KHR: Return on Investment [Chapter Four]
KATEKYO HITMAN REBORN!: Return on Investment
Chapter Four: Everybody's stalking
Theme Song: To follow, with download link!
Other Chapter Links: Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16
Rating: G
Characters: Spanner, Yamamoto, Haru, Hana, Kyoko, mentions of others
Summary: Philippines, here we come~! And, on another note, Yamamoto and Hibari have a past? o_o
Notes: This longfic was my NaNoWriMo project for 2008, although I've actually been itching to write it ever since I returned to the fandom early on this year. It's meant to take place ten years into the new future created by Tsuna and his crew after the TYL arc, and is slightly AU-ish with several details. The title of this chapter is taken from the 31_days theme for April 18, 2008.
Chapter Four. Everybody's stalking.
They were on a Vongola-owned private jet and flying out of Namimori by three in the morning the next day. While most of the people in their hometown were fast asleep, Yamamoto, Haru, Kyoko and Hana were comfortably ensconced in seats that could give the best first class air services a run for their money, exchanging stories over a light continental breakfast. They were three hours from their destination when Yamamoto was finally left to his own devices - his companions had decided to sleep for the rest of the way, in order to gather up energy for the white sands and sun-warmed waters of the Philippines. Even with the quick stopover at Manila, they were going to arrive at their destination well before lunch time - Haru, ever enthusiastic, claimed that it was only proper of them to take the opportunity to jump right into the water the moment they arrived. They were only going to stay in the Philippines for so long as Hibari was not with them, after all.
…And he’s always been the kind of guy who’ll up and leave without a word, then come back around when you’ve already given up on waiting for him.
The thought brought a rueful smile to his face and memories of looking down on his rumpled bed sometime past the point where average high school boys should have been fast asleep. Yamamoto’s fingers lingered just on top of that baseball bat case, the one that contained not the lucky bat he reportedly kept close to his person at all times, but the Shigure Kintoki, a gift from his father. It was a weapon that he had used to carve the Vongola name upon flesh and bone and musculature, cutting and cutting until the blade had soaked up enough blood to keep him at the basin for hours on end just to wash it clean. He still wasn’t sure whether he had gotten used to the business over the years, or whether he had just gotten faster at cleaning up after himself.
“I hope you’re not sleeping yet because you’re thinking up of a plan, and not because you can’t take naps on planes.”
Yamamoto only laughed in response, turning to face a bleary-eyed Haru. “You caught me red-handed there, Haru-chan,” he said, looking sheepish. “Don’t worry, though. I’ll figure something out.”
“Good.” Haru shifted about, adjusting the pillow just under her neck. “You must be wondering when Spanner and Hibari-san started hanging out so much.”
“I can find out in my own time.” The Rain Guardian grinned. “You should go back to sleep. We’ve’s still another flight and a car ride after this.”
“Oh… right.”
Yamamoto watched the young woman as she drifted off. He couldn’t blame Haru for staying on his case about having some sort of plan. Hibari may have “officially” accepted the fact that he was a part of the Vongola Family, but that did not stop him from denying them on a whim and doing only exactly what he wanted to do - the only person who could get him to heel was Tsuna himself, and the last thing Yamamoto wanted to do was stress his best friend out. Of course, that did not mean that Hibari could not be trusted. He had, with his words and his weapons and his very strange sense of honor, duty and responsibility, pulled through for them time and time again.
“Grow some fangs, Yamamoto Takeshi, or you will be dead before you can fix things.”
Yamamoto set the case aside, trading it for the blanket folded up in front of him. Sleep suddenly seemed like a good idea. Given the fact that he was sure to be the one put in charge of bringing the Cloud Guardian around when the time came, the Rain Guardian figured that he was going to need as much rest as he could get.
A few hours later. Krystal Lodge, Coron.
Years back, back when he was still holed up in his MIT laboratories with his half-built servers and exoskeletons, Spanner would not have ever thought that he could find himself oceans away from the USA at any given moment. While he had believed that home could, in theory, be any place that was capable of effectively housing his work and providing for all of his needs, no other place had seemed like a more capable place to do that beyond his home state. Three things, however, had dragged Spanner out of his shell: befriending Shouichi Irie, hearing stories about the fantastically self-igniting Tsunayoshi Sawada, and Kyouya Hibari - then future Cloud Guardian of the Vongola - fighting his way through several S.W.A.T. teams and a handful of CIA agents just to fetch him from his lab.
He and Shouichi had met during an international convention on robotics - they became instant friends not because they got along right off the bat, but because they had argued extensively on the principles, ethics and what they believed to be the true function of robotics as a whole just minutes after the obligatory round of self-introductions at the dinner table on gala night. Shouichi had never met a mind so sharp outside of his own, and Spanner had never met someone so cute (with Spanner’s definition of “cute” following along the lines of Pokemon creatures, and hence, completely non-sexual in nature) but critical at the same time… it had all the right elements for a lasting friendship in their language, and from then on, they had stayed in touch. What really intrigued Spanner about Shouichi, however, was how evasive the younger man was about whatever he was doing in Japan. The younger man was putting up a front, and the small inconsistencies and vagueness in his e-mails when it came to the topic of work made Spanner wonder. Nonetheless, he didn’t push, and Shouichi didn’t elaborate. If it did not have a direct bearing on the things they did or whatever they wanted to do, then perhaps it really didn’t matter.
…Of course, when Shouichi started oh-so-casually mentioning Tsunayoshi Sawada, that changed things. At the time, Sawada had already built up quite the reputation as that strange young man from Namimori who was the king of the hill not only among the Italian mobsters, but among all of the major organized crime groups across the globe. It was fairly ridiculous - his mafia family’s name, for one, meant something like “clams” in English, and Tsunayoshi was very much Japanese, much more than he was Italian (Spanner still didn’t know how that had worked out, in terms of why Tsunayoshi was the head of his family over all the other likely candidates). The young man seemed like a collection of idiosyncrasies and Spanner was quite ready to dismiss him as an interesting subject to talk about over breakfast, but not somebody he should bother himself with too much. A live feed of Tsunayoshi Sawada in action, however, made him do a complete 360. Shouichi had sent it in to Spanner on a whim, with a cryptic one-line message attached to the file: something that might give your toys a run for their money. Spanner spent all of the following evening tearing through the Internet, attempting to find more videos. Anybody who could light himself on fire and glow like something radioactive without actually dying merited some attention.
Spanner’s research expanded from that point on, developing both in the field of robotics and in other fields, ones that more traditional scientists would have scoffed at and dismissed as pseudo-scientific voodoo. By day, he lectured at the university, sticking to his role as the youngest and brightest robotics expert in the country - at night he was constantly on the webcam with Shouichi, talking boxes and flame attributes and the energy of the soul. As his knowledge in those areas increased, however, so did the alarm over his brilliance and talent, and it wasn’t long before different sectors of the government were sending him invitations to work for the President (or be branded a terrorist and thrown into prison; they never actually added that last part, but Spanner knew it was there) and the gangs were taking him out to dinner, to veil threats into their own wheedling over pulling him to their side of the fence. Spanner outright refused them all - tying him down to either side meant curtailing his freedom, in spite of all their promises and assurances. If he couldn’t be free to do his work as he pleased and at his leisure, then there wasn’t any point to it.
His situation, predictably, grew worse as time went on, and before Spanner knew it, he was under house arrest in his own laboratories with Agent Smith-lookalikes at his door and helicopters flying all over the place. After a day of moping, the blond pragmatically decided that it was pointless to get worked up over it, and proceeded to figure out what he would need to program or rig up in order to escape. He had just completed King Mosca Version 2.55 when his phone rang for the first time in months. He picked up, expecting it to be Shouichi (he was the only guy who could break through the codes that Spanner put up on the line), but was greeted by a very different voice instead.
“Yo.”
“S-Spanner-san? Is that you?”
“…Who are you?”
“Ah, sorry! I’m Tsunayoshi Sawada. Um. J… just call me Tsuna for short.”
“Did Shouichi set this up for you?”
“Yes. Listen, um, I really don’t have much time, so I just wanted you to know that my family plans on breaking you out of there. Since. Um. You might need help.”
“Sorry, Vongola, but I think I’ve got it covered.”
“E-eh?”
“I don’t build robots for nothing, you know. Besides, I don’t want to owe you any favors.”
“And you won’t!”
Spanner had paused at that point, intrigued by the tone of Tsuna’s voice. Back then, he had thought that it was an effect of the phone line. He realized, later on, that the feeling behind those words had, indeed, been very real.
“A-ah, anyway, I’ve already sent two of my friends to help you out, just in case you need it. Their names are Hayato Gokudera and Takeshi Yamamoto, and-”
Tsuna had cut off just as a loud explosion rocked the building, sending Spanner diving under the sanctuary offered by his worktable. Panicked voices rose up from just outside of his lab, and Spanner thought he could hear the smattering of gunfire in the distance.
“U-um. I guess that’s Hayato. Please prepare yourself to leave as soon as they arrived, Spanner-san.”
“Hmm.” Spanner crawled out from under his desk at that point, sweeping over the room at the very last minute. He had just finished setting everything up when the door opened, revealing two red-faced and very harassed-looking black suits.
“Mr. Spanner, you are to come with us immediately - WAIT. WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT ROBOT AND WHO ARE YOU TALKING WITH ON THE PHONE?!” He was probably going to say more and maybe pull out his gun, but a fluffy yellow bird that Spanner was going become increasingly familiar with in the future fluttered into the room at that very moment, twittering a tune that sounded oddly like a school anthem.
“What the-?”
One heartbeat, and both guards were on the ground, severely beaten by a wild-haired, tonfa-wielding stranger in a shirt already stained with the blood and dirt of a hell lot of fighting. The young man flipped his tonfa as he straightened up, fixing his gaze on Spanner - the eerie purple flames from his weapons reflected in his eyes. Spanner blinked, then lifted the phone back to his ear.
“Hey, Tsuna. I think I’ve just met one of your friends.”
“Oh, great! Um, please tell them that-”
“There’s only one of them.”
“…Eh?”
“I am not one of Sawada’s friends.” Hibari Kyouya - all of eighteen years old and raring for a fight - leveled Spanner with a look as his avian companion landed on his shoulder, twittering happily over the gunfire and the screams. “I have come here to make sure you do not fess up, Spanner. Two options: take that herbivore’s deal, or death.”
“Hou…”
“H-H-H-H-HIBARI-SAN!”
“Hmm… I kind of don’t want to die yet.”
“HIBARI-SAN, PLEASE DON’T KILL HIM!”
“Hey, Tsuna, he really can’t hear you~”
“I do not care what you want or do not want, gaijin,” Hibari cut in with a yawn, bringing Spanner’s attentions back to the situation at hand. “You have one minute.”
Spanner blinked. A turn of the joystick in his hands, and King Gola Mosca Version 2.55’s fist was flying towards Hibari’s face. Nobody should have been able to dodge that punch - Spanner had made all the proper calculations, and run all the proper simulations.
That night, Hibari had not even tried to dodge the hit. The boy had simply lifted up his tonfa and took up a more defensive position as the purple flames from his weapons roared to life, wreathing him in a halo of destructive heat. The robot’s fist crumbled upon contact, right before Spanner’s very eyes.
“Thirty seconds now,” said Hibari, after the smoke had cleared. He yawned again. Spanner blinked, surveyed the damage done to what had formerly been his masterpiece of the moment, and proceeded to say the only thing that came to mind.
“…So. If I hang out with you guys, will I get to see that more often?”
Seven years and many misadventures later, Spanner found himself reclining in a hammock rigged up right outside of a cabin out on stilts over the sea, listening to sound of seabirds calling to each other and the water lapping up against the pillars or the sides of the native boats in the area, sipping cold juice straight from a coconut and wondering if room service was going to kill him for asking for another round of mangoes. He had not taken the Vongola’s deal that night, not really: Gokudera and Yamamoto had turned up just before his minute decided to run out o him, trailed by a ridiculous number of S.W.A.T. teams. The four of them had proceeded to bust out the university and fight their way out all the way to the airport, where none other than Shouichi Irie himself was waiting for them. It was only after they were safely up in the air and halfway to Italy that Spanner was able to sit down and ask what had just happened and what Hibari had meant by him screwing up. Talk of time travel followed, along with the most ridiculous but fascinating story that Spanner had ever heard in his life.
He did not join any mafia family or group in the future - the Vongola Family and their allies took pains to fulfill his request to remain safe but ultimately independent, and in return, Spanner took any job that they offered him. Surprisingly, however, Tsunayoshi Sawada and his intriguing X-Burner techniques did not end up becoming his biggest customer - nor was it Dino Cavallone, Naito Longchamp, Aria Giglionero or any other of Sawada’s allies. It ended up becoming the man that Hibari Kyouya grew up into, the dark-haired, mercurial fighter whom Spanner was currently in the Philippines with and had followed to other countries many times before. They often traveled together, in the same spirit of developing and digging up more technology that had, in another time almost parallel to their own, nearly dominated the crime scene and could have moved on to completely destroying the world.
“SPANNER-SAN, WE’RE HERE - ew! Why are you wearing something that horrendous?!”
Spanner merely continued sipping up the remnants of his drink, oblivious to the look of disgust that Haru was giving his shirt (Hawaiian print; a tacky gift from one of his tacky contacts on the island). The blond man eventually set the coconut aside, and gave the whole party a jaunty wave as they moved towards him, walking across uneven wooden planks and sunlit waters.
“Oh~hisasheeburee de~suu, mee~na-san.”
“Your Japanese is still horrible,” Yamamoto returned in easy English, with a little laugh and an amused grin - the girls in his company had turned him into their baggage boy, but he didn’t seem to mind at all.
“I like mispronouncing stuff… it’s more fun that way. Kusakabe’s out back cooking lunch with the locals for us,” Spanner drawled, jerking his thumb towards the cabin. “You can drop your stuff off and dive right in, ladies.”
The group spent some time getting re-acquainted with each other before Haru loudly proclaimed that the waters were calling to her. The women moved off to their own cabin, and Yamamoto personally accompanied them in order to carry their things and make sure they were properly settled. By the time he came back, Spanner was on his second serving of coconut juice. He was also steadily making his way through a generous serving of Philippine mangoes, which he seemed to enjoy very much.
“Where’s Kyouya?”
“Alive and wandering around the Puerto Princesa area. That’s about all I know.”
“…Huh?”
“Here, have some of this stuff first… it’s really good.” Spanner shoved the plate full of sliced mangoes in Yamamoto’s direction, and wouldn’t say anything more until the Rain Guardian picked one of them up and got himself a spoon. The man then twisted about, rummaging through a decrepit-looking backpack on the floor just beside his hammock. He popped back up, whipping out something that looked vaguely like an old PDA. The screen, however, was completely grayed out save for a faintly blinking red dot near one of the corners. “There he is,” he drawled, showing it to Yamamoto. “Signal’s really bad down here, so I can’t get a fix on his location. He’s alive, though, see? Alive.” He tapped the dot for emphasis. “Thing’s programmed to flash a different color if his heart stops, or if he’s injured. It’s nice and red, though, so we don’t have to worry at all.”
Yamamoto did not bother asking Spanner why he or Kusakabe were not with Hibari - the Cloud Guardian had probably dumped them in Coron and gone off, perhaps with a hissed instruction for them to stay put and not follow him around. That probably meant that the operation involved a hell lot of fighting and death-defying stunts on the Cloud Guardian’s part. It was only right, then, that another Guardian - someone closer to Hibari’s skill level - be placed in charge of dragging him away after it was finished and bringing him over before he could go and find another fight to join. It was supposed to be the S.O.P. with regard to summoning Hibari over whenever he was needed in Italy and could not be found in Namimori, or in Tokyo.
Although in practice, I have always been the Guardian of choice when it came to dealing with Kyouya.
The sound of laughter caught Yamamoto and Spanner’s attention, drawing them away from their discussion - as one, the two men looked up to see the girls coming back around, dressed for the beach. “Is lunch ready yet?” Haru asked as they came around; she was tugging Kyoko along, with Hana trailing behind them.
“I don’t think so~ you can go and check with Kusakabe, if you want.”
“Nah! That just means that we’re taking a dip now!”
“Will you be joining us, Yamamoto-kun?” Kyoko asked, smiling, putting a hand on Yamamoto’s arm. The man shook his head.
“Sorry, but I think I better rest up. It looks like I’m going to be busy tonight.” He only patted her hand at her questioning look, and stood up. “I’m going to go in and finish my nap. You girls have fun, all right?”
“So you have a plan?” Haru asked curiously. Yamamoto grinned.
“I’ve got my sword and enough pocket money to buy him some decent cigarettes. We’ll see how it goes from there.”
“I can always swim with you guys,” Spanner said as Yamamoto walked off. “It’s about time I test Mosca’s underwater capabilities-”
“…No.”
Yamamoto pulled the door to the cabin shut with a laugh. The man shifted his duffel bag over to his other shoulder, giving himself a moment to adjust to the lighting; he threw off his coat a moment later, moving to occupy the one corner of the house that wasn’t cluttered with distinctly Spanner-centric paraphernalia. A part of him was railing, protesting at the fact that he had done little else but talk with people or sleep throughout the whole trip. Yamamoto, however, knew that in a matter of a few hours, that was going to change, drastically, and it was almost certainly going to go downhill from there.
Chapter Four: Everybody's stalking
Theme Song: To follow, with download link!
Other Chapter Links: Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16
Rating: G
Characters: Spanner, Yamamoto, Haru, Hana, Kyoko, mentions of others
Summary: Philippines, here we come~! And, on another note, Yamamoto and Hibari have a past? o_o
Notes: This longfic was my NaNoWriMo project for 2008, although I've actually been itching to write it ever since I returned to the fandom early on this year. It's meant to take place ten years into the new future created by Tsuna and his crew after the TYL arc, and is slightly AU-ish with several details. The title of this chapter is taken from the 31_days theme for April 18, 2008.
Chapter Four. Everybody's stalking.
They were on a Vongola-owned private jet and flying out of Namimori by three in the morning the next day. While most of the people in their hometown were fast asleep, Yamamoto, Haru, Kyoko and Hana were comfortably ensconced in seats that could give the best first class air services a run for their money, exchanging stories over a light continental breakfast. They were three hours from their destination when Yamamoto was finally left to his own devices - his companions had decided to sleep for the rest of the way, in order to gather up energy for the white sands and sun-warmed waters of the Philippines. Even with the quick stopover at Manila, they were going to arrive at their destination well before lunch time - Haru, ever enthusiastic, claimed that it was only proper of them to take the opportunity to jump right into the water the moment they arrived. They were only going to stay in the Philippines for so long as Hibari was not with them, after all.
…And he’s always been the kind of guy who’ll up and leave without a word, then come back around when you’ve already given up on waiting for him.
The thought brought a rueful smile to his face and memories of looking down on his rumpled bed sometime past the point where average high school boys should have been fast asleep. Yamamoto’s fingers lingered just on top of that baseball bat case, the one that contained not the lucky bat he reportedly kept close to his person at all times, but the Shigure Kintoki, a gift from his father. It was a weapon that he had used to carve the Vongola name upon flesh and bone and musculature, cutting and cutting until the blade had soaked up enough blood to keep him at the basin for hours on end just to wash it clean. He still wasn’t sure whether he had gotten used to the business over the years, or whether he had just gotten faster at cleaning up after himself.
“I hope you’re not sleeping yet because you’re thinking up of a plan, and not because you can’t take naps on planes.”
Yamamoto only laughed in response, turning to face a bleary-eyed Haru. “You caught me red-handed there, Haru-chan,” he said, looking sheepish. “Don’t worry, though. I’ll figure something out.”
“Good.” Haru shifted about, adjusting the pillow just under her neck. “You must be wondering when Spanner and Hibari-san started hanging out so much.”
“I can find out in my own time.” The Rain Guardian grinned. “You should go back to sleep. We’ve’s still another flight and a car ride after this.”
“Oh… right.”
Yamamoto watched the young woman as she drifted off. He couldn’t blame Haru for staying on his case about having some sort of plan. Hibari may have “officially” accepted the fact that he was a part of the Vongola Family, but that did not stop him from denying them on a whim and doing only exactly what he wanted to do - the only person who could get him to heel was Tsuna himself, and the last thing Yamamoto wanted to do was stress his best friend out. Of course, that did not mean that Hibari could not be trusted. He had, with his words and his weapons and his very strange sense of honor, duty and responsibility, pulled through for them time and time again.
“Grow some fangs, Yamamoto Takeshi, or you will be dead before you can fix things.”
Yamamoto set the case aside, trading it for the blanket folded up in front of him. Sleep suddenly seemed like a good idea. Given the fact that he was sure to be the one put in charge of bringing the Cloud Guardian around when the time came, the Rain Guardian figured that he was going to need as much rest as he could get.
A few hours later. Krystal Lodge, Coron.
Years back, back when he was still holed up in his MIT laboratories with his half-built servers and exoskeletons, Spanner would not have ever thought that he could find himself oceans away from the USA at any given moment. While he had believed that home could, in theory, be any place that was capable of effectively housing his work and providing for all of his needs, no other place had seemed like a more capable place to do that beyond his home state. Three things, however, had dragged Spanner out of his shell: befriending Shouichi Irie, hearing stories about the fantastically self-igniting Tsunayoshi Sawada, and Kyouya Hibari - then future Cloud Guardian of the Vongola - fighting his way through several S.W.A.T. teams and a handful of CIA agents just to fetch him from his lab.
He and Shouichi had met during an international convention on robotics - they became instant friends not because they got along right off the bat, but because they had argued extensively on the principles, ethics and what they believed to be the true function of robotics as a whole just minutes after the obligatory round of self-introductions at the dinner table on gala night. Shouichi had never met a mind so sharp outside of his own, and Spanner had never met someone so cute (with Spanner’s definition of “cute” following along the lines of Pokemon creatures, and hence, completely non-sexual in nature) but critical at the same time… it had all the right elements for a lasting friendship in their language, and from then on, they had stayed in touch. What really intrigued Spanner about Shouichi, however, was how evasive the younger man was about whatever he was doing in Japan. The younger man was putting up a front, and the small inconsistencies and vagueness in his e-mails when it came to the topic of work made Spanner wonder. Nonetheless, he didn’t push, and Shouichi didn’t elaborate. If it did not have a direct bearing on the things they did or whatever they wanted to do, then perhaps it really didn’t matter.
…Of course, when Shouichi started oh-so-casually mentioning Tsunayoshi Sawada, that changed things. At the time, Sawada had already built up quite the reputation as that strange young man from Namimori who was the king of the hill not only among the Italian mobsters, but among all of the major organized crime groups across the globe. It was fairly ridiculous - his mafia family’s name, for one, meant something like “clams” in English, and Tsunayoshi was very much Japanese, much more than he was Italian (Spanner still didn’t know how that had worked out, in terms of why Tsunayoshi was the head of his family over all the other likely candidates). The young man seemed like a collection of idiosyncrasies and Spanner was quite ready to dismiss him as an interesting subject to talk about over breakfast, but not somebody he should bother himself with too much. A live feed of Tsunayoshi Sawada in action, however, made him do a complete 360. Shouichi had sent it in to Spanner on a whim, with a cryptic one-line message attached to the file: something that might give your toys a run for their money. Spanner spent all of the following evening tearing through the Internet, attempting to find more videos. Anybody who could light himself on fire and glow like something radioactive without actually dying merited some attention.
Spanner’s research expanded from that point on, developing both in the field of robotics and in other fields, ones that more traditional scientists would have scoffed at and dismissed as pseudo-scientific voodoo. By day, he lectured at the university, sticking to his role as the youngest and brightest robotics expert in the country - at night he was constantly on the webcam with Shouichi, talking boxes and flame attributes and the energy of the soul. As his knowledge in those areas increased, however, so did the alarm over his brilliance and talent, and it wasn’t long before different sectors of the government were sending him invitations to work for the President (or be branded a terrorist and thrown into prison; they never actually added that last part, but Spanner knew it was there) and the gangs were taking him out to dinner, to veil threats into their own wheedling over pulling him to their side of the fence. Spanner outright refused them all - tying him down to either side meant curtailing his freedom, in spite of all their promises and assurances. If he couldn’t be free to do his work as he pleased and at his leisure, then there wasn’t any point to it.
His situation, predictably, grew worse as time went on, and before Spanner knew it, he was under house arrest in his own laboratories with Agent Smith-lookalikes at his door and helicopters flying all over the place. After a day of moping, the blond pragmatically decided that it was pointless to get worked up over it, and proceeded to figure out what he would need to program or rig up in order to escape. He had just completed King Mosca Version 2.55 when his phone rang for the first time in months. He picked up, expecting it to be Shouichi (he was the only guy who could break through the codes that Spanner put up on the line), but was greeted by a very different voice instead.
“Yo.”
“S-Spanner-san? Is that you?”
“…Who are you?”
“Ah, sorry! I’m Tsunayoshi Sawada. Um. J… just call me Tsuna for short.”
“Did Shouichi set this up for you?”
“Yes. Listen, um, I really don’t have much time, so I just wanted you to know that my family plans on breaking you out of there. Since. Um. You might need help.”
“Sorry, Vongola, but I think I’ve got it covered.”
“E-eh?”
“I don’t build robots for nothing, you know. Besides, I don’t want to owe you any favors.”
“And you won’t!”
Spanner had paused at that point, intrigued by the tone of Tsuna’s voice. Back then, he had thought that it was an effect of the phone line. He realized, later on, that the feeling behind those words had, indeed, been very real.
“A-ah, anyway, I’ve already sent two of my friends to help you out, just in case you need it. Their names are Hayato Gokudera and Takeshi Yamamoto, and-”
Tsuna had cut off just as a loud explosion rocked the building, sending Spanner diving under the sanctuary offered by his worktable. Panicked voices rose up from just outside of his lab, and Spanner thought he could hear the smattering of gunfire in the distance.
“U-um. I guess that’s Hayato. Please prepare yourself to leave as soon as they arrived, Spanner-san.”
“Hmm.” Spanner crawled out from under his desk at that point, sweeping over the room at the very last minute. He had just finished setting everything up when the door opened, revealing two red-faced and very harassed-looking black suits.
“Mr. Spanner, you are to come with us immediately - WAIT. WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT ROBOT AND WHO ARE YOU TALKING WITH ON THE PHONE?!” He was probably going to say more and maybe pull out his gun, but a fluffy yellow bird that Spanner was going become increasingly familiar with in the future fluttered into the room at that very moment, twittering a tune that sounded oddly like a school anthem.
“What the-?”
One heartbeat, and both guards were on the ground, severely beaten by a wild-haired, tonfa-wielding stranger in a shirt already stained with the blood and dirt of a hell lot of fighting. The young man flipped his tonfa as he straightened up, fixing his gaze on Spanner - the eerie purple flames from his weapons reflected in his eyes. Spanner blinked, then lifted the phone back to his ear.
“Hey, Tsuna. I think I’ve just met one of your friends.”
“Oh, great! Um, please tell them that-”
“There’s only one of them.”
“…Eh?”
“I am not one of Sawada’s friends.” Hibari Kyouya - all of eighteen years old and raring for a fight - leveled Spanner with a look as his avian companion landed on his shoulder, twittering happily over the gunfire and the screams. “I have come here to make sure you do not fess up, Spanner. Two options: take that herbivore’s deal, or death.”
“Hou…”
“H-H-H-H-HIBARI-SAN!”
“Hmm… I kind of don’t want to die yet.”
“HIBARI-SAN, PLEASE DON’T KILL HIM!”
“Hey, Tsuna, he really can’t hear you~”
“I do not care what you want or do not want, gaijin,” Hibari cut in with a yawn, bringing Spanner’s attentions back to the situation at hand. “You have one minute.”
Spanner blinked. A turn of the joystick in his hands, and King Gola Mosca Version 2.55’s fist was flying towards Hibari’s face. Nobody should have been able to dodge that punch - Spanner had made all the proper calculations, and run all the proper simulations.
That night, Hibari had not even tried to dodge the hit. The boy had simply lifted up his tonfa and took up a more defensive position as the purple flames from his weapons roared to life, wreathing him in a halo of destructive heat. The robot’s fist crumbled upon contact, right before Spanner’s very eyes.
“Thirty seconds now,” said Hibari, after the smoke had cleared. He yawned again. Spanner blinked, surveyed the damage done to what had formerly been his masterpiece of the moment, and proceeded to say the only thing that came to mind.
“…So. If I hang out with you guys, will I get to see that more often?”
Seven years and many misadventures later, Spanner found himself reclining in a hammock rigged up right outside of a cabin out on stilts over the sea, listening to sound of seabirds calling to each other and the water lapping up against the pillars or the sides of the native boats in the area, sipping cold juice straight from a coconut and wondering if room service was going to kill him for asking for another round of mangoes. He had not taken the Vongola’s deal that night, not really: Gokudera and Yamamoto had turned up just before his minute decided to run out o him, trailed by a ridiculous number of S.W.A.T. teams. The four of them had proceeded to bust out the university and fight their way out all the way to the airport, where none other than Shouichi Irie himself was waiting for them. It was only after they were safely up in the air and halfway to Italy that Spanner was able to sit down and ask what had just happened and what Hibari had meant by him screwing up. Talk of time travel followed, along with the most ridiculous but fascinating story that Spanner had ever heard in his life.
He did not join any mafia family or group in the future - the Vongola Family and their allies took pains to fulfill his request to remain safe but ultimately independent, and in return, Spanner took any job that they offered him. Surprisingly, however, Tsunayoshi Sawada and his intriguing X-Burner techniques did not end up becoming his biggest customer - nor was it Dino Cavallone, Naito Longchamp, Aria Giglionero or any other of Sawada’s allies. It ended up becoming the man that Hibari Kyouya grew up into, the dark-haired, mercurial fighter whom Spanner was currently in the Philippines with and had followed to other countries many times before. They often traveled together, in the same spirit of developing and digging up more technology that had, in another time almost parallel to their own, nearly dominated the crime scene and could have moved on to completely destroying the world.
“SPANNER-SAN, WE’RE HERE - ew! Why are you wearing something that horrendous?!”
Spanner merely continued sipping up the remnants of his drink, oblivious to the look of disgust that Haru was giving his shirt (Hawaiian print; a tacky gift from one of his tacky contacts on the island). The blond man eventually set the coconut aside, and gave the whole party a jaunty wave as they moved towards him, walking across uneven wooden planks and sunlit waters.
“Oh~hisasheeburee de~suu, mee~na-san.”
“Your Japanese is still horrible,” Yamamoto returned in easy English, with a little laugh and an amused grin - the girls in his company had turned him into their baggage boy, but he didn’t seem to mind at all.
“I like mispronouncing stuff… it’s more fun that way. Kusakabe’s out back cooking lunch with the locals for us,” Spanner drawled, jerking his thumb towards the cabin. “You can drop your stuff off and dive right in, ladies.”
The group spent some time getting re-acquainted with each other before Haru loudly proclaimed that the waters were calling to her. The women moved off to their own cabin, and Yamamoto personally accompanied them in order to carry their things and make sure they were properly settled. By the time he came back, Spanner was on his second serving of coconut juice. He was also steadily making his way through a generous serving of Philippine mangoes, which he seemed to enjoy very much.
“Where’s Kyouya?”
“Alive and wandering around the Puerto Princesa area. That’s about all I know.”
“…Huh?”
“Here, have some of this stuff first… it’s really good.” Spanner shoved the plate full of sliced mangoes in Yamamoto’s direction, and wouldn’t say anything more until the Rain Guardian picked one of them up and got himself a spoon. The man then twisted about, rummaging through a decrepit-looking backpack on the floor just beside his hammock. He popped back up, whipping out something that looked vaguely like an old PDA. The screen, however, was completely grayed out save for a faintly blinking red dot near one of the corners. “There he is,” he drawled, showing it to Yamamoto. “Signal’s really bad down here, so I can’t get a fix on his location. He’s alive, though, see? Alive.” He tapped the dot for emphasis. “Thing’s programmed to flash a different color if his heart stops, or if he’s injured. It’s nice and red, though, so we don’t have to worry at all.”
Yamamoto did not bother asking Spanner why he or Kusakabe were not with Hibari - the Cloud Guardian had probably dumped them in Coron and gone off, perhaps with a hissed instruction for them to stay put and not follow him around. That probably meant that the operation involved a hell lot of fighting and death-defying stunts on the Cloud Guardian’s part. It was only right, then, that another Guardian - someone closer to Hibari’s skill level - be placed in charge of dragging him away after it was finished and bringing him over before he could go and find another fight to join. It was supposed to be the S.O.P. with regard to summoning Hibari over whenever he was needed in Italy and could not be found in Namimori, or in Tokyo.
Although in practice, I have always been the Guardian of choice when it came to dealing with Kyouya.
The sound of laughter caught Yamamoto and Spanner’s attention, drawing them away from their discussion - as one, the two men looked up to see the girls coming back around, dressed for the beach. “Is lunch ready yet?” Haru asked as they came around; she was tugging Kyoko along, with Hana trailing behind them.
“I don’t think so~ you can go and check with Kusakabe, if you want.”
“Nah! That just means that we’re taking a dip now!”
“Will you be joining us, Yamamoto-kun?” Kyoko asked, smiling, putting a hand on Yamamoto’s arm. The man shook his head.
“Sorry, but I think I better rest up. It looks like I’m going to be busy tonight.” He only patted her hand at her questioning look, and stood up. “I’m going to go in and finish my nap. You girls have fun, all right?”
“So you have a plan?” Haru asked curiously. Yamamoto grinned.
“I’ve got my sword and enough pocket money to buy him some decent cigarettes. We’ll see how it goes from there.”
“I can always swim with you guys,” Spanner said as Yamamoto walked off. “It’s about time I test Mosca’s underwater capabilities-”
“…No.”
Yamamoto pulled the door to the cabin shut with a laugh. The man shifted his duffel bag over to his other shoulder, giving himself a moment to adjust to the lighting; he threw off his coat a moment later, moving to occupy the one corner of the house that wasn’t cluttered with distinctly Spanner-centric paraphernalia. A part of him was railing, protesting at the fact that he had done little else but talk with people or sleep throughout the whole trip. Yamamoto, however, knew that in a matter of a few hours, that was going to change, drastically, and it was almost certainly going to go downhill from there.