hey, Prince!" For a moment, Belphegor looked like the thin, willowy little waif he had been when they'd first met. His normally gelled up hair was weighed down with water, covering his eyes more - and almost hiding the rest of his face. The fur collar of the cloak that he was wearing was definitely ruined as well. But Ryohei didn't spare too much attention towards that. Rather, he glanced back towards the bloody prints on the walls, then at Bel's hands.
"That looks like an extreme amount of blood there. How much of it is yours?"
For a long time, there was no answer from Bel. He was simply standing there in the water, hands red and clothes slowly turning the same shade as well. It was as if he had turned into stone after that first laugh. Then-
"The Vongola sun," Bel turned around, and a crazed smile took up the whole of his face. His face was paler than a sheet, and Ryohei knew then that most of the blood on the walls belonged to the self-proclaimed prince rather than his prey. "Ushishishi... you're late."
And he said it so slowly, it made Ryohei hurry over on instinct. He reached out towards the storm flame user, his own flame shifting from being a pure light source to one that could heal.
"Quick, where are you bleeding from?"
"A lot of places~" Bel singsonged in reply, the grin growing even wider. He seemed to be too covered in his own blood to even get annoyed or angry about that fact anymore. Now, he seemed to be rejoicing in it. "But." he continued, turning a little to stare past Ryohei's shoulder.
"I won't die. Trash won't kill me~"
"Yeah?" Ryohei wasn't really listening. He just knew he had to keep Belphegor talking while he stopped him from bleeding to death. His power didn't really cover blood loss. "Where is this 'trash' dude you were fighting anyway?"
"Wouldn't you like to know~?" Bel teased, not even moving as Ryohei placed a hand on his shoulder, gently moving downwards. He tilted his head up a little, lowering his voice as if imparting a secret. "He's in the water. He's not hiding~"
At those words, Ryohei chanced to look down at the water and froze, his flame growing dim until it was almost out before he caught himself.
There were little chunks of red and pink floating along the surface of the water, pieces of fabric and... hair?
Ryohei looked back at Belphegor, who had begun to laugh quietly. The prince lifted a hand to hold up a round sphere - no, an eyeball. The fresh green iris hadn't even begun to dim. And he threw it into to water, laughing louder. Louder.
Abruptly, the sound ended and Bel froze in that position, head thrown backwards and hands curled inwards. Then, he started to fall.
But, "Shit!" Ryohei caught him before he could loose the psycho in the god-forsaken water. He didn't even want to look at the water again. "Hey!" He slapped Belphegor. "Hey! Don't faint on me!"
***
Byakuran gasped. He was falling as though the the ground had literally be pulled out from under his feet, and there was an icy feeling that was burning through his chest, with cold air rushing into his lungs and places inside him that cold air shouldn't even touch.
He felt blood rushing up out of his throat, out of his chest and it was useless to try and close the wound. It tore a strangled cry from of his throat when Hibari pulled his tonfa out, but the cry came out as a croak more than anything else and his vision swam.
Inside his mind, Mukuro was laughing. A deep, echoing laugh that was ringing throughout his head, triumphant and almost hysterical. His flame was tied so closely to Byakuran's that he felt every bit of the pain that Byakuran was feeling, but it meant nothing to him. Because he had won. This little game of theirs - he had won so completely.
Because this time, Byakuran isn't the one who kills him.
And although they were so close now that Byakuran could hear his thoughts so clearly, the Gesso don couldn't understand.
"This time?" Byakuran tried to ask. It was unintelligible in the air, but not on the mental level. "Why, Mukuro-kun?"
Byakuran felt his throat closing up on him, strength subsiding as he struggled to draw from his flames. But Mukuro's hold on him was absolute now.
"There needs always be a winner, Byakuran-san," Mukuro murmured right back, his red eye glowing in the encroaching darkness of Byakuran's mind. The meadow was dying, revealing blood-caked soil that was hard and dry. The true view of Byakuran's mind - a wasteland.
Mukuro laughed even more, even as he felt his own flames slowly fading alongside Byakuran's. He was dying as well - technically, he was already dead, given that his body wasn't breathing and there was no pulse. Not since he has moved into Byakuran's.
Distantly, he hoped that Chrome would be alright.
"Chrome... was she really so..."
Byakuran fell silent as his last breath escaped him, along with a burst of images: his life truly flashing before his eyes without Mukuro's influence. And in the wasteland of his mind, there was a burst of light, a single flower that bloomed out of nothing - a lotus.
"Mukuro..."
And it too began to wither.
Outside of Byakuran's mind, Hibari watched with unblinking, impassive eyes as the man slid downwards to crumple onto the ground, eyes opened but completely empty of anything. He dropped to a squat and wrapped his hand around Byakuran's throat, checking the pulse - there was none. Then, he broke the neck like it was a stick of bamboo - just for a safety measure.
He wasn't letting Byakuran have another chance to live.
Slanting his eyes backwards, he watched as Tsuna tried to push himself against the wall he had collapsed against, fingers scrabbling at the concrete wall and mouth soundlessly opened. He frowned darkly, taking a step forward. Pain exploded throughout his body from the stab wounds that Byakuran had inflicted - a sure sign that the adrenaline was fading - and he stumbled slightly, just enough to slam a hand on the wall beside Tsuna.
"Sawada Tsunayoshi," he intoned darkly. "Wake up."
Tsuna's eyelids fluttered open and he tilted his head towards Hibari unseeingly. Suddenly, he slapped a hand over his chest, crumpling his shirt and tie as he tried to rationalize what had happened. He'd practically been skewered when Hibari shoved one tonfa into Byakuran's chest, the ball and chain inside of it pushing out through his back - he had felt that too. He gasped in relief to know that Byakuran was dead, but despair covered him like a blanket at the same time.
"Mukuro," he whispered. He wasn't hurting anymore because he couldn't feel anything now from, "Mukuro!"
He pushed himself off the ground, stumbling over towards Byakuran's corpse. Then he stared, at Byakuran, back at Hibari... and finally at Mukuro's body, on the other side of the arena.
Hibari was alive, but Mukuro...?
Hibari watched as Tsuna stumbled over to the other side, nearly tripping over his own feet like he was fifteen, reverting back to being the herbivore he once was instead of the strong man that Hibari knew he was. Then, he leaned a shoulder against the wall, staining it red as blood flowed downwards to pool on the ground.
He closed his eyes.
***
Rain clouds gathered over the Vongola's mansion with the occasional thunder and flash. As the rest of the famiglia evacuated the area, those in the open could feel the heavy air, hinting of a coming storm. Yamamoto breathed it in deeply, and pushed himself from the wall when the alarm on his watch rang loud.
As he opened his eyes, the rain fell as if the sky was crying, just above the mansion.
But if one looked closely, the roof remained dry and the water slid off of it, onto the outer walls and then sinking inside. It travelled along the pipes and wires that led to specific rooms. Rooms where the Mecacci's men had walked through - were still walking through - and the flooding began.
In the ten minutes prior, Yamamoto thought hard about his life, the one where he could have become a professional baseball player, and this one where he went straight into the mafia. Was there one where the mafia wasn't even involved? He had seen the world where his father had been murdered, and it was ridiculous; he didn't like it. He was in the world where his old man was still sorely missed, but thank the gods alive.
And this was the world where Tsuna is breathing, which keeps Gokudera happy, and generally everyone alive. Perhaps the world where Hibari Kyouya is starting to accept Yamamoto Takeshi as an equal as well...
Yamamoto smiled wryly as he heard the muffled shouting and running; the Mecacci men rushed through the mansion trying to find out what had happened - or how to simply get out, but Yamamoto knew it was impossible. Together with Giannini’s security system, his Rain was closing off all relevant bomb sweep areas and sealing every exits except for one - the one leading towards Hibari's base.
He wasn't suicidal. Just an idiot.
And there were better things to die for, if he was planning to die for something at all. Besides, if he hurt himself further, Hibari would bite him to death.
The thought made him smile more, chuckling under his breath as he limped towards the exit, a hand pressed against his side.
***
Gokudera grit his teeth when he heard Spanner's voice. The man sounded short of breath like he was running and there was shooting behind him, and men yelling for him to, "Stop typing on your laptop and run! Please!"
And in a gratingly calm voice, Spanner informed him of exactly what was happening at the base: The Mecacci. The Vongola Rain. And one giant water coffin of a bomb sweep.
"Oh god," he groaned when it suddenly hit him. He'd heard of the Mecacci when he'd been working on the Vongola-Denaro alliance, but when he inquired more, the Denaro don had brushed them under the table, like they were nothing. "Nothing my ass," he grumbled to himself, then reported his location, adding, "I'm getting back to the Tenth."
"Wait," Chrome's voice rang out suddenly, sounding ragged and breathless. "Gokudera-san, please wait."
She shakily held onto her trident, setting it onto the floor and slowly climbing back onto her feet, leaning on it like it was a lifeline. Turning to glance at Ken and Chikusa, there was an apologetic look in her eyes before she looked back to an impatient Gokudera, who was clenching his fists sporadically, as if trying to control himself from running towards Tsuna immediately.
"Take me with you," her voice was tired, but firm. "Mukuro-sama... Mukuro-sama needs me. Now."
Looking from Chrome to Chikusa and Ken and back again, Gokudera's eyes narrowed. "What, just you?"
Chikusa's face revealed nothing, but he still had a tight hold over Ken's shoulders, and Ken looked almost torn, his hands visibly shaking from what little self-restraint he had.
Gokudera shook his head, and stepped forward. "Fine. Come on then." Judging from those three, there was no time to waste.
Chrome gave him a small smile, too weakened by the pain of having her chest pierced through to speak. Taking a deep breath, she used her trident as a crutch as she walked over to Gokudera, grabbing onto an arm.
"I'll come back soon," she said, obviously trying to reassure Chikusa and Ken even though she wasn't looking at them. Her eyes were closed, breathing shallow but she still continued anyway. "I'll bring Mukuro-sama back."
It was as if she was trying to convince herself as much as them.
Gokudera made no such promises out loud, only making a mental note to come back for them if their leaders couldn't. So without another word, he secured an arm around Chrome's waist and dredged up a harmless red flame from his will. With that, he shot out of the broken lift shaft, and flew straight back up the winding stairs that he'd been on.
This time, he didn't stop until he reached the top.
Tsuna whirled around immediately at the whoosh and the sounds of footsteps. He smiled at Gokudera automatically, but his attentions were immediately diverted to Chrome, who had seen the motionless Mukuro, slumped against the wall. He opened his mouth, but before he could even speak a word, Chrome was already speaking.
"Mukuro-sama..." her voice was barely audible, but the arena was so silent that Tsuna heard her desperate cry loud and clear.
Tsuna swallowed thickly, trying to find his voice again. "Gokudera... Byakuran's dead and..." He took a deep breath. "Hibari needs a doctor. A healer. Just, please." He was at a loss for words over the possibility of losing one, two... perhaps three of his guardians here all at once - and knew, without a doubt, that it would break them all just as the first Byakuran they'd met had wanted.
At those words, Gokudera nodded, and immediately whirled around, scanning the arena for that characteristic figure in black. But rather than finding Hibari standing straight and proud like he always seemed to be, he saw him on his knees, leaning against a stark white wall with a slowly growing pool of blood.
For a moment, it reminded Gokudera of the first time he had ever thought Hibari to be even slightly vulnerable - when he first collapsed in that meeting room an eternity ago, his shirt stained with the blood from a half-rotted lung.
As Gokudera knelt beside Hibari, Chrome limped as quickly as she could towards her other half. But while the pain that she felt from Mukuro had driven her out of the sandman's land, the sleeping gas was still not entirely out of her system. With every step forward, she felt like her head was in a thicker cloud.
Chrome very nearly collapsed in front of Mukuro's corpse, except that Tsuna had recovered enough to catch her and lower her carefully to the ground.
Before she even reached the ground, Chrome was already moving towards Mukuro, crawling over to him with the desperation of a woman dying of thirst. She cupped her small, white hands around his ghostly pale cheeks, pulling him close and murmuring his name again and again, as if she couldn't believe that the Mukuro she was seeing was nothing but a corpse.
Tsuna couldn't believe his eyes either, but he had felt it as if his own chest had been pierced, and a space was hollowed out from his aching heart. Unbeknownst to him, there were tears running down his cheeks. He could see Mukuro well enough after all. He had been watching the fight...
Just watching!
"Sorry..." he whispered as he knelt down on one knee and reached out. "I'm sorry, Mukuro... Chrome..." His breath hitched. He wasn't even looking at her, just at Mukuro. It was as though he was simply trying to console himself, and failing pathetically. His hands were shaking when he placed them on his Mist guardians' shoulders, and they shook harder when neither gave him any reaction.
"I"m so sorry..."
Chrome's breath was shallow and uneven, her mouth slightly opened, but she didn't say a word. She couldn't - her breath was caught in her throat, causing her to make little hiccupping noises as she tried not to sob. No- Mukuro couldn't be dead. Not like this; not by Byakuran's hand. Mukuro had won, hadn't he? He was supposed to live; to survive the battle as the sole victor.
Byakuran wasn't supposed to have killed him like that. It just couldn't be. She promised- she had promised Chikusa and Ken that she would bring Mukuro back.
"Mukuro-sama..." Chrome choked out, barely noticing Tsuna's presence. She dived forward, burying her face into his shoulder and inhaling his scent. Then, she closed her eyes and reached deep inside herself, much deeper inside than what she was used to.
The red thread... There! Shining dimly in the distance like a beacon. There was nothing but darkness in front of her - it used to be so bright, so warm - but Chrome wasn't so easily deterred. She only steeled her shoulders and waded through the suffocating darkness, towards that dulled thread.
Tsuna seemed to understand what she was trying to do - that was the one reason why he didn't freak out when she seemed to pass out upon Mukuro's chest. Closing his eyes, he did the only thing that he felt he could do. Keep their lifeless bodies warm and protected with his dying will.
Because Chrome was going to bring Mukuro back if it was the last thing she could do.
Back: Part 32
Next: Part 34
Now, if only she'd post stuff online~
Enjoy~ ♥
Windshear Part [33/?]
Authors: kagayachou and evocates
Characters/Pairings: Yamamoto, Hibari, Byakuran, Mukuro, Tsuna, Kyoko, Lambo, Gokudera, Ryohei, Belphegor, Squalo, Xanxus, Chrome, Ken, Chikusa. Yamamoto/Hibari.
Rating: PG-13
Words: 4376
Summary: It's time to clean up.
Eyeing the half-demolished room, Lambo couldn't help but wince. A dreadful feeling, of standing in quicksand, rushed out from the pit of his stomach to the top of his head, the tips of his toes, and his trigger finger twitched with want - No, he needed a bigger gun to fire.
Because getting blood on the carpet and a few bullet holes here and there were one thing. Letting strangers blow rooms up was something Reborn would kill him for.
Lambo let out a soft, whiny whimper of frustration and slipped his handgun back into its holster beneath his jacket. He took a deep breath, and tried to stay calm. He squeezed his eyes shut. He grit his teeth.
"Can't. Tolerate," came out shakily before he gave a great, feral-eyed growl and reached behind his back to heft a bazooka over his shoulder.
"Lambo-san... has a new gun to play with!"
Yamamoto's head snapped back immediately at the sound of the teenager's voice. He and Kyoko were huddled on the floor on the other side of the ruined wall, their heads ducked down to avoid the impact and the debris. He had instinctively covered as much of her head and body as he could with his own body, because he knew that he could take more injuries and he didn't want her to take any.
Hibari would be so angry at him for thinking this way, he thought wryly, before shaking that man out of his thoughts and refocusing back on the situation.
"You all right?" He whispered to Kyoko. The young woman looked understandably shaken, but she managed a nod and opened her mouth to say something. However, Yamamoto held a finger to his lips.
When he lifted himself to his feet, he found the barrel of the bazooka pointed right at him. Quickly, he held his hands up - the universal signal of surrender.
"Hey, Lambo..." he said, voice low and calm. "Relax. Relax, don't use that while you're indoors. Reborn will be even madder if you managed to destroy the place yourself."
A long silence hung in the air, tension drawn taught as Lambo stared at Yamamoto blankly, the bazooka still pointed at his face. Then, he exhaled slowly and shakily, his fingers growing lax on their grip on the bazooka.
"I- I'm just..." Lambo stared at his toes, feeling incredibly disappointed with himself. "I found out about the bombs and I got here too slow..."
"If there's one bomb there's got to be more." Yamamoto zeroed in on the important thing first. "Tell me what you found out, Lambo. We need to get Sasagawa-san out of here, for one thing..." He turned back to her, holding out a hand.
Kyoko stared at his hand for a moment before giving him a shaky smile. She met his eyes before shaking her head, pushing a hand against the floor, and stood up by herself, willing her legs to not shake. She didn't want to depend on him too much - he was already doing so much to help her, to get her to somewhere safe, and she honestly didn't want to become another burden.
Her smile steadied a little as she stepped forward. The gun was a heavy weight on her hand. "Don't bother with me, Yamamoto-kun," she said quietly, determination bright in her eyes. "Leave me at a room and I'll hide." Biting down on her lip, she thought of everyone else in the mansion - the servants, Tsuna's subordinates, all of whom deserved none of this.
"Please make sure everyone is safe."
Yamamoto looked at her with a vaguely unsure expression, briefly hoping that she didn't take his hand because she didn't want to be a burden rather than because she was still so scared of him she didn't actually want him to touch her.
"We're... we've sent the message out. Those who can fight are defending the base. Those who can't are being evacuated," Lambo explained. Yamamoto nodded silently, and then brushed a hand through his hair, closing his eyes as he shook out the dust.
"We can't just leave you alone in a room," he answered as he looked back into her eyes. "There're bombs to defuse...
"Lambo," he turned to the Thunder guardian. "We were heading for the eastern tunnels, the ones that lead to the nearest Foundation HQ. Sasagawa-san," he looked towards her. "Lambo can lead you there. Defusing bombs are my forte."
At those words, Kyoko breathed out a sigh of relief. They were safe - or, even if they weren't now, they would be. It took a burden off her shoulders, enough for her smile to change and become truly sincere. Reaching out, she placed a hand on Yamamoto's wrist, squeezing it lightly.
"Thank you."
Then, she turned around to Lambo. She remembered taking care of him when he was still a child; remembered his tantrums and watched as he outgrew them. And yet... yet she couldn't repress the shiver that crawled up her spine when she saw the bazooka on his shoulder and the still-feral light in his eyes.
"Let's go, Lambo-kun," she said quietly, steeling herself and trying to hide her caution. They didn't need to be distracted by her silly fears.
Yamamoto waved them off with a wry but optimistic grin until Lambo stopped looking back and Kyoko's footsteps could no longer be heard.
"Giannini-san," he sighed into his headset. "Bomb sweep... in ten."
"A-at once, Yamamoto-kun! Pin-point search has been activated. I'm evacuating all of our men now," the technician replied.
"Thank you," Yamamoto smiled briefly, then waited in stoic silence.
A minute later, the headset crackled. Giannini told him which rooms the invaders had gone through, or rather, which ones he'd have to sweep.
"It doesn't look good, Yamamoto-kun... there's more than I expected..."
"We're still good," Yamamoto chuckled lightly. "Everyone will still have a place to sleep when they come home tonight."
Giannini laughed nervously, "I'll be running along in a minute, Yamamoto-kun. Just sealing off the machines..." The line went dead.
Yamamoto leaned against an untouched wall and closed his eyes, ignoring the feel of something wet and warm soaking through the bandages and down his side.
***
"VOIIIIIIIIIIIII!" Squalo shouted into the headset, as his customary start to every conversation. He made to continue, but was suddenly distracted by another idiot in a white suit rushing at him, a stiletto knife brandished in his hand. Squalo scowled, swinging his sword and cutting the weak little weapon off at the hilt, before shoving his own blade into that idiot's chest.
He pulled out his sword and swiped it through the water he was hip-deep in, darkening the red even more. Then, he paused, reaching up to readjust his headset calmly as if he had not made another kill; as if his leather uniform was not stained with blood. As if he had not managed to completely annihilate every single opponent that had threw themselves at him.
"Xanxus!" he barked into the headset. "Where the fuck are all of you?"
There was a wet gurgle coming from the other end, and then the sound of a gun being fired, a bullet hitting its target at close range, it seemed.
Xanxus fired another shot for good measure, and then answered, "Where you left us, trash. Your prey dead yet?"
"No," Squalo bit out the word, scanning his surroundings again at the reminder. His face was set in a dark scowl. "That piece of shit is hiding from me."
After a bout of silence, Xanxus snapped back at him. "Flood him out and get the hell back here, trash." He lowered his voice then. "And don't make me come after you."
"I don't need you to remind me like you're my mother," Squalo spat right back, but there was none of the usual venom in his voice. "And you won't have to."
"Then don't keep me waiting," Xanxus growled. With that, he switched off the line and Squalo scowled at the sudden silence.
Making a disgusted noise, he hung up on his side as well before continuing to wade through the water. His opponent was here - he saw him going in this direction. Squalo narrowed his eyes.
"VOIIIIIIIIIIIII!" he screamed out into the air, slicing his sword through the water and creating a huge wave. "Stop hiding, you fucking coward!"
Not that he expected the man to answer; it was the returning ripples that drew his eyes towards a certain direction. Squalo smiled then, and it was not pretty.
***
There was water everywhere. Water and darkness, clouding and fogging up the air until it became so thick that it was almost difficult to breathe, much less see. The silence was heavy, broken periodically by the sounds of splashing water.
"Ushishishshishi..." a voice rang out, light and playful yet terribly disturbing. "Game over, the Prince has won~ Everyone else is a slowpoke~"
There was a flare of light chasing away the shadows, illuminating the walls and the water like a bright summer's day.
"Oi!" Ryohei waved and waded over, sun flame flaring from his ring. "Hey, Prince!" For a moment, Belphegor looked like the thin, willowy little waif he had been when they'd first met. His normally gelled up hair was weighed down with water, covering his eyes more - and almost hiding the rest of his face. The fur collar of the cloak that he was wearing was definitely ruined as well. But Ryohei didn't spare too much attention towards that. Rather, he glanced back towards the bloody prints on the walls, then at Bel's hands.
"That looks like an extreme amount of blood there. How much of it is yours?"
For a long time, there was no answer from Bel. He was simply standing there in the water, hands red and clothes slowly turning the same shade as well. It was as if he had turned into stone after that first laugh. Then-
"The Vongola sun," Bel turned around, and a crazed smile took up the whole of his face. His face was paler than a sheet, and Ryohei knew then that most of the blood on the walls belonged to the self-proclaimed prince rather than his prey. "Ushishishi... you're late."
And he said it so slowly, it made Ryohei hurry over on instinct. He reached out towards the storm flame user, his own flame shifting from being a pure light source to one that could heal.
"Quick, where are you bleeding from?"
"A lot of places~" Bel singsonged in reply, the grin growing even wider. He seemed to be too covered in his own blood to even get annoyed or angry about that fact anymore. Now, he seemed to be rejoicing in it. "But." he continued, turning a little to stare past Ryohei's shoulder.
"I won't die. Trash won't kill me~"
"Yeah?" Ryohei wasn't really listening. He just knew he had to keep Belphegor talking while he stopped him from bleeding to death. His power didn't really cover blood loss. "Where is this 'trash' dude you were fighting anyway?"
"Wouldn't you like to know~?" Bel teased, not even moving as Ryohei placed a hand on his shoulder, gently moving downwards. He tilted his head up a little, lowering his voice as if imparting a secret. "He's in the water. He's not hiding~"
At those words, Ryohei chanced to look down at the water and froze, his flame growing dim until it was almost out before he caught himself.
There were little chunks of red and pink floating along the surface of the water, pieces of fabric and... hair?
Ryohei looked back at Belphegor, who had begun to laugh quietly. The prince lifted a hand to hold up a round sphere - no, an eyeball. The fresh green iris hadn't even begun to dim. And he threw it into to water, laughing louder. Louder.
Abruptly, the sound ended and Bel froze in that position, head thrown backwards and hands curled inwards. Then, he started to fall.
But, "Shit!" Ryohei caught him before he could loose the psycho in the god-forsaken water. He didn't even want to look at the water again. "Hey!" He slapped Belphegor. "Hey! Don't faint on me!"
***
Byakuran gasped. He was falling as though the the ground had literally be pulled out from under his feet, and there was an icy feeling that was burning through his chest, with cold air rushing into his lungs and places inside him that cold air shouldn't even touch.
He felt blood rushing up out of his throat, out of his chest and it was useless to try and close the wound. It tore a strangled cry from of his throat when Hibari pulled his tonfa out, but the cry came out as a croak more than anything else and his vision swam.
Inside his mind, Mukuro was laughing. A deep, echoing laugh that was ringing throughout his head, triumphant and almost hysterical. His flame was tied so closely to Byakuran's that he felt every bit of the pain that Byakuran was feeling, but it meant nothing to him. Because he had won. This little game of theirs - he had won so completely.
Because this time, Byakuran isn't the one who kills him.
And although they were so close now that Byakuran could hear his thoughts so clearly, the Gesso don couldn't understand.
"This time?" Byakuran tried to ask. It was unintelligible in the air, but not on the mental level. "Why, Mukuro-kun?"
Byakuran felt his throat closing up on him, strength subsiding as he struggled to draw from his flames. But Mukuro's hold on him was absolute now.
"There needs always be a winner, Byakuran-san," Mukuro murmured right back, his red eye glowing in the encroaching darkness of Byakuran's mind. The meadow was dying, revealing blood-caked soil that was hard and dry. The true view of Byakuran's mind - a wasteland.
Mukuro laughed even more, even as he felt his own flames slowly fading alongside Byakuran's. He was dying as well - technically, he was already dead, given that his body wasn't breathing and there was no pulse. Not since he has moved into Byakuran's.
Distantly, he hoped that Chrome would be alright.
"Chrome... was she really so..."
Byakuran fell silent as his last breath escaped him, along with a burst of images: his life truly flashing before his eyes without Mukuro's influence. And in the wasteland of his mind, there was a burst of light, a single flower that bloomed out of nothing - a lotus.
"Mukuro..."
And it too began to wither.
Outside of Byakuran's mind, Hibari watched with unblinking, impassive eyes as the man slid downwards to crumple onto the ground, eyes opened but completely empty of anything. He dropped to a squat and wrapped his hand around Byakuran's throat, checking the pulse - there was none. Then, he broke the neck like it was a stick of bamboo - just for a safety measure.
He wasn't letting Byakuran have another chance to live.
Slanting his eyes backwards, he watched as Tsuna tried to push himself against the wall he had collapsed against, fingers scrabbling at the concrete wall and mouth soundlessly opened. He frowned darkly, taking a step forward. Pain exploded throughout his body from the stab wounds that Byakuran had inflicted - a sure sign that the adrenaline was fading - and he stumbled slightly, just enough to slam a hand on the wall beside Tsuna.
"Sawada Tsunayoshi," he intoned darkly. "Wake up."
Tsuna's eyelids fluttered open and he tilted his head towards Hibari unseeingly. Suddenly, he slapped a hand over his chest, crumpling his shirt and tie as he tried to rationalize what had happened. He'd practically been skewered when Hibari shoved one tonfa into Byakuran's chest, the ball and chain inside of it pushing out through his back - he had felt that too. He gasped in relief to know that Byakuran was dead, but despair covered him like a blanket at the same time.
"Mukuro," he whispered. He wasn't hurting anymore because he couldn't feel anything now from, "Mukuro!"
He pushed himself off the ground, stumbling over towards Byakuran's corpse. Then he stared, at Byakuran, back at Hibari... and finally at Mukuro's body, on the other side of the arena.
Hibari was alive, but Mukuro...?
Hibari watched as Tsuna stumbled over to the other side, nearly tripping over his own feet like he was fifteen, reverting back to being the herbivore he once was instead of the strong man that Hibari knew he was. Then, he leaned a shoulder against the wall, staining it red as blood flowed downwards to pool on the ground.
He closed his eyes.
***
Rain clouds gathered over the Vongola's mansion with the occasional thunder and flash. As the rest of the famiglia evacuated the area, those in the open could feel the heavy air, hinting of a coming storm. Yamamoto breathed it in deeply, and pushed himself from the wall when the alarm on his watch rang loud.
As he opened his eyes, the rain fell as if the sky was crying, just above the mansion.
But if one looked closely, the roof remained dry and the water slid off of it, onto the outer walls and then sinking inside. It travelled along the pipes and wires that led to specific rooms. Rooms where the Mecacci's men had walked through - were still walking through - and the flooding began.
In the ten minutes prior, Yamamoto thought hard about his life, the one where he could have become a professional baseball player, and this one where he went straight into the mafia. Was there one where the mafia wasn't even involved? He had seen the world where his father had been murdered, and it was ridiculous; he didn't like it. He was in the world where his old man was still sorely missed, but thank the gods alive.
And this was the world where Tsuna is breathing, which keeps Gokudera happy, and generally everyone alive. Perhaps the world where Hibari Kyouya is starting to accept Yamamoto Takeshi as an equal as well...
Yamamoto smiled wryly as he heard the muffled shouting and running; the Mecacci men rushed through the mansion trying to find out what had happened - or how to simply get out, but Yamamoto knew it was impossible. Together with Giannini’s security system, his Rain was closing off all relevant bomb sweep areas and sealing every exits except for one - the one leading towards Hibari's base.
He wasn't suicidal. Just an idiot.
And there were better things to die for, if he was planning to die for something at all. Besides, if he hurt himself further, Hibari would bite him to death.
The thought made him smile more, chuckling under his breath as he limped towards the exit, a hand pressed against his side.
***
Gokudera grit his teeth when he heard Spanner's voice. The man sounded short of breath like he was running and there was shooting behind him, and men yelling for him to, "Stop typing on your laptop and run! Please!"
And in a gratingly calm voice, Spanner informed him of exactly what was happening at the base: The Mecacci. The Vongola Rain. And one giant water coffin of a bomb sweep.
"Oh god," he groaned when it suddenly hit him. He'd heard of the Mecacci when he'd been working on the Vongola-Denaro alliance, but when he inquired more, the Denaro don had brushed them under the table, like they were nothing. "Nothing my ass," he grumbled to himself, then reported his location, adding, "I'm getting back to the Tenth."
"Wait," Chrome's voice rang out suddenly, sounding ragged and breathless. "Gokudera-san, please wait."
She shakily held onto her trident, setting it onto the floor and slowly climbing back onto her feet, leaning on it like it was a lifeline. Turning to glance at Ken and Chikusa, there was an apologetic look in her eyes before she looked back to an impatient Gokudera, who was clenching his fists sporadically, as if trying to control himself from running towards Tsuna immediately.
"Take me with you," her voice was tired, but firm. "Mukuro-sama... Mukuro-sama needs me. Now."
Looking from Chrome to Chikusa and Ken and back again, Gokudera's eyes narrowed. "What, just you?"
Chikusa's face revealed nothing, but he still had a tight hold over Ken's shoulders, and Ken looked almost torn, his hands visibly shaking from what little self-restraint he had.
Gokudera shook his head, and stepped forward. "Fine. Come on then." Judging from those three, there was no time to waste.
Chrome gave him a small smile, too weakened by the pain of having her chest pierced through to speak. Taking a deep breath, she used her trident as a crutch as she walked over to Gokudera, grabbing onto an arm.
"I'll come back soon," she said, obviously trying to reassure Chikusa and Ken even though she wasn't looking at them. Her eyes were closed, breathing shallow but she still continued anyway. "I'll bring Mukuro-sama back."
It was as if she was trying to convince herself as much as them.
Gokudera made no such promises out loud, only making a mental note to come back for them if their leaders couldn't. So without another word, he secured an arm around Chrome's waist and dredged up a harmless red flame from his will. With that, he shot out of the broken lift shaft, and flew straight back up the winding stairs that he'd been on.
This time, he didn't stop until he reached the top.
Tsuna whirled around immediately at the whoosh and the sounds of footsteps. He smiled at Gokudera automatically, but his attentions were immediately diverted to Chrome, who had seen the motionless Mukuro, slumped against the wall. He opened his mouth, but before he could even speak a word, Chrome was already speaking.
"Mukuro-sama..." her voice was barely audible, but the arena was so silent that Tsuna heard her desperate cry loud and clear.
Tsuna swallowed thickly, trying to find his voice again. "Gokudera... Byakuran's dead and..." He took a deep breath. "Hibari needs a doctor. A healer. Just, please." He was at a loss for words over the possibility of losing one, two... perhaps three of his guardians here all at once - and knew, without a doubt, that it would break them all just as the first Byakuran they'd met had wanted.
At those words, Gokudera nodded, and immediately whirled around, scanning the arena for that characteristic figure in black. But rather than finding Hibari standing straight and proud like he always seemed to be, he saw him on his knees, leaning against a stark white wall with a slowly growing pool of blood.
For a moment, it reminded Gokudera of the first time he had ever thought Hibari to be even slightly vulnerable - when he first collapsed in that meeting room an eternity ago, his shirt stained with the blood from a half-rotted lung.
As Gokudera knelt beside Hibari, Chrome limped as quickly as she could towards her other half. But while the pain that she felt from Mukuro had driven her out of the sandman's land, the sleeping gas was still not entirely out of her system. With every step forward, she felt like her head was in a thicker cloud.
Chrome very nearly collapsed in front of Mukuro's corpse, except that Tsuna had recovered enough to catch her and lower her carefully to the ground.
Before she even reached the ground, Chrome was already moving towards Mukuro, crawling over to him with the desperation of a woman dying of thirst. She cupped her small, white hands around his ghostly pale cheeks, pulling him close and murmuring his name again and again, as if she couldn't believe that the Mukuro she was seeing was nothing but a corpse.
Tsuna couldn't believe his eyes either, but he had felt it as if his own chest had been pierced, and a space was hollowed out from his aching heart. Unbeknownst to him, there were tears running down his cheeks. He could see Mukuro well enough after all. He had been watching the fight...
Just watching!
"Sorry..." he whispered as he knelt down on one knee and reached out. "I'm sorry, Mukuro... Chrome..." His breath hitched. He wasn't even looking at her, just at Mukuro. It was as though he was simply trying to console himself, and failing pathetically. His hands were shaking when he placed them on his Mist guardians' shoulders, and they shook harder when neither gave him any reaction.
"I"m so sorry..."
Chrome's breath was shallow and uneven, her mouth slightly opened, but she didn't say a word. She couldn't - her breath was caught in her throat, causing her to make little hiccupping noises as she tried not to sob. No- Mukuro couldn't be dead. Not like this; not by Byakuran's hand. Mukuro had won, hadn't he? He was supposed to live; to survive the battle as the sole victor.
Byakuran wasn't supposed to have killed him like that. It just couldn't be. She promised- she had promised Chikusa and Ken that she would bring Mukuro back.
"Mukuro-sama..." Chrome choked out, barely noticing Tsuna's presence. She dived forward, burying her face into his shoulder and inhaling his scent. Then, she closed her eyes and reached deep inside herself, much deeper inside than what she was used to.
The red thread... There! Shining dimly in the distance like a beacon. There was nothing but darkness in front of her - it used to be so bright, so warm - but Chrome wasn't so easily deterred. She only steeled her shoulders and waded through the suffocating darkness, towards that dulled thread.
Tsuna seemed to understand what she was trying to do - that was the one reason why he didn't freak out when she seemed to pass out upon Mukuro's chest. Closing his eyes, he did the only thing that he felt he could do. Keep their lifeless bodies warm and protected with his dying will.
Because Chrome was going to bring Mukuro back if it was the last thing she could do.
Back: Part 32
Next: Part 34