Reborn! fic - Blood of the Covenant (Chapter 6)
( Prologue | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 )
Title - Blood of the Covenant
Rating - PG-13 for language and violence
Characters - Gokudera, Tsuna, Reborn, Yamamoto
Warnings for this chapter - These contain spoilers, so skip ahead if you want to avoid.
[Spoiler (click to open)]
Target 06 - Eye for an Eye
Even before the smoke had cleared, Gokudera knew he was in trouble.
He’d miscalculated. Luca’s offer for him to “rejoin” the family had thrown him off, and in the heat of the moment, he had jumped the gun and set off the bombs too soon.
He couldn’t deny, either, that his battle-readiness was thrown off simply by being face-to-face with his brother again after all this time. He knew he didn’t always have the best handle on his emotions to begin with, and a situation like this just kicked everything off into overdrive.
All of which meant that Luca was still alive. Bleeding, but alive, and looking thoroughly pissed off now that the dust was settling.
“…Shit-” Immediately, Gokudera went for more bombs, knowing that any chance he had of winning this now would be determined within the next few seconds.
But before he could launch a second wave, he suddenly felt his whole body freeze up.
“That’s enough now,” Luca said.
And now it sounded like the old Luca. That terrifying, unpredictable simmering rage was back, and Gokudera felt a shiver of fear roll over him. He instantly willed those feelings back down; he couldn’t afford to give into that right now.
“So that’s really how you want it,” Luca said, and in spite of everything there seemed to be genuine hurt infecting his tone. “You’d side with them, over your own flesh and blood.”
In spite of the creeping panic he was holding at bay, Gokudera’s temper flared once again. “I don’t give a shit if you’re my brother or not!” he spat. Luca may have had full power over him now, but in spite of that, he didn’t intend to go down without a fight. “So don’t fucking act like you’re on my side-”
“I’m the only one on your side!” Luca cut him off forcefully, and Gokudera stopped short.
For a moment-just a moment-he thought he had felt Luca’s control weaken.
But it was just for a second… and now, Luca was positively fuming. “None of them understand what it’s like. To always be second class, never good enough.” The furor in his voice was increasing with every word. “Treated like dirt, like you’re worthless, and made to feel like it’s your own fault. To have your own parent cast you aside like something tainted. Like you humiliate them just by existing.” And now his tone was slowly becoming more hollow-sounding, almost desperate.
Finally his eyes met Hayato’s. “But I understand that,” he said. “You understand it. In that way, we are brothers, whether you want to admit it or not.”
He finally fell silent, then, just looking at him. Gokudera stared back, feeling like he’d been punched in the gut. The words hit so close to home that for a moment, he was left stunned by the raw, biting sting of the memories they dredged up.
He did know. He knew exactly how that felt.
And truth be told, it shocked him a little that he could feel those same all-too-familiar emotions emanating from this person that he hated. Up until this point, it had never once occurred to him that his brother, the man who’d tormented him all those years ago, could actually share that same brutally clear insight into those feelings.
But the thing was, Luca seemed to be conveniently overlooking exactly why they shared that common ground to begin with.
“…Yeah, I understand,” he finally managed to reply. “You made sure of that.”
“Hayato…”
Angrily, Gokudera cut him off, because-no. No, he wasn’t just going to suddenly feel sorry for him. It was true. He understood all too well exactly what Luca was talking about. And it was because Luca himself had seen to it.
And Gokudera didn’t care if it was today, tomorrow, or a hundred years from now-no amount of time or pleading looks or sympathetic tones could ever undo what had happened between them, or make up for all the shit that Luca had put him through.
“I’m not joining you,” he said with as much determination as he could muster. And if there was a slight tremor in his voice, well, so be it. “I’m never joining you. So get it through your head.”
And since Luca still had control over his body, and he couldn’t physically look away, he did his best to stubbornly avert his gaze as much as he could. Because he didn’t care if Luca looked hurt. He deserved to be hurt. And Hayato wasn’t here to spare his feelings.
Just let it sink in, he pleaded silently, to whatever powers might possibly be out there listening. Please. Let him understand; let him just give up and back off and leave him alone.
Let him really have changed. Let him be sorry and just leave.
For another briefest of instants, he felt Luca’s grip slacken again. And just for a moment, he dared to hope.
But then it passed, and Luca looked back up at him, and Gokudera saw with a pang of apprehension that his expression had steeled over.
“Fine,” Luca said. “I thought that after all this time, it might be different. But I guess you still haven’t learned the reality of this world after all.”
And Gokudera felt indignation beginning to rise up in him, because it wasn’t fair. No matter what he did, Luca seemed to be so fixated on his own twisted interpretation of their relationship, of this fucking bond that he had invented, that he couldn’t be deterred. He wanted to scream at him: You’re the asshole who doesn’t get it!
But before he could, before he could say anything, Luca fixed him with an icy look.
“If you’re so determined to hide yourself behind your so-called new family…”
A chill suddenly ran down Gokudera’s spine.
“…then I’ll just have to destroy them.”
And Gokudera felt an all-too-familiar dread settle itself in the pit of his stomach.
But before the sense of horror could fully sink in, just as Luca was opening his mouth to speak again, something happened that neither of them was expecting.
All of a sudden, without any kind of warning, a second explosion rippled outward through the air around them, accompanied by a strange flash of green light.
Luca stumbled; Gokudera, who still had no control over his own movements, was unable to keep his balance and toppled over entirely, landing directly on his face.
For a moment he lay there, blinking, dazed, and tasting blood in his mouth. Then suddenly, Luca was grabbing him by his collar and pulling him back to his feet. His face was livid.
“I swear, if you try any more games with those bombs of yours-”
“Wasn’t him that time,” another voice spoke up from the shadows.
Luca’s head whipped around.
There, cool and composed and looking every inch the famed Ninth Lightning Guardian of the Vongola, was Ganauche III. In his right hand he held a massive, futuristic-looking pistol with a thick barrel. The muzzle of the gun was enveloped in electric green Lightning flames, sparking fitfully all across the tip of the weapon.
“So,” Ganauche said. “You want to destroy the Vongola, huh?”
---
This time, he wouldn’t underestimate her.
As the light of his activated Vongola Gear surrounded him, and his two blades took form, Yamamoto plotted his next strike. This time he couldn’t go with something so easy to counter. If she had been able to see through his Early Summer Rain attack, he had to make sure his next assault was even less predictable.
There was only one attack that immediately came to mind. The move that had defeated even Squalo, the man who had previously faced the Shigure Souen Ryu and come out on top.
Bella made no move to stop him; just stood there, seemingly waiting for his next move. Well, he didn’t want to disappoint.
Raising both swords to either side of his head, he cut down in a X-motion, creating a tide of Rain flames that surged all around. “Shigure Souen Ryu: Ninth Form.”
And as the flames surrounded the both of them, he took off.
As expected, she moved aside at the very last second to dodge as he vaulted into the air, arms crossed with both hilts raised above his head. But already he could tell that her movement had been slowed by the tranquility element of his flames.
And of course, he had his trump card still.
As the crest of Rain flames in front of her collapsed, and with it, the reflected image of his leaping form, he closed in from behind. “Mirror Rain!”
It was his signature move, perfectly executed, with no openings to take advantage of. He was sure of that. The only people who’d ever seen this form in action were the ones who had been present during his battle against Squalo for the Vongola Ring. For anyone that hadn’t been there, and thus did not know the secret, it should have been impossible to counter.
And yet that was exactly what happened.
Somehow, she moved as if she knew all along where his true position was, despite the fact that as far as he could tell, he’d done nothing to give it away. With a single graceful swerve to the side, she brought her arm up over her head, still holding the sword in the reverse grip, so that the blade was lined up along the length of her arm. She timed it perfectly, so that his blow simply glanced right off.
Then, in one fluid motion, she twisted her wrist so that her blade rotated a single time over her head in a helicopter fashion, as she released the hilt and then caught it again a split second later. Having done so, she arced her arm back down and the blade followed, cutting in a perfect diagonal.
Yamamoto veered to the side, but nonetheless the counterattack took him off balance, and for an instant he was left open. For a moment it seemed she fully intended to take advantage of this, and he winced as he brought his right-hand blade up defensively, fully aware that it was too slow and that he was about to take a hit.
But at the last second, she froze, giving him enough time to complete the blocking motion and then scuttle back out of the way. Watching her with a frown, he wondered what had just happened. She’d had the perfect opening, just now, and yet it was like she’d been distracted right at the crucial moment.
In fact, she seemed distracted still. He realized belatedly that this was the time for him to attack again, while her attention for whatever reason had been drawn off elsewhere.
But… maybe it was foolish of him, but he didn’t want to win like that.
Finally she seemed to refocus her attention back to him. “Time’s up,” she said. “I have other matters to attend to.”
“…Ha.” So did he, if it came to that. “In that case, let’s finish it with the next blow. But before that, I have to admit I’m curious… how did you see through my last attack?”
She raised an eyebrow at him quizzically. “I didn’t ‘see’ through anything. Your intention was clear from the start.”
He looked back at her puzzled. “…Sorry, I don’t quite get it, I guess. My ‘intention’?”
“As I told you before, I can see your will.”
And before he could ask her again what that meant, she reached up with her free hand, and removed the pair of sunglasses she had been wearing.
And Yamamoto blinked in surprise. The eyes that peered back across from him were not, in fact, ‘peering’ at all. They were a clouded, milky, pearly gray.
She was blind.
And although by all rights Yamamoto should have logically had even more questions, oddly enough instead, everything started to fall into place. He had seen enough samurai movies to know how this sort of thing worked, after all.
“I get it,” he said with a grin. “You’re like a Jedi, huh?”
And maybe that wasn’t an exact comparison, judging by the look on her face, but he knew it was close enough.
So no matter what he did, there was a good chance she would be able to see it coming. No wonder he hadn’t been able to get in a hit. Then in that case, the only option was to use a move that was impossible to dodge no matter what.
Shifting his weight, he gripped the hilts of his swords and began charging up his flames, readying his double-bladed Kirisame attack.
He had counted on her to wait for him to make the first move, as she had both of the previous times he’d attacked. But this time that was not the case.
A prickle of instinct alerted him to the fact that she had also shifted into a different stance. And for the first time in their battle, he saw to his surprise that she was also charging up a flame attack. Only in her case, her sword was now engulfed in the telltale flickering yellow shimmer that was characteristic of Sun flames.
Gritting his teeth, Yamamoto prepared to evade whatever kind of attack she was about to unleash. He anticipated that speed would play a major factor, given her fighting style up to this point. He kept his eyes on her stance, and on the sword in her hand, ready to react the instant she started to move.
And it was that action-keeping his eyes focused on her sword-that proved to be his undoing.
“Elemento Sereno: Luce del Paradiso.”
All of a sudden her blade lit up with a pure white glow. And then suddenly, everything lit up. The ground; the sky; the entirety of the space around them.
Instinctively, Yamamoto screwed his eyes shut-but too late. The intensity of the flash was dazzling, and wholly overwhelmed the rest of his senses. All he could focus on in that instant was the pain in his eyes, and the complete and total disorientation. He was completely helpless; if she chose to attack him now he would be at her mercy.
But no such attack occurred. Instead, as the intensity of the light slowly faded, and he stood braced for the impact that never came, he gradually came to realize that the fight had already ended, and that Bella Roma had already struck her final blow.
Because even though the glare from her Sun flame attack was finally dissipating, he could no longer make out the outline of the piazza around him. Could no longer see Bella, though he was coming to suspect that she had already fled, leaving him where he stood.
He could not, in fact, even make out the outline of his own sword, as he held it up inches in front of his face.
He could no longer see anything.
---
Anthony Franco had a sheen of sweat on his forehead that Tsuna found extremely satisfying.
Now that Reborn had joined in the battle, the two of them had Franco on the run. He had barely been able to dodge Tsuna’s latest X-Burner shot, and judging by the way he was breathing hard and wincing on every landing, he would not be able to keep up this pace for much longer. At this rate, Tsuna wouldn’t even need to enter his Ultimate Dying Will mode in order to end things.
Tsuna let loose another blast of flame as Anthony tried to dodge one of Reborn’s shots at the same time. He had to jump in order to avoid the bullet, which left him in mid-air and unable to change direction as Tsuna’s flames shot toward him. With a curse, he arched his body back into a reverse somersault, managing to avoid the bulk of the blast. As a result, however, he tumbled off of the roof into the square below.
Without hesitation, Tsuna dove after him. The other man had managed to avoid serious injury from the fall by ricocheting off one of the nearby trees, landing in a crouching position. Tsuna fired again, and again Anthony moved to evade; this time, however, he wasn’t quite able to avoid the bullet Reborn had also sent flying in his direction. With another curse, he fell back, gripping the side of his arm, his breath coming in short, heavy gasps.
“…Don’t suppose surrendering’s still on the table,” he muttered hoarsely as Tsuna drew in close.
Tsuna glanced at Reborn, then turned back to Anthony. “I’ll consider it, if you tell me where your Boss is right now,” he said.
Anthony bit his lip, glancing at his wound for a moment. Then he sighed and looked back up at Tsuna regretfully, shaking his head.
“Better do it, then,” he said, eyeing Tsuna’s gloves.
Tsuna hesitated. “…I don’t want to kill you,” he admitted.
And it was true. Angry though he still was-after all, this was the man who had tried to kill one of his closest friends only a few days ago-his instincts were telling him Anthony Franco was not a bad person. And after all, they had originally come here intending to try and negotiate. He wasn’t prepared to abandon all hope for that just yet.
“Well, I don’t want to die, either,” Anthony replied. “See, we can agree on things.”
“Where is Luca?” Tsuna pressed once more.
Silence.
“Damn it.” Shaking his head, Tsuna began to charge up his right arm with Sky flames, intending to knock him out with one final punch.
But just as he was charging forward, there was a sudden blur of motion and he felt his attack being deflected aside. He instantly course-corrected with the flames from his other hand, bringing himself about.
But as he did so, he saw that Anthony Franco was no longer alone. Standing protectively in front of him was the woman with the leather jacket from earlier, sword awash with golden Sun flames.
Anthony, still crouched where he had been earlier, was looking up at her in open admiration, his mouth hanging slightly open.
“…I love you,” he said weakly.
“Don’t make a scene,” she replied without so much as a glance back.
Tsuna, meanwhile, felt a sudden jolt of alarm. “Where’s Yamamoto?”
She regarded him coolly with what he could now see were apparently sightless eyes, though at the moment that barely even registered. “He’s still intact… more or less.”
More or less… Tsuna felt the burning resolve of his Dying Will state waver, as the need to make sure his friend was okay sprang to the forefront of his mind. Just like that, his focus was totally shot.
“Reborn,” he said with a frantic glance toward his tutor, and that was all the communication that was needed. Reborn nodded back.
“Go on,” he said. “I have it under control.”
With a grateful nod, Tsuna turned and blasted off back toward the square.
---
“You realize,” Ganauche continued, “a few of us are going to have a problem with that.”
From his position still being half held up by his collar, the tips of his feet halfway off the ground, Gokudera watched as Ganauche took a few steps closer, the barrel of his weapon now trained directly on Luca’s head.
Luca’s eyes narrowed as he slowly set Hayato back down. “I take it you’re the current Lightning Guardian,” he said.
“Semi-current, but close enough,” Ganauche replied steadily. “No need to bother telling me who you are, though.” He raised one eyebrow in Gokudera’s direction. “Seems like you really had this under control, huh, kid?”
Gokudera felt heat burning the back of his cheeks, but was unable to glance away. “If you were following me this whole time, you could have bothered to show your face sooner,” he said instead.
“Well, I had to wait until he was nice and occupied, didn’t I?” Ganauche said smoothly. He hadn’t lowered his weapon an inch. “Anyway, it all worked out pretty neatly in the end. Like you said, one-person limit, isn’t that right?” He fixed his attention back on Luca. “So you can go ahead and try to take me over, but to do that, you’ll have to let go of the kid first, won’t you? Either way, it looks like you’re outnumbered.”
He cocked the gun suddenly. “So… give me one good reason why I shouldn’t just pull this trigger right now.”
For a moment Luca just regarded him coolly.
And then, to Gokudera’s horror… he smiled.
Ganauche seemed to come to the realization the same time he did; immediately, his index finger curled around the trigger. But too late; by the time he was able to fire, his arm was already swinging up and away from Luca’s position. The bullet discharged harmlessly off into the night sky instead.
Ganauche stared at Luca, his lips parted slightly in shock.
“No…” breathed Gokudera, trying desperately to move but still unable to twitch a single muscle below his neck. It was impossible. “That’s not…”
“You thought I could only control a single person at a time,” Luca said scornfully. “Like Father.” He shook his head in disdain. “That’s just one of the many areas in which he was lacking.
“Now, then,” he said, turning back to Ganauche, “what should we do with this man here?”
Gokudera suddenly felt his blood run cold.
“Maybe we should see what he had planned for me, first,” Luca said, almost as though talking to himself. He quirked an eyebrow, and on cue, Ganauche suddenly aimed his pistol at the ground directly in front of them, and fired.
This time, they could see the full effect of the blast. The bullet was clearly infused with Lightning flames. The moment it punctured the ground, the flames’ trademark hardening and cutting aspects sparked to life, blasting the surrounding ground to pieces like a thunderbolt slamming down from the heavens.
“…Look at that,” Luca said after a pause. He fixed Ganauche with a calm, menacing gaze. “You were going to shoot me with that?”
Gokudera’s blood ran colder still. He locked eyes with Ganauche in desperation. A bead of sweat ran its way slowly down the side of the other man’s forehead, but other than that he gave no sign or indicator of any kind of trepidation on his part.
Gokudera wished he could say the same. His own heartbeat was growing louder and louder in his ears. His breaths, too, were starting to come in short gasps as he fought to stave off the impending panic that was slowly but surely making its presence known.
Luca turned back to Gokudera, and there was a hint of a sadistic gleam in his eye. And then, with almost total indifference, he said, “I think in this case, an eye for an eye is only fair, don’t you think?”
And suddenly, Ganauche twisted his arm, pressing the tip of the barrel directly against his left shoulder.
“No!” Gokudera screamed as his fingers squeezed the trigger. “Luca!”
Then the sound of a thunderclap filled the air as the Lightning flames roared to life.
---
“Bella Roma,” Reborn said as Tsuna sped off from the battlefield. “I hope you didn’t maim our Rain Guardian too badly.”
“He’ll live,” Bella replied.
“And I assume you’re also un-maimed?” Anthony spoke up from his position crouched directly behind Bella, favoring his wounded arm.
“What do you think?” said Bella, giving him an almost affronted look.
“Just making sure,” Anthony said. “I got shot a little, thanks to him,” he added with a nod in Reborn’s direction. “But nothing too bad. You have great timing, by the way.”
“Ignore this one,” Bella said to Reborn with a mildly exasperated roll of her eyes. “He doesn’t know when to shut up.”
“…I see,” Reborn said. “That clears things up.”
As she raised an eyebrow at him, he clarified: “Some years back I remember hearing about a young up-and-coming hitman named Anthony Franco. Apparently he was quite talented, though some said he lacked the temperament for such a vocation. However, over time, it seems he mysteriously fell off the radar. Although he didn’t seem to have died, I never heard anything else about him.”
He looked at the two of them thoughtfully. “Now, I understand why.”
“…What can I say,” said Anthony after a moment’s pause. “I fell in love.” Beside him, Bella rolled her eyes again, but said nothing.
“From what I’ve seen, you do seem to be more of a lover than a fighter,” Reborn said in agreement. “Which leads me to wonder what led you to work for such a foolhardy man as Luca DiSanto.”
There was an uncomfortable pause.
“Luca has his reasons for doing what he has,” Anthony finally said.
“And yet, sooner or later the path that he’s on is going to get himself as well as the rest of his family killed. Don’t you agree?”
“That won’t happen,” Anthony said, slowly rising to his feet, his good hand still pressed gingerly against the wound on his other arm. “He’s angry; he has every right to be. But he’s not crazy. And he wouldn’t do anything that would put the family in harm’s way.”
“That’s an interesting thing to say, considering that he already has.”
Anthony’s eyes narrowed as he seemingly tried to decipher whether this was a threat.
“So, what?” he said at last. “You’re saying we should cut a deal with you and go against our Boss?”
“All I’m saying is that you have more than just your own welfare to think about,” Reborn replied.
Anthony glanced toward Bella uncertainly, but said nothing further.
Satisfied, Reborn slid his gun back into its holster. “At any rate, I think that’s enough for today.”
Bella eyed him skeptically. “You’re just going to let us go?”
“Why not?” Reborn shrugged. “After all, when the time comes, we already know where to find you.”
And with that, he turned to depart, leaving Anthony and Bella to their own devices.
---
Ganauche screamed, collapsing to his knees as the electric green flames finally faded from sight. The gun slipped from his fingers, clattering to the ground beside him as his arm fell limply to his side.
His one remaining arm.
The other… the other one was just… gone.
“He had it coming,” Luca said indifferently as Ganauche’s eyes rolled back and he teetered face-first onto the now-blood-spattered ground. He lay there, completely still.
Gokudera felt sick. He was trembling now, unable to stop it. He wanted to throw up; he wanted to scream; he wanted to run and hide and curl up into a ball. But he couldn’t do any of that. He couldn’t move.
Luca watched him for a moment dispassionately. “…Maybe I should finish the job,” he said, turning back to the unconscious Ganauche.
“S-stop,” Gokudera called after him; only his voice was barely a whisper, and like the rest of him, it was shaking.
Luca ignored him completely as he bent to pick up the discarded gun.
“Don’t,” Gokudera said weakly. “Please.”
Then he froze-or would have done, had he not been frozen in place already-as Luca finally did give pause, turning back to face him with a look that sent still more dread coursing through his veins. He stood trembling as Luca moved in close, until they were mere inches apart.
Hayato’s neck suddenly tilted back of its own accord, as though an invisible hand had gripped him by the back of the head. They stood there like that, eye-to-eye, for a long silent moment, the only sound in the air coming from Hayato’s still-too-fast-and-heavy breathing.
Finally, Luca said, with deadly seriousness: “I’ll give you one day. I may not be powerful enough to take out all of the Vongola… but if you don’t join me, I swear to you that I will personally kill the Vongola Tenth, and I will make you watch.”
Hayato stared back wordlessly.
Then Luca turned and vanished into the dark.
And moments later, the control of his own body having finally been relinquished back to him, Hayato fell to his knees.
---
Continue to Chapter 7
( Prologue | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 )
Additional Notes - Elemento Sereno: Luce del Paradiso translates to “Sun* Element: Light of Heaven.”
*I say “sun”, but the actual Italian word for “sun” is “sole”; it’s just that KHR for some reason has the sun element as “sereno” which actually means “clear/cloudless sky.” So I’m sticking with their thing. But anyways you get the idea. I don’t actually speak Italian, anyway.
Also, I fucked up so many people’s arms in this chapter. What’s with that.
Title - Blood of the Covenant
Rating - PG-13 for language and violence
Characters - Gokudera, Tsuna, Reborn, Yamamoto
Warnings for this chapter - These contain spoilers, so skip ahead if you want to avoid.
[Spoiler (click to open)]
- Psychological abuse.
- Not sure how to summarize this one, but if the idea of not being in control of yourself at all and being manhandled while totally at someone else’s mercy is triggering to you, then yeah. This’ll do that.
- More graphic violence. One event in particular which, while not fully written out and described in exact detail, is still very much implied and pretty damn gruesome.
Target 06 - Eye for an Eye
Even before the smoke had cleared, Gokudera knew he was in trouble.
He’d miscalculated. Luca’s offer for him to “rejoin” the family had thrown him off, and in the heat of the moment, he had jumped the gun and set off the bombs too soon.
He couldn’t deny, either, that his battle-readiness was thrown off simply by being face-to-face with his brother again after all this time. He knew he didn’t always have the best handle on his emotions to begin with, and a situation like this just kicked everything off into overdrive.
All of which meant that Luca was still alive. Bleeding, but alive, and looking thoroughly pissed off now that the dust was settling.
“…Shit-” Immediately, Gokudera went for more bombs, knowing that any chance he had of winning this now would be determined within the next few seconds.
But before he could launch a second wave, he suddenly felt his whole body freeze up.
“That’s enough now,” Luca said.
And now it sounded like the old Luca. That terrifying, unpredictable simmering rage was back, and Gokudera felt a shiver of fear roll over him. He instantly willed those feelings back down; he couldn’t afford to give into that right now.
“So that’s really how you want it,” Luca said, and in spite of everything there seemed to be genuine hurt infecting his tone. “You’d side with them, over your own flesh and blood.”
In spite of the creeping panic he was holding at bay, Gokudera’s temper flared once again. “I don’t give a shit if you’re my brother or not!” he spat. Luca may have had full power over him now, but in spite of that, he didn’t intend to go down without a fight. “So don’t fucking act like you’re on my side-”
“I’m the only one on your side!” Luca cut him off forcefully, and Gokudera stopped short.
For a moment-just a moment-he thought he had felt Luca’s control weaken.
But it was just for a second… and now, Luca was positively fuming. “None of them understand what it’s like. To always be second class, never good enough.” The furor in his voice was increasing with every word. “Treated like dirt, like you’re worthless, and made to feel like it’s your own fault. To have your own parent cast you aside like something tainted. Like you humiliate them just by existing.” And now his tone was slowly becoming more hollow-sounding, almost desperate.
Finally his eyes met Hayato’s. “But I understand that,” he said. “You understand it. In that way, we are brothers, whether you want to admit it or not.”
He finally fell silent, then, just looking at him. Gokudera stared back, feeling like he’d been punched in the gut. The words hit so close to home that for a moment, he was left stunned by the raw, biting sting of the memories they dredged up.
He did know. He knew exactly how that felt.
And truth be told, it shocked him a little that he could feel those same all-too-familiar emotions emanating from this person that he hated. Up until this point, it had never once occurred to him that his brother, the man who’d tormented him all those years ago, could actually share that same brutally clear insight into those feelings.
But the thing was, Luca seemed to be conveniently overlooking exactly why they shared that common ground to begin with.
“…Yeah, I understand,” he finally managed to reply. “You made sure of that.”
“Hayato…”
Angrily, Gokudera cut him off, because-no. No, he wasn’t just going to suddenly feel sorry for him. It was true. He understood all too well exactly what Luca was talking about. And it was because Luca himself had seen to it.
And Gokudera didn’t care if it was today, tomorrow, or a hundred years from now-no amount of time or pleading looks or sympathetic tones could ever undo what had happened between them, or make up for all the shit that Luca had put him through.
“I’m not joining you,” he said with as much determination as he could muster. And if there was a slight tremor in his voice, well, so be it. “I’m never joining you. So get it through your head.”
And since Luca still had control over his body, and he couldn’t physically look away, he did his best to stubbornly avert his gaze as much as he could. Because he didn’t care if Luca looked hurt. He deserved to be hurt. And Hayato wasn’t here to spare his feelings.
Just let it sink in, he pleaded silently, to whatever powers might possibly be out there listening. Please. Let him understand; let him just give up and back off and leave him alone.
Let him really have changed. Let him be sorry and just leave.
For another briefest of instants, he felt Luca’s grip slacken again. And just for a moment, he dared to hope.
But then it passed, and Luca looked back up at him, and Gokudera saw with a pang of apprehension that his expression had steeled over.
“Fine,” Luca said. “I thought that after all this time, it might be different. But I guess you still haven’t learned the reality of this world after all.”
And Gokudera felt indignation beginning to rise up in him, because it wasn’t fair. No matter what he did, Luca seemed to be so fixated on his own twisted interpretation of their relationship, of this fucking bond that he had invented, that he couldn’t be deterred. He wanted to scream at him: You’re the asshole who doesn’t get it!
But before he could, before he could say anything, Luca fixed him with an icy look.
“If you’re so determined to hide yourself behind your so-called new family…”
A chill suddenly ran down Gokudera’s spine.
“…then I’ll just have to destroy them.”
And Gokudera felt an all-too-familiar dread settle itself in the pit of his stomach.
But before the sense of horror could fully sink in, just as Luca was opening his mouth to speak again, something happened that neither of them was expecting.
All of a sudden, without any kind of warning, a second explosion rippled outward through the air around them, accompanied by a strange flash of green light.
Luca stumbled; Gokudera, who still had no control over his own movements, was unable to keep his balance and toppled over entirely, landing directly on his face.
For a moment he lay there, blinking, dazed, and tasting blood in his mouth. Then suddenly, Luca was grabbing him by his collar and pulling him back to his feet. His face was livid.
“I swear, if you try any more games with those bombs of yours-”
“Wasn’t him that time,” another voice spoke up from the shadows.
Luca’s head whipped around.
There, cool and composed and looking every inch the famed Ninth Lightning Guardian of the Vongola, was Ganauche III. In his right hand he held a massive, futuristic-looking pistol with a thick barrel. The muzzle of the gun was enveloped in electric green Lightning flames, sparking fitfully all across the tip of the weapon.
“So,” Ganauche said. “You want to destroy the Vongola, huh?”
---
This time, he wouldn’t underestimate her.
As the light of his activated Vongola Gear surrounded him, and his two blades took form, Yamamoto plotted his next strike. This time he couldn’t go with something so easy to counter. If she had been able to see through his Early Summer Rain attack, he had to make sure his next assault was even less predictable.
There was only one attack that immediately came to mind. The move that had defeated even Squalo, the man who had previously faced the Shigure Souen Ryu and come out on top.
Bella made no move to stop him; just stood there, seemingly waiting for his next move. Well, he didn’t want to disappoint.
Raising both swords to either side of his head, he cut down in a X-motion, creating a tide of Rain flames that surged all around. “Shigure Souen Ryu: Ninth Form.”
And as the flames surrounded the both of them, he took off.
As expected, she moved aside at the very last second to dodge as he vaulted into the air, arms crossed with both hilts raised above his head. But already he could tell that her movement had been slowed by the tranquility element of his flames.
And of course, he had his trump card still.
As the crest of Rain flames in front of her collapsed, and with it, the reflected image of his leaping form, he closed in from behind. “Mirror Rain!”
It was his signature move, perfectly executed, with no openings to take advantage of. He was sure of that. The only people who’d ever seen this form in action were the ones who had been present during his battle against Squalo for the Vongola Ring. For anyone that hadn’t been there, and thus did not know the secret, it should have been impossible to counter.
And yet that was exactly what happened.
Somehow, she moved as if she knew all along where his true position was, despite the fact that as far as he could tell, he’d done nothing to give it away. With a single graceful swerve to the side, she brought her arm up over her head, still holding the sword in the reverse grip, so that the blade was lined up along the length of her arm. She timed it perfectly, so that his blow simply glanced right off.
Then, in one fluid motion, she twisted her wrist so that her blade rotated a single time over her head in a helicopter fashion, as she released the hilt and then caught it again a split second later. Having done so, she arced her arm back down and the blade followed, cutting in a perfect diagonal.
Yamamoto veered to the side, but nonetheless the counterattack took him off balance, and for an instant he was left open. For a moment it seemed she fully intended to take advantage of this, and he winced as he brought his right-hand blade up defensively, fully aware that it was too slow and that he was about to take a hit.
But at the last second, she froze, giving him enough time to complete the blocking motion and then scuttle back out of the way. Watching her with a frown, he wondered what had just happened. She’d had the perfect opening, just now, and yet it was like she’d been distracted right at the crucial moment.
In fact, she seemed distracted still. He realized belatedly that this was the time for him to attack again, while her attention for whatever reason had been drawn off elsewhere.
But… maybe it was foolish of him, but he didn’t want to win like that.
Finally she seemed to refocus her attention back to him. “Time’s up,” she said. “I have other matters to attend to.”
“…Ha.” So did he, if it came to that. “In that case, let’s finish it with the next blow. But before that, I have to admit I’m curious… how did you see through my last attack?”
She raised an eyebrow at him quizzically. “I didn’t ‘see’ through anything. Your intention was clear from the start.”
He looked back at her puzzled. “…Sorry, I don’t quite get it, I guess. My ‘intention’?”
“As I told you before, I can see your will.”
And before he could ask her again what that meant, she reached up with her free hand, and removed the pair of sunglasses she had been wearing.
And Yamamoto blinked in surprise. The eyes that peered back across from him were not, in fact, ‘peering’ at all. They were a clouded, milky, pearly gray.
She was blind.
And although by all rights Yamamoto should have logically had even more questions, oddly enough instead, everything started to fall into place. He had seen enough samurai movies to know how this sort of thing worked, after all.
“I get it,” he said with a grin. “You’re like a Jedi, huh?”
And maybe that wasn’t an exact comparison, judging by the look on her face, but he knew it was close enough.
So no matter what he did, there was a good chance she would be able to see it coming. No wonder he hadn’t been able to get in a hit. Then in that case, the only option was to use a move that was impossible to dodge no matter what.
Shifting his weight, he gripped the hilts of his swords and began charging up his flames, readying his double-bladed Kirisame attack.
He had counted on her to wait for him to make the first move, as she had both of the previous times he’d attacked. But this time that was not the case.
A prickle of instinct alerted him to the fact that she had also shifted into a different stance. And for the first time in their battle, he saw to his surprise that she was also charging up a flame attack. Only in her case, her sword was now engulfed in the telltale flickering yellow shimmer that was characteristic of Sun flames.
Gritting his teeth, Yamamoto prepared to evade whatever kind of attack she was about to unleash. He anticipated that speed would play a major factor, given her fighting style up to this point. He kept his eyes on her stance, and on the sword in her hand, ready to react the instant she started to move.
And it was that action-keeping his eyes focused on her sword-that proved to be his undoing.
“Elemento Sereno: Luce del Paradiso.”
All of a sudden her blade lit up with a pure white glow. And then suddenly, everything lit up. The ground; the sky; the entirety of the space around them.
Instinctively, Yamamoto screwed his eyes shut-but too late. The intensity of the flash was dazzling, and wholly overwhelmed the rest of his senses. All he could focus on in that instant was the pain in his eyes, and the complete and total disorientation. He was completely helpless; if she chose to attack him now he would be at her mercy.
But no such attack occurred. Instead, as the intensity of the light slowly faded, and he stood braced for the impact that never came, he gradually came to realize that the fight had already ended, and that Bella Roma had already struck her final blow.
Because even though the glare from her Sun flame attack was finally dissipating, he could no longer make out the outline of the piazza around him. Could no longer see Bella, though he was coming to suspect that she had already fled, leaving him where he stood.
He could not, in fact, even make out the outline of his own sword, as he held it up inches in front of his face.
He could no longer see anything.
---
Anthony Franco had a sheen of sweat on his forehead that Tsuna found extremely satisfying.
Now that Reborn had joined in the battle, the two of them had Franco on the run. He had barely been able to dodge Tsuna’s latest X-Burner shot, and judging by the way he was breathing hard and wincing on every landing, he would not be able to keep up this pace for much longer. At this rate, Tsuna wouldn’t even need to enter his Ultimate Dying Will mode in order to end things.
Tsuna let loose another blast of flame as Anthony tried to dodge one of Reborn’s shots at the same time. He had to jump in order to avoid the bullet, which left him in mid-air and unable to change direction as Tsuna’s flames shot toward him. With a curse, he arched his body back into a reverse somersault, managing to avoid the bulk of the blast. As a result, however, he tumbled off of the roof into the square below.
Without hesitation, Tsuna dove after him. The other man had managed to avoid serious injury from the fall by ricocheting off one of the nearby trees, landing in a crouching position. Tsuna fired again, and again Anthony moved to evade; this time, however, he wasn’t quite able to avoid the bullet Reborn had also sent flying in his direction. With another curse, he fell back, gripping the side of his arm, his breath coming in short, heavy gasps.
“…Don’t suppose surrendering’s still on the table,” he muttered hoarsely as Tsuna drew in close.
Tsuna glanced at Reborn, then turned back to Anthony. “I’ll consider it, if you tell me where your Boss is right now,” he said.
Anthony bit his lip, glancing at his wound for a moment. Then he sighed and looked back up at Tsuna regretfully, shaking his head.
“Better do it, then,” he said, eyeing Tsuna’s gloves.
Tsuna hesitated. “…I don’t want to kill you,” he admitted.
And it was true. Angry though he still was-after all, this was the man who had tried to kill one of his closest friends only a few days ago-his instincts were telling him Anthony Franco was not a bad person. And after all, they had originally come here intending to try and negotiate. He wasn’t prepared to abandon all hope for that just yet.
“Well, I don’t want to die, either,” Anthony replied. “See, we can agree on things.”
“Where is Luca?” Tsuna pressed once more.
Silence.
“Damn it.” Shaking his head, Tsuna began to charge up his right arm with Sky flames, intending to knock him out with one final punch.
But just as he was charging forward, there was a sudden blur of motion and he felt his attack being deflected aside. He instantly course-corrected with the flames from his other hand, bringing himself about.
But as he did so, he saw that Anthony Franco was no longer alone. Standing protectively in front of him was the woman with the leather jacket from earlier, sword awash with golden Sun flames.
Anthony, still crouched where he had been earlier, was looking up at her in open admiration, his mouth hanging slightly open.
“…I love you,” he said weakly.
“Don’t make a scene,” she replied without so much as a glance back.
Tsuna, meanwhile, felt a sudden jolt of alarm. “Where’s Yamamoto?”
She regarded him coolly with what he could now see were apparently sightless eyes, though at the moment that barely even registered. “He’s still intact… more or less.”
More or less… Tsuna felt the burning resolve of his Dying Will state waver, as the need to make sure his friend was okay sprang to the forefront of his mind. Just like that, his focus was totally shot.
“Reborn,” he said with a frantic glance toward his tutor, and that was all the communication that was needed. Reborn nodded back.
“Go on,” he said. “I have it under control.”
With a grateful nod, Tsuna turned and blasted off back toward the square.
---
“You realize,” Ganauche continued, “a few of us are going to have a problem with that.”
From his position still being half held up by his collar, the tips of his feet halfway off the ground, Gokudera watched as Ganauche took a few steps closer, the barrel of his weapon now trained directly on Luca’s head.
Luca’s eyes narrowed as he slowly set Hayato back down. “I take it you’re the current Lightning Guardian,” he said.
“Semi-current, but close enough,” Ganauche replied steadily. “No need to bother telling me who you are, though.” He raised one eyebrow in Gokudera’s direction. “Seems like you really had this under control, huh, kid?”
Gokudera felt heat burning the back of his cheeks, but was unable to glance away. “If you were following me this whole time, you could have bothered to show your face sooner,” he said instead.
“Well, I had to wait until he was nice and occupied, didn’t I?” Ganauche said smoothly. He hadn’t lowered his weapon an inch. “Anyway, it all worked out pretty neatly in the end. Like you said, one-person limit, isn’t that right?” He fixed his attention back on Luca. “So you can go ahead and try to take me over, but to do that, you’ll have to let go of the kid first, won’t you? Either way, it looks like you’re outnumbered.”
He cocked the gun suddenly. “So… give me one good reason why I shouldn’t just pull this trigger right now.”
For a moment Luca just regarded him coolly.
And then, to Gokudera’s horror… he smiled.
Ganauche seemed to come to the realization the same time he did; immediately, his index finger curled around the trigger. But too late; by the time he was able to fire, his arm was already swinging up and away from Luca’s position. The bullet discharged harmlessly off into the night sky instead.
Ganauche stared at Luca, his lips parted slightly in shock.
“No…” breathed Gokudera, trying desperately to move but still unable to twitch a single muscle below his neck. It was impossible. “That’s not…”
“You thought I could only control a single person at a time,” Luca said scornfully. “Like Father.” He shook his head in disdain. “That’s just one of the many areas in which he was lacking.
“Now, then,” he said, turning back to Ganauche, “what should we do with this man here?”
Gokudera suddenly felt his blood run cold.
“Maybe we should see what he had planned for me, first,” Luca said, almost as though talking to himself. He quirked an eyebrow, and on cue, Ganauche suddenly aimed his pistol at the ground directly in front of them, and fired.
This time, they could see the full effect of the blast. The bullet was clearly infused with Lightning flames. The moment it punctured the ground, the flames’ trademark hardening and cutting aspects sparked to life, blasting the surrounding ground to pieces like a thunderbolt slamming down from the heavens.
“…Look at that,” Luca said after a pause. He fixed Ganauche with a calm, menacing gaze. “You were going to shoot me with that?”
Gokudera’s blood ran colder still. He locked eyes with Ganauche in desperation. A bead of sweat ran its way slowly down the side of the other man’s forehead, but other than that he gave no sign or indicator of any kind of trepidation on his part.
Gokudera wished he could say the same. His own heartbeat was growing louder and louder in his ears. His breaths, too, were starting to come in short gasps as he fought to stave off the impending panic that was slowly but surely making its presence known.
Luca turned back to Gokudera, and there was a hint of a sadistic gleam in his eye. And then, with almost total indifference, he said, “I think in this case, an eye for an eye is only fair, don’t you think?”
And suddenly, Ganauche twisted his arm, pressing the tip of the barrel directly against his left shoulder.
“No!” Gokudera screamed as his fingers squeezed the trigger. “Luca!”
Then the sound of a thunderclap filled the air as the Lightning flames roared to life.
---
“Bella Roma,” Reborn said as Tsuna sped off from the battlefield. “I hope you didn’t maim our Rain Guardian too badly.”
“He’ll live,” Bella replied.
“And I assume you’re also un-maimed?” Anthony spoke up from his position crouched directly behind Bella, favoring his wounded arm.
“What do you think?” said Bella, giving him an almost affronted look.
“Just making sure,” Anthony said. “I got shot a little, thanks to him,” he added with a nod in Reborn’s direction. “But nothing too bad. You have great timing, by the way.”
“Ignore this one,” Bella said to Reborn with a mildly exasperated roll of her eyes. “He doesn’t know when to shut up.”
“…I see,” Reborn said. “That clears things up.”
As she raised an eyebrow at him, he clarified: “Some years back I remember hearing about a young up-and-coming hitman named Anthony Franco. Apparently he was quite talented, though some said he lacked the temperament for such a vocation. However, over time, it seems he mysteriously fell off the radar. Although he didn’t seem to have died, I never heard anything else about him.”
He looked at the two of them thoughtfully. “Now, I understand why.”
“…What can I say,” said Anthony after a moment’s pause. “I fell in love.” Beside him, Bella rolled her eyes again, but said nothing.
“From what I’ve seen, you do seem to be more of a lover than a fighter,” Reborn said in agreement. “Which leads me to wonder what led you to work for such a foolhardy man as Luca DiSanto.”
There was an uncomfortable pause.
“Luca has his reasons for doing what he has,” Anthony finally said.
“And yet, sooner or later the path that he’s on is going to get himself as well as the rest of his family killed. Don’t you agree?”
“That won’t happen,” Anthony said, slowly rising to his feet, his good hand still pressed gingerly against the wound on his other arm. “He’s angry; he has every right to be. But he’s not crazy. And he wouldn’t do anything that would put the family in harm’s way.”
“That’s an interesting thing to say, considering that he already has.”
Anthony’s eyes narrowed as he seemingly tried to decipher whether this was a threat.
“So, what?” he said at last. “You’re saying we should cut a deal with you and go against our Boss?”
“All I’m saying is that you have more than just your own welfare to think about,” Reborn replied.
Anthony glanced toward Bella uncertainly, but said nothing further.
Satisfied, Reborn slid his gun back into its holster. “At any rate, I think that’s enough for today.”
Bella eyed him skeptically. “You’re just going to let us go?”
“Why not?” Reborn shrugged. “After all, when the time comes, we already know where to find you.”
And with that, he turned to depart, leaving Anthony and Bella to their own devices.
---
Ganauche screamed, collapsing to his knees as the electric green flames finally faded from sight. The gun slipped from his fingers, clattering to the ground beside him as his arm fell limply to his side.
His one remaining arm.
The other… the other one was just… gone.
“He had it coming,” Luca said indifferently as Ganauche’s eyes rolled back and he teetered face-first onto the now-blood-spattered ground. He lay there, completely still.
Gokudera felt sick. He was trembling now, unable to stop it. He wanted to throw up; he wanted to scream; he wanted to run and hide and curl up into a ball. But he couldn’t do any of that. He couldn’t move.
Luca watched him for a moment dispassionately. “…Maybe I should finish the job,” he said, turning back to the unconscious Ganauche.
“S-stop,” Gokudera called after him; only his voice was barely a whisper, and like the rest of him, it was shaking.
Luca ignored him completely as he bent to pick up the discarded gun.
“Don’t,” Gokudera said weakly. “Please.”
Then he froze-or would have done, had he not been frozen in place already-as Luca finally did give pause, turning back to face him with a look that sent still more dread coursing through his veins. He stood trembling as Luca moved in close, until they were mere inches apart.
Hayato’s neck suddenly tilted back of its own accord, as though an invisible hand had gripped him by the back of the head. They stood there like that, eye-to-eye, for a long silent moment, the only sound in the air coming from Hayato’s still-too-fast-and-heavy breathing.
Finally, Luca said, with deadly seriousness: “I’ll give you one day. I may not be powerful enough to take out all of the Vongola… but if you don’t join me, I swear to you that I will personally kill the Vongola Tenth, and I will make you watch.”
Hayato stared back wordlessly.
Then Luca turned and vanished into the dark.
And moments later, the control of his own body having finally been relinquished back to him, Hayato fell to his knees.
---
Continue to Chapter 7
( Prologue | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 )
Additional Notes - Elemento Sereno: Luce del Paradiso translates to “Sun* Element: Light of Heaven.”
*I say “sun”, but the actual Italian word for “sun” is “sole”; it’s just that KHR for some reason has the sun element as “sereno” which actually means “clear/cloudless sky.” So I’m sticking with their thing. But anyways you get the idea. I don’t actually speak Italian, anyway.
Also, I fucked up so many people’s arms in this chapter. What’s with that.