Just trying to survive here! (SI/Multicross)

[ObsidianNoir]

Chapter 5.4

I could see its eyes.

Almost foggy in appearance, they stared right into my gaze. And the pupils glowed with an indigo color, shining brightly just like Viper's rage.

"Now that the illusions are gone, he is at a disadvantage," Collonello muttered grimly behind me, but I didn't care about that.

I was busy being frozen in fear and exhaustion, my grip barely enough to hold Chrome's trident. Hell, it took a lot out of me not to descend into pure, chaotic panic. All I could do was observe Viper like my life depended on it, the remnant of my discipline forcing me to make sure I was not losing my lock-on of the Vari member.

Meanwhile, the baby still stared at me, head half turned, pure murder in its eyes.

Then it began to chuckle quietly. Before anyone could chuckle, it exploded into a deranged laughter, throwing its head up to the sky.

Like a madman, Viper was shaking its head and put its right hand on its forehead

"An amateur...a complete amateur..." It muttered in a jesting tone, chuckling darkly before glancing at me again with a small grin.

A grin full with bloodthirst and madness.

Only then did it hit me.

I was going to die if I didn't move now. Viper was done playing games.

With that realization, I grit my teeth and tried to stand up, right hand supporting itself on my right knee.

But I could get up, fueling my panic even more.

Move, goddamnit! While he's having a monologue!

DO IT ALREADY!

As if triggered by my mental scream, I managed to stand up.

Without missing a beat, I threw my right arm back with the trident and threw it with all my might.

To my surprise, it shot off with a small boom and I could swear that there were a small indigo flames around it.

But at the moment, I cared only for one thing.

Kill Viper before Viper killed me.

My grin, now only a fake from before, a laugh that didn't reveal joy, but panic and fear, all of it intensified when the trident rocketed through the air...and missed.

Viper easily flew to the side, expecting it, making the weapon soar through and hit the wall behind it, digging into it by half its length.

"Don't get cocky you little shit..." Despite my mental breakdown, I could hear and see Viper's sudden lack of amusement and emotions of anger. "Fantasma!"

A small...something began to morph on its head when the last word was loudly commanded and it began to glow, transforming into some sort of snake.

Said snake created a circle over the baby, biting its own tail like Ouroboros. In the same moment, a chain fell down from the Arcobaleno's cloak and revealed the bright, indigo pacifier it was carrying.

Now, Viper flew higher up, looking down upon me with its halo like a vengeful angel.

Considering that the pressure from the baby grew and grew, that was an apt comparison for me. I would have smacked myself if I had the mental calm to do that when my barely functioning brain realized something.

The frog. I forgot about the frog.

Despite the Arcobaleno curse, Viper still limited itself.

The illusionist didn't show me its full might yet. I was even more fucked than I expected.

"That's Viper! I thought he was dead!"

"More importantly, he held back."

The exchange of the other Arcobaleno shook me out of my second stump.

Instantly, I let out a scream of pure rage, at myself and at the situation and at everything.

Then I shot off, the gym floor giving in to my stomp and my body moved in high speeds at the Arcobaleno. A part of me wondered where I got that unnatural speed, but I wasn't going to complain.

My forehead began to burn up, probably from my determination to get at Viper as fast as possible.

No time to get the trident, it was too far away. I had to choke or punch or do something against Viper to break off its concentration! I almost had a second or two again with the hell ring! If I could only-

"Brat, surrender! Now!"

Reborn's yell sounded only like a fraction of my own panic, but it was in vain.

My hands almost reached its face, formed in a claw to rip its eyes out or dig into his flesh or do something.

But time slowed down, my eyes widening as the warning reached my ears.

At the same time as Viper's grin threatened to split its entire face, despite the blood running down its own eyes.

"Too late," it exclaimed in gleeful excitement, the words burrowing themselves into my mind.

The next moment, I landed on my knees, on cold, hard stone. Blankly, I looked around.

Open sky, with a new moon and no stars. Despite the paradox, I could see clearly what was around me however.

Broken stones with some latin words I didn't know. Trees that were skinny and dried up. A mist that filled the area.

I began to shake, clutching my head as I shook with wide eyes.

I knew what this place was meant to represent. The pure stench of decay and the unnatural cold that absorbed my own body heat was enough to let me know.

It was a graveyard. And the message was not lost on me.

Viper trapped me in my own mind. And it was going to bury me in my own mind.

As if to congratulate me in a sadistic way, a person appeared in front of me in a pop.

Despite the adult sized body, the long purple strands of hair peeking out of the hood and the deeper voice, I knew who the grim reaper in front of me was.

It was, after all, an illusion. And Viper could reveal its true form.

"An amateur. A complete amateur..." It chuckled, wiggling its finger in front of its face with a smug grin. "You never trained in direct mental resistance did you?"

My eyes widened, realizing another weakness of mine and my body shook more intense at the confirmation of my fear.

Reading my mind, the illusionist nodded maliciously.

"Indeed." Viper groaned as it stretched and gave me a condescending stare. "Time to break you."

Then, it snapped its finger and disappeared.

In its stead, my worst nightmare to come faced me.

The monster, an abomination stared me down. Standing on two legs that could barely be considered legs, the monster consisted of a slimy ribcage, black and bloodied as the rest of its deformed body.

No eyes, only a round, toothy mouth made up its head.

And tentacles. Lots and lots of tentacles. Tentacle hair, tentacle tails, and even smaller ones on its skeleton like hand.

"Haaa...I will enjoy this."

This insane voice was the trigger of my torture and when I tried to scramble back, the monster roared and swiftly grabbed my leg.

Then it proceeded to destroy me.

During all that, I screamed.

I screamed as it slashed open my chest. I begged for mercy when it stomped on my left leg, squashing it like a fly. I apologized in tears when my right arm was barely attached at my body, only half of the muscle strains connecting it.

But even when I stopped screaming, begging for the end, the monster didn't stop.

It didn't stop as it smacked me against the walls, breaking both the structures and my bones. It didn't cease its relentless assault on my face, making me sense blood with all my senses as it was flying around.

And it didn't give a damn as it held me up at my throat, non stop laughing like a maniac as it slowly began to squeeze everything out of me.

Blood. Warmth. Spirit. Hope. Determination.

All of it seeped out of me and something else began to grow inside me.

Apathy. The realization that struggling was futile. That anything I did and would do was pointless.

The moment it surfaced, my desperate grip on the tentacles began to ease up and my face slowly began to relax as I began to accept my fate.

However, fate was a bipolar bitch.

Suddenly, it stopped. As if pressing the pause button, all motions began to cease.

Then, the world began to break apart like a glass.

The forest, the stones, even the monster itself began to break away. But I didn't care. I let out a laugh, full with despair, yet gratitude.

I kept laughing, as I fell into the void below me when the ground fell apart.

At last blissful darkness embraced me, removing all worries and pain from me.

 

[ObsidianNoir]

Chapter 6.1

My eyes opened in a flash and I shot up, hyperventilating and struggling against some kind of restraints holding me in place. My vision was blurry, bright lights giving me a headache and giving me more of a drive to stand up.

Several hands began to push me down and I didn't have any strength to rise against the pressure against me. Before I could begin to scream against them to let me go, I felt a small prick against my right arm.

Like water, it seeped into my body and cooling of the burning panic and rage I was feeling. After a short while, I began to relax and the arms moved away. It took moment for me to gather my wits as I took deep breaths. Absentmindedly I could hear some shuffling and talking.

When my senses worked properly again, those noises were long gone, leaving me with blissful silence, when I ignored the occasional beep at least.

Taking my surroundings in, I realized I was stuck in a typical looking, white and boring hospital room.

But what caught my attention the most was A, all those tubes connected to me and me feeling like a corpse and B, the two people in the room.

Reborn was leaning against the wall, calmly staring at me with a small cup of coffee in hand, while Chrome lied at the bed to my left, eyes closed and a breathing mask on her calm, sleeping face.

I flinched and averted my eyes, staring at the blanket on my legs.

Up until my proper awakening, her organs were gone. Made sense, considering that my mind was getting broken, I wouldn't have any focus on them.

Dear god, did her organs vanish when I ran out of juice? My hands formed fists and I shut my eyes.

How much pain did she went through because of my own incompetence?

However, I was not meant to be left alone to my self pity.

"Calmed down?" The baby asked in a composed tone, eyes darkened by his hat, before he took a small sip from his drink.

I grit my teeth at his voice. Nothing personal, but it reminded me too much of Viper.

The one who gave me the mother of all curbstomps.

Naturally, I was a little peeved at having to interact with someone resembling it, even by a little bit. Still, I wasn't suicidal, so I took a few deep breaths and tried to stop the shaking and memories rushing back into my head.

Surprisingly, it worked.

With what I supposed was reasonable calmness, I addressed the hitman in the room.

"What happened?" I asked in a raspy voice. My eyes narrowed in annoyance and I rubbed my throat.

Thankfully, a glass of water was at the small table to my right. I downed the drink, soothing the dry desert that was my throat.

With that done, I paid full attention to Reborn's cold, truthful recap of what happened.

Short version, my real body suffered the same asshanding my mind went through.

Long version, Viper pushed itself past its own limits, explaining the blood I saw before my mental torture. Its own body was getting ripped apart as it tried to go past the Arcobaleno curse and tap into its true potential.

True potential meaning giving my real body the same wounds and pain my mind had. I got mangled in the real world as well. In the eyes of the outsiders, it looked like some invisible thing threw me around like a ragdoll and crushed my flesh and bones.

During all that, Chrome collapsed, as her stomach began to shrink back. I was surprised it didn't happen when I ran out of juice. Apparently I subconsciously saved up some energy for her.

Only good thing I did.

Still, because of the beating I took, my illusions for her vanished as well, dragging her down with me.

We both would have died. Chrome would have only shared my fate on a later date, with the lack of good illusionists who were willing to help.

That's when Tsuna stepped in, just like in canon with Lambo.

Naturally, he and I got disqualified for it.

Another thing I could blame myself for.

Though it saved my life, it still left a sour taste in my mouth. Only thing that cheered me up was the fact that Viper had to almost kill itself to do that shit to me.

Anyway, the injuries I suffered were beyond normal medical means to heal. Thankfully, a bullshit pervert doctor and a sun master were at the site, keeping us stable enough to get to the hospital for further treatment.

My body was still roughed up, but I wasn't crippled anymore. And with me awake now, Chrome would be able to leave in a healthy body soon enough.

Still, that left me with one question, as my shoulders were slumped and I left out a sigh.

"How long?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper as I glanced at Reborn. Said baby still didn't look me in the eye as he nonchalantly took another sip from his coffee.

"You've been out for an entire day. Missed the cloud battle and...the rest."

I flinched, the last bit filled with pure killing intent, even though his calm voice didn't change in tone nor volume. Considering his loyalty to the Ninth boss of the Vongola and the fact that it was a set up on top of that…

His rage was understandable.

But as sudden as it came, it vanished and we were back into a silence.

It only made me feel more guilty. As if I wasn't worth more words.

"Sorry for losing..." I muttered out, my voice shaking slightly as my hands gripped my blanket.

"Are you telling that me or yourself?" He asked and raised his head to show me his raised eyebrow.

Since I couldn't read his eyes, I let out another sigh.

"Does it matter?"

"Head up, kid." I looked up and to my surprise, saw him smirk slightly. "You did well. Don't beat yourself up for losing against an Arcobaleno. We are unfair in general. No one is blaming you, much less me."

Wide eyed, I stared at the baby. Then, a small smile appeared on my face as he lowered my head.

"Thanks," I muttered, but mostly because my mind was still reeling from the fact that Reborn, the hitman, tried to cheer me up.

Emphasis on trying. It didn't work as I let out another sigh.

Reborn seemed to notice, since he shrugged casually and shook his head.

Didn't fault him, he probably saw a lost case when he saw it.

"For what? I didn't say anything." Getting the message, I slowly nodded at his smug tone as he walked towards the door and tipped his hat after opening it. "Gotta go. Keep an eye on my idiot student and all that."

I grunted in response and leaned back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. But when I didn't hear the sound of the door closing, I turned my head back to it and raised an eyebrow at the fact that Reborn was still standing there, as if hesitating.

Which didn't make any sense, because the hitman never hesitated. Then he snapped his fingers, as if remembering something, tilted his head and slightly turned his head.

"Before I forget...Next time you are in a bad spot, focus on your dying will."

I blinked owlishly at the random, wise sounding comment.

"What?" I asked dumbly. If it angered Reborn, he didn't show it.

"Back then, it wasn't a bad showing. But you gotta leave the panic out," he calmly elaborated and gestured with his right hand. "Dying will doesn't mean you don't wanna live. It means you risk everything to achieve something. Sometimes it's to survive, as paradox as it is."

With those words done, he took a step and closed the door behind him, despite the lack of height, leaving me alone as I stared at the door.

…

I had absolutely no idea what the hell that was about.

Where did that come from? I mean, the advice was neat and all, but I didn't know how it was supposed to help me.

Did he mean I didn't have enough resolve and my flame was too weak because of that? Did he mean I could have won?

Before I could go off a tangent and to a very dark place as I grit my teeth, something moved next to me.

My head snapped to the other bed in the room.

Chrome stirred, her eye slowly opening, before she raised herself with a yawn.

 

[ObsidianNoir]

Chapter 6.2

Did I ever mention that Chrome was not one that woke up very fast?

It usually took a few minutes for her body to start up properly after waking up and I witnessed her...morning procedure often enough that I saw a pattern.

First of all, her hair was not natural pineapple form. Instead, it was about as frizzled like a dog after a bird began to ruffle its fur.

Second, her half open eye was completely blank, as if she was mind controlled by something, which would explain the near zombie like movements after the first yawn when she walked around.

One would think she was drunk, the way her head was swaying from left to right in a rhythmic manner.

Anyway, one indicator that showed that she was about to wake up for real was when her arms subconsciously move to her hair to create the pineapple form.

Every time I watched, not once did I see how she did that with no hair gel or bands or something similar. Some hands movements and boom, the anime hair is back.

With her trademark style back, her eye blinked again and Chrome began to look around, tilting her head like an owl.

I let out a small chuckle, causing her to snap her head to me with shock.

"Hey," I said in a soft tone and lazily waved my hand, while being careful of not moving too fast.

Who knew what kind of damage I still had left over.

For a while, she didn't react at all, staring at me with a wide eye as if frozen. Just when I started to get worried as I scratched my head, her mouth corners twitched as she lowered her head.

"You're okay..."

"Somewhat." I cleared my throat awkwardly and crossed my arms. "Are you alright?"

She nodded slightly and her mouth began to resemble a small smile.

Though it felt a little off...Meh.

"Hm. Thank you," she said softly. Then, she stared at her stomach and rubbed it with her right hand. Mentally, I let out a sigh of relief.

Apparently the organs were working just fine.

Anyway, I shrugged and leaned back into my bed, eyes closed in order to relax.

"No need to thank me," I stated, my cheeks warming up a little. I opened one eye and glanced at her, a small smirk on my face. "The trident is still okay, right?"

Instead of her usual meek nod however, I received a completely different picture, making me turn my head and open my eyes in slight confusion.

She glared at me. Not frowned like before my...battle, but straight up, anger filled glared.

"Why are you saying that?" Her quiet voice as she lowered her head felt like a punch in my gut. "You almost died. The trident is less important than a friend." To pile on my surprise, she left out what I assumed was a huff as she looked away and raised her right hand to show me the trident in its small form. "But yes, it is still there."

"Good to know...good to know..." I muttered, slowly nodding my head as I tried to process the event of a somewhat angry Chrome.

Brain did not compute.

Deciding to leave it behind, I shook my head slightly, before leaning back at the wall, staring at the ceiling in silence.

This time, it was not the comfortable silence I used to be with the eye patched girl.

And to be honest, I did not have the energy to start some small talk. Especially not with her.

Okay, that sounded wrong. I was happy she was okay…

But seeing her reminded me of the reason she was stuck with me in the first place.

I clenched my eyes shut and gritted my teeth as the insane roaring and sadistic laughter rang in my head again. This time, it wasn't so easy to push them away.

Whether or not I could consider it lucky, Chrome decided to speak up.

"Do you...need to talk?" She asked in hesitation, yet determination filled her quiet voice.

It was the only reason I didn't just ignore her as bitterness swelled up in me. That, and because she was my friend.

"About what?" I asked in a gruff tone, keeping my eyes closed.

"Y-you know..." She muttered, her words barely reaching me. The hint of sadness made me risk a glance with my left eye.

I shouldn't have done that, because her head hung low and her shoulders slumped, making her look like a sad bird.

God dang it, I could not say no to this girl.

I let out a sigh, straightened myself up and scratched my hair in irritation.

"What is there to talk?" Having her attention, I leaned forward, arms loosely lying on my knees as I continued in an exhausted, irritated tone as I stared blankly at my blanket. "I lost, got the two of us almost killed and needed to be saved by someone else. Self esteem is at the rock bottom and I feel like shit in general."

"My state isn't your fault," I heard her say quietly, but I ignored her words. She just wanted to cheer me up. Just like Reborn.

As I grit my teeth, I began to shiver.

Sadly, now that I was alone with a relatively close companion, the dam broke.

All the self loathing poured out. First it was only a little bit, but the flow of my negative thoughts began to become stronger.

"It hurt..." I whispered and hiccuped. "I saw some...weird tentacle monster straight out of Lovecraft. Began to play with me like some deranged child would with a puppet. First, took me by the leg and...and smashed me against the g-ground...repeatedly...T-then-"

Before I could finish my slow sentences, trying my best to maintain composure, I felt arms awkwardly embrace me.

When I froze, I saw that Chrome hugged me. By all means, she looked like she wanted to be doing anything else, but instead of backing off the moment I stopped, she leaned further in with the hug.

"You-You don't need to tell me...I-I'm sorry I...asked..." She whispered, voice filled with sadness.

That, coupled with the warmth of her body, destroyed any sense of self control I had.

My tears flowed freely. I tried to choke it back, but the sobs broke through with ease. To be honest, I felt ashamed to do this, crying quietly like that as I buried my face into her left shoulder. But it also felt relieving, as if a weight fell off my chest.

Still, I still had some burden left over. And since Chrome was already offering, might as well get that off my heart as well.

"The worst is...I could have won..." I muttered quietly, wiping my tears as we separated from the hug and Chrome moved back on a chair that was between our beds.

"We don't know that," the girl replied quietly after a short pause and shook her head. "You...fought well."

"Not well enough." I raised my right hand when she opened her mouth again, silencing her. Then, I stared on said hand. "Running out of juice right at the end...if only I trained harder or paid more attention to that...if I hadn't fucked around so much and just killed Viper..."

A sudden burst of anger filled me at those what ifs scenarios and I snarled when I slammed my fist at the wall behind me.

Chrome jumped for a moment, but stayed silent as I let my frustrations out.

"I wanted to win, damn it! I wanted to be more than a worthless, normal guy!" I yelled, tears beginning to flow again as I barred my teeth.

"You aren-"

"I am! Okay?!" I screamed, making the teenager flinch back, her compassion switching to fear. That was the only reason I tried to bite back my rage and took a deep breath, before bowing my head in apology. She calmed down at the sight of that, but understandably kept her distance from me.

"It's not fair...None of this is fair. I never asked for this bullshit...For any of this..." I let out a scoff and stared at the ceiling. "Why me? Why not anyone else? What makes me special?" I closed my eyes and let out a shivering breath as my voice grew quiet. "I hate this...I hate this...Too weak...way too weak...You had to suffer as well because of me..."

With that, silence settled down between us, the only noises created by the machines in the room and my breathing, that got occasionaly interrupted by sobs.

After a while, I scratched my left cheek in embarrassment, finally calmed down from my little outburst.

"Sorry about that," I said, letting out a sigh. Chrome shook her head in response.

"It's...okay." She bit her lip. "I'm sorry too."

I did a double take, raising my eyebrow in confusion.

"For what?" I asked in an incredulous tone. This caused the girl to avert her eyes from me.

Almost in shame.

"That you had to fight this. If I was more talented, you wouldn't be like that. You wouldn't need to fight. And...you wouldn't needed to waste your energy on me. If you wouldn't have wasted your illusion on me, you could have lasted longer to finish the fight..."

At her quiet explanation, I leaned forward, opening my mouth to agree with her, that she would have been a better choice.

Only to close it with wide eyes when the words didn't come out. She tilted her head in confusion, but I didn't reply. Slumping back against the wall, I realized something.

Dear god, I would have fought anyway, even if she was better than me in any regard.

Because she was my friend, as cliché as it sounded. And I did not want to lose a friend. Even if it meant going back to...that fight.

I was crazy. And I didn't have anything against that.

I hoped it was part of the mental manipulation I had, but I doubted that. A lot.

In the end, I put on a frown and raised my right hand as I turned to Chrome.

"No. Don't apologize for that. I wouldn't wish anyone else to experience that hell and a lack of organs comes pretty close. Even when you are stronger...I don't want to see you hurt."

Unfortunately, my cheesy little speech did not make her back off on the topic, accepting that she didn't have much choice in the matter and instead puffed her cheeks up with a small glare.

Urge to poke cheeks intensified. But I managed to prevail.

"I don't want to see you hurt either. And I'm not stronger than you. I...wouldn't have landed those hits like you did. I can't even keep myself alive." She took a deep breath and shook her head, refocusing her glare on me. "Stop acting like I don't have any blame to shoulder."

My eyes narrowed in response. Why couldn't she just accept that this was out of her control? That it wasn't her fault that we were in a hospital.

"But you are-"

I stopped myself, blinking owlishly as I repeated my thoughts in my head. Considering that Chrome mimicked my actions, she was doing the same.

Out of control, no fault, what if scenarios, guilt, low self esteem…

We were doing the same damn thing, only in other words.

Jesus, was this how friends were acting? Taking the blame on their own shoulders to spare the other and end in a vicious circle that way? She talked herself down, I talk myself down even more, and so on...

And if I guessed right, the girl came to the same conclusion as me.

The realization hit us like a truck.

I let out a small snort.

She let out a small snort moments later.

Then the two of us erupt into laughter. Not the loud kind, but the quiet one.

She chuckled in a rather modest volume, but she covered her mouth and shook uncontrollably as her eye began to tear up.

I on the other hand, leaned forward as I let out an almost toneless laughter, the noise I made more akin to breaths than actual laughing, almost as if I had had a cough attack.

Suffice to say, my eyes became more wet than before, this time from an entirely different kind of source.

It took some minutes for us to finally calm down, breathing in an exhausted manner when the laughter finally died down.

As she wiped her eye, still smiling in amusement, I shook my head with a smirk.

"Guess we are at an impasse..." I extended my right hand towards her. "Let's compromise and get strong enough together for this not to happen again." I paused, then bit my lip. "Well, at least not as bad as this."

Ignoring my last muttering, she nodded brightly, showing more energy than I ever saw and accepted the hand shake.

Few moments later and we still held hands in silence, smiles frozen in place and growing in awkwardness.

I stared at her.

She stared back.

I gave up first.

"So...you know you can go out, right?" I asked with a raised eyebrow, letting go after clearing my throat.

In response, she averted her gaze, face back in her usual meek, near emotionless form.

"This room is warmer than the school," she replied stoically, but the light rose tint on her cheeks told me that she didn't want to say that out loud on free will.

I had the feeling she meant more than the room temperature. Either that or I was reading too much into it.

"Of course." I nodded in a mock wise manner, trying to resist the urge to pinch her cheeks as they puffed up again.. Then I paused and scratched my chin, before turning back to her. "You think I can get some tea here?"

As a response, she pressed the call button.

I did not care how embarrassed she was when I clapped my hands and prayed to her.

///
OOC:
Every story needs a little angst.
Sure hope it was natural and that Chrome wasn't too OOC. My reasoning is that after a near death experience and her different kind of bond with Sid, she would be able to develop a bit faster than usual.

 

[ObsidianNoir]

Chapter 6.3

I did not know what normal people usually do in the hospital. The only times I went there was to visit my mother when she had to recover from an operation. Twice.

But I could suspect.

Reading books, sleeping because of exhaustion, maybe even watch TV.

Normal people however probably did not practice their illusions with their roommate.

Thankfully, god decided that normal was overrated with Chrome and I, which led us to using our mind tricks on each other out of boredom and training.

Of course, we didn't do anything malicious to each other. Most illusions we used on each other were harmless or even pleasant.

Minor stuff like letting us believe a blanket was gone, a different kind of TV show was running on the TV, levitating stuff…

And don't forget the sheer amount of fake animals we created.

Bunnies, fat cats, small dogs, big fluffy dogs, owls, chickens…

Suffice to say, we had some fun while training.

Speaking of animals...

I did not a new path from my near death experience. Guess I could tick that off from my check list. Not that I felt scammed, since the ability to summon animals honestly felt...kind of lackluster anyway, so I didn't cry over spilled milk.

Mastering the Path of Naraka and the Mist Flames would let me do the exact same thing anyway.

But, I did get something from my fight against Viper besides some training and tons of pain.

My flames felt stronger now.

Well, I could maintain a flame longer than before and it also grew stronger in reach and potency by a little bit. When I made a clone of myself, he felt about as half as tough as I was, so it could take a couple of hits. I also made the clone walk outside the hospital, towards the gate.

Considering I was in the third floor or something, that meant something.

So I kind of got a Zenkai boost.

Good to have.

Not that I was stronger than Chrome in any regard.

Even without a ring, her illusions were solid, borderline real. It exhausted her a lot, but she could create the same level of real illusions I had without the hell ring. That spoke tones about her talent, because otherwise it wouldn't be that easy for a teenager to be on such a level.

Though I did notice some...differences in our preferred styles, if you can call them that.

Chrome liked the usual method of large scale illusions, based on manipulating the battlefield and other people's sense.

I on the other hand...well, did not have that kind of skill. Not sure what to call it, but my illusions were better when I focused on other kinds of stuff. Numbing my own sense of pain with ease, erasing injuries from existence to a limited period of time (don't ask how I knew that), clones...

What the hell would one call that? Personal illusions?

I whacked my brain a lot about my own specialty during a break Chrome and I took as I lied in my bed, with her sitting on the right side of the bed, blankly staring at the door and chilled as the afternoon sun shone brightly into our window.

But before I could ponder more on it, the door to our room opened. The two of us turned to it with raised eyebrows, before a pleasant surprise faced us.

Hana and Kyoko, both in their school uniforms, entered the room, with the latter carefully opening the door. The moment she saw the two of us awake, her face visibly brightened up and rushed towards us, while an amused Hana followed her in a slower pace.

Unfortunately, mine and Chrome's happiness vanished the moment Kyoko embraced us in a near bone crushing hug, me in her left arm and the shy girl in her other one. The eye patched girl let out a choked 'eep' while I simply wheezed for air.

Not that the happy girl noticed any of that, uncaring smile still in place.

"You're awake! Thank goodness, I was so worried!" She exclaimed and managed to increase the strength in her hug. I glanced at Chrome, who began to turn slightly purple and sent me a pleading look.

Guess that meant Kyoko preferred the right arm, since I could still breathe to some extent. Desperately, I repeatedly hit on her back, making her look at me with a confused expression.

"Hug...too strong..." I choked out and a moment later, realization dawned on her face and she quickly let go with a blush.

As we gasped for air, Chrome coughing a little and I taking deep breaths, Ryohei's sister took a step back and did a deep bow.

"I am so sorry!" She exclaimed and then looked up.

Considering that she looked like a sad puppy, neither I nor the girl next to me could bring ourselves to chide her.

Thankfully, Hana did the job for us as she playfully hit her best friend with a chop. As the victim let out a cute exclamation of pain and held her head while pouting at her, Hana sent a glare at us.

The two of us straightened up a little, I by raising my upper body a little more and Chrome moving to the chair between our beds and folding her hands nervously.

"You really owe me. She was fussing over you two non stop," Hana snarked and threw her thumb at Kyoko, whose pout intensified.

"Sorry," Chrome and I intoned at the same time.

Then, the bossy girl let out a sigh and her expression softened up a little.

"Just try not to almost die again," she said calmly and her best friend nodded in agreement. I scratched my head awkwardly and I could see from my eye corners that the shy girl meekly nodded as well.

"No promises, but we can try," I commented with a light smile, causing the girls chuckle slightly.

The two guests moved some chairs over and sit at the other end of my bed. But Hana narrowed her eyes just when Kyoko opened her mouth to say something. When I tilted my head, she crossed her arms with a frown.

"Why are your eyes so red?" She let out a huff. "And I don't mean the creepy magic eye."

Frowning slightly, I scratched my cheek.

The Path of Naraka wasn't that creepy, right?

Moments later, I let out a sigh and shrugged.

"Crying. Sad version and happy version." I pointed at Chrome next to me, then back to myself. "Happy version because the two of us are idiots." I paused and stared at the shy girl's faced with slight displeasure. "Why isn't your eye red?"

To my surprise, she smiled slightly and shrugged.

"Cried l-less than you," she replied, blushing slightly.

It sounded almost smugly and when I took a closer look, her smile looked more like a smirk.

Naturally, the other girls and I stared at her for a moment, making her face flush even more and Chrome averted her eyes quickly.

She tried to exchange jabs with me.

Little worrying, but mostly adorable and it filled me with pride. Therefore, I put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a thumbs up when she glanced at me.

Moments later, she covered her face with her hands. Kyoko stifled a giggle and Hana rolled her eyes, when I quickly pulled my hand back and nervously laughed as I scratched my right cheek.

This caused her to bury her face even deeper into her hands.

Honestly, she really was a normal shy girl in these...normal matters.

Which made her background story sadder than it already was.

When everyone calmed down and Chrome's face was not in the danger of melting away into lava, Kyoko sobered up quite quickly as a worried expression appeared on her face.

"Are you alright? Do you need to talk about it? The fight I mean," she asked, biting her lip, while Hana's frown simply intensified.

Unlike before, I only let out a sigh. Sharing a small smile with Chrome, I turned to them and shook my head.

"Already had a breakdown before, so I'm cool now."

The two school girls shared an uncertain look with each other, but Hana shrugged. Kyoko on the other hand put up her gentle smile again.

"If you say so...but if you need to...the two of you...We're there for you."

"T-thank you," Chrome replied in a small blush and I scratched my hair with the same flushed face she had.

"Keeping that in mind." I paused for a moment and my eyes narrowed when I crossed my arms. "Do you need to talk about it? The fight I mean."

Ignoring my blatant plagiarism, Hana and Kyoko flinched for a moment. But the latter regained her wits sooner and took a deep breath, as a somber air surrounded her.

"It was eye opening...I mean, I already was worried when I saw my brother beaten up in his match...But seeing your fight actually made me realize how dangerous the mafia world actually is..." She lowered her head and closed her eyes as her body began to shake. "To be honest, I'm scared to be part of this."

Hana put a reassuring hand on her friend's left shoulder, but she also showed her own nervousness by biting her lip and grabbing her right arm with her left.

"Me too. Really showed me how low we are on the food chain out there...Makes me sick that I didn't put more effort in our training sessions. I thought it would be a nice little hobby on the side or like some minor gang..."

She let out an annoyed groan and shook her head, while Kyoko folded her hands in order to calm her body.

Seeing such a display in front of me, I felt a bit of shame dwell up in my for showing them the world of the mafia and stared at my blanket with a sigh.

"I can understand that. I can find another mist-"

Before I could finish my tired sentence, a finger flick made my head snap back. After I let out a small yelp, I was about to sent a glare at Hana.

It quickly died out when the best friends glared right back, with quadruple the intensity. Considering that Chrome also stared at me, neutrally though, I had the feeling I failed a speech and empathy check.

"Who said anything about us quitting?" The biggest girl in the room snarled as she pulled her right hand back and put it on her hip with a huff. "I'm still in. Freaks me out, but it also pisses me off that some people just do what they want. There are some guys who need some asskicking and I am open to oblige."

For a demonstration, she cracked her knuckles with a feral grin.

I slowly nodded, seeing that there was no way I could speak back, whether in objection or in idle small talk.

Then, I turned to Kyoko and I almost flinched back from the sheer fire in her eyes when I focused on them.

Those eyes were so beyond the ones I saw when I first met her, it wasn't even funny.

Back then, warmth and courage radiated from her. Now, it started to suck me in as well.

"It's scary, yes...But it must be scarier for them. My brother, Tsuna, even little Reborn...They fight for their own survival, but also to bring justice against those Varia." She let out a deep breath and her hands formed fists as she held them up to chest level, as if cheering for herself. "To fight against such odds, perhaps on a daily basis in the future...I can't let Tsuna and the others carry that burden alone now, can I?"

Then, her energy output seemed to be lowered as she crossed her hands on her lap and sent me a sad smile.

"And I don't want to see other people suffer like you did, because of how the mafia is like." Kyoko raised her right hand again and stared at it, as if looking at a picture. "If Tsuna can change that...to make a better world...I am only determined to grow stronger. To make sure that this dark world will be better. To make sure that nobody has to lie in a hospital bed, blaming themselves for their false weakness."

As she clenched her fist and sent me a determined glare again, while Hana nodded in heated agreement, I processed her words.

I admired her and Hana's determination. I was thankful for their compassion. The mention of my suffering did make me flinch a little, but it only showed how they cared.

But out of everything, I was focused on one simple thing. One thing that filled my logical part with shame, but my emotional part with pride. One thing that controlled completely what I was going to say next.

Shipping senses were tingling.

"Why do you single out Tsuna?" I asked, readjusting my position in my bed with a small smirk. Chrome and Hana stared at me with a raised eyebrow, but the latter quickly processed my words and gaped at her best friend.

"Eh? Eh? Eeeeh?"
Said best friend blushed furiously.

Smirk, confusion and gape intensified respectively.

Quickly, she let out a loud, exaggerating laugh as she furiously scratched her hair.

"O-oh, w-well...I spoke with-with him earlier, so maybe that's why...hehe."

"Even I can see you are hiding something," Chrome said...dryly, I guess and Kyoko looked down to the ground.

"Can we please not focus on that?" She muttered in a high pitched tone and I raised my hands in mock surrender, still grinning like an idiot.

"Fine." I turned to her best friend, who was busy facepalming. "What about you, Hana?"

She looked up, moving her hand away and her face screamed suffering as she glanced at her best friend, who laughed nervously. Then, she turned back to me with a sigh.

"Someone needs to be Kyoko's bodyguard. And judging from how the others fought, I can't rely on them, with how thick headed they are in rushing in, with no regard to their own and thus other people's safety."

"And because you want to kick people in the face," I completed her sentence in a deadpan tone. She in response smirked.

"Of course. Second reason I'm joining."

I let out a disinterested 'hm' because I saw that coming from a mile. Kyoko sent her friend a small glare of disapproval, while Chrome blinked blankly. No idea what went through her head at the moment.

Suddenly, Hana looked at the watch on her wrist and let out a hum, before standing up.

"It's getting late...We gotta go for now," she said casually and I turned to look at the window.

Huh. The sun was beginning to set, leaving a crimson sky for me to see.

Wow, so much time went by already?

Turning back to the girls, who put the chairs back to their original position at the opposite wall, I raised an eyebrow.

"Getting ready for Tsuna's fight?" I asked and Kyoko nodded cheerfully.

"Hm. We have to cheer for him!"

"Didn't you give him the lucky charm?"

At my question and smug grin, she sent me a flash of betrayal, before turning back to Hana with a fake, nervous smile.

Said friend gave her a look filled with disappointment.

Seeing that it didn't work, Kyoko's smile fell and she turned to me, scratching her cheek with a blush.

"W-well, you can never give enough luck!" She exclaimed and I nodded, trying not to laugh at her.

"Why...Ugh, forget it…" After letting out a sigh, she turned to the shy girl next to me. "Chrome, you wanna come with us?"

This broke her blank expression and Chrome blinked owlishly. Then she glanced at me with worry. I shook my head and smiled softly at her.

"It's okay. I'll be fine here."

With that, she nodded, though with hesitation as she followed the others to the door. But before leaving she turned around and bowed slightly.

After the other two girls said their goodbyes, they shut the door.

Leaving me alone for the first time. Not that it really bothered me, since I felt tired anyway and reached my social quota. All that talking made me feel better than ever, so I buried myself under my blanket with a smile and shut my eyes.

Though there was a small itch at the back of my head, that I tried to ignore as sleep slowly began to take me.

Why did I have the feeling I forgot something?

///

Ugh, Jesus...My head pounded and my chest felt like it was burning up after I drank a too hot soup. I let out a groan and tried to open my eyes, but my senses felt dulled. Luckily, it didn't take as long as the last time I had a headache and my vision and ears began to clear up.

Well, relatively. For some reason, I still barely felt anything except some slight burning pain, as if I was paralyzed.

Anywho, I tried to move my body, but soon realized something hold me in place at my arms and legs.

A dooming emotion grew in my stomach and I strained my eyes and ears as I tried to turn my head around.

What I received from my sensory information let me wish I was still sleeping.

I was back inside the fucking gym.

Which meant I was back in the school.

Which meant...

Arms were bound to the weird transportation bed I was in, sounds of explosions all over the place…

Oh, and the fucking smug grins of Viper and prince face were staring at my face,

All that pretty much cemented the fact into my brain that I was a pawn in this sky battle.

The sky battle. Right.

Which included all the other guardians to beat the crap out of each other once they managed to get the antidote for the poison.

The same poison running through my body and making me feel numb as hell.

They didn't give a fuck about my condition. They only needed a mist guardian to do this insane shit. And I was the mist guardian, temporary as I was.

…

These little motherfuckers.

 

[ObsidianNoir]

Chapter 7

As an adult bound to a bed inside a half destroyed school gym while supernatural battles were fought left and right, while two homicidal maniacs had me at their mercy, I should have felt a lot more fear than I did.

Instead, most of what I felt was annoyance, as I tried to glare at them.

Not sure if I succeeded, since my body control was probably not at its best.

Anyway, annoyance.

It was caused by two reasons. One, the headache I had from the damn poison in my body and two, the fact that those two maniacs were way too smug about this situation, even if it was understandable.

"Well, well, well. The commoner awoke to greet his prince at last!" The demon named prince giggled in his usual haughty voice, playing with his little knifes to my right.

That little action was enough to piss the slightly bandaged baby off, as it sent Belphegor a glare.

At least I think that was what happened, because I was fricking high.

"I already told you, he is mine. I didn't get to finish him," it spoke coldly and smirking sadistically at me.

I was certain if I wasn't drugged up, I would have been afraid. Instead, I think I drooled a little as I stared back with a rather blank expression.

Damn, my body control was terrible with that crap in my blood flow.

Obviously dissatisfied by my lack of proper reaction, the prince decided to change to subject and shook his head haughtily at the floating baby.

"Shishishi! You already had your fun! Now it's my turn!"

"You got the Storm brat. Don't be greedy," Viper snarked back, but the prince only put his left hand on his hip, while holding his blade closer to my skin. The cold steel at my skin didn't really register in my brain, so I focused on not blinking like I'm overdosed.

The success was...not something to sing about.

"You are the last person I want to hear that from."

"If you want my silence, then pay me," the baby replied in a deadpan tone, making the prince sneer in response.

"A prince never has to pay-"

Mentally, I rolled my eyes.

Dear Jesus, couldn't they shut up?!

The moment I thought that, suddenly words flowed out of my mouth, interrupting them.

Unlike what I thought, the words were...very different in tone and attitude..

"Ye talk...ta much~!" I slowly drawled out, interrupting them as their voices gave me a bigger headache than ever. Then I blinked slightly in surprise, at the same time as them.

On the one hand, I sounded way too detached and happy about this and it sounded like a foreign voice, as if my vocal chords were hacked by another person.

On the other hand, wow. I was surprised I managed to talk with all that poison in my system.

Or feel anything at all. Or even move slightly.

Huh. Guess trying to focus helped against being high. Maybe?

Wait, that sounded stupid. Wasn't it used against elephants? I did remember Kyoya being able to move despite it. On the other hand...anime.

How durable was he? How durable was I?

Questions for later.

Later preferably without any bindings, insane mafiosi and drugs.

Anywho, Viper turned to the prince with what I assumed was a raised eyebrow.

"I thought they said it was stun poison or something, not marihuana."

Belphegor casually shrugged in response before pointing his shark grin at me as his knife dug deeper into my face, blood slowly dripping down from it.

"Are you certain you want to talk back to us like that?" He asked gleefully.

As a response, my face put up a massive grin and my body began to slowly bobble my head.

"Bored as fuck! Yup, yup, bitch~!" My voice sang cheerfully, as if not aware of the danger.

The not high part of myself was very aware of the danger and tried its best to wrestle control back from my drugged up part.

Naturally, my reply did not please the prince as the weapon began to eat even deeper into my flesh, making the blood flow even faster and making my head stop moving.

On a side note, I could almost feel it. Almost.

Most pain was from the paralyzing poison thing though.

"Watch your mouth. If we wanted to, you would be dead already," Belphegor stated, amusement replaced by a glare.

Of course, I replied appropriately.

"A ducky could... kill me...you-you're not special~!" A giggle escaped my body after the dragged sentence.

Memo to self, poison did not hinder own ability to talk shit and quote stuff from the internet despite lethal situation.

It did however, grant me the tick of adding a singing tone to my words.

Drugs are bad, kids.

"My, that was almost amusing." He grabbed my tongue and pulled it out, while softly tapping it with the sharp end of his knife. "How about I help you with that loose mouth of yours?"

At least now, my drugged up body realized the danger, since it actually stopped to smile.

This only made the prince grin widely again and Viper must have shared the same amusement, considering it didn't say anything.

And here I was, powerless to do anything.

Fucking hostage situation.

A small flicker awoke in my chest.

Before the maniac could cut off my tongue however, the entrance doors opened up in a loud smash and two figures entered the hall.

Hayato Gokudera and Takeshi Yamamoto.

The two of them took a look around, shocked that the pillar thing containing the mist ring was destroyed. But the latter's eyes quickly fell on my and the Varia members and narrowed his eyes.

"Stop right there!" The swordsman exclaimed and unsheathed his blade. Hayato quickly stepped forward next to him and prepped his dynamites in his fingers.

The two assassins only shared a look, before Belphegor let out his creepy giggle and let go of my tongue.

"Look at that, more brats coming from their holes!" The prince exclaimed, before holding his weapon back at my bleeding cheek. This only caused the two teenagers to glare even more at the enemy.

"Hey, this brat kicked your ass! Also, heard that Hibari gave you a bad time!" Hayato snarled back and the prince clicked his tongue in irritation.

"This prince had pity and let you win."

As drugged up as I was, even I knew that was a total lie. I made it apparent with a flat stare, shared by my temporary teammates.

I wasn't even a kid anymore!

Anyway, the students were about to move forward to attack, but froze on the spot when Belphegor, yet again, began to cut into my cheek skin.

Hopefully I wouldn't get scars from it.

"Tutu!" A wide, ugly grin graced the prince's face. "I might slip my hand if you come any closer."

Viper made some sort of choking sound, but considering it didn't say anything, I guess it decided to roll with the storm Varia's plan.

Obviously, the bomber teen grit his teeth at the blatant threat.

"Bastard!" He yelled, but the prince was unfazed as he casually shook his head.

"You give us the rings and we let him free. Easy as that."

Hayato clicked his tongue and opened his mouth for rejection, but a raised hand stopped him in his tracks.

"Let's surrender the rings."

Hayato wasn't the only one who felt shock at Takeshi's words, as he held the Vongola rings in his left hand with a solemn expression.

Even though I expected it, those words still surprised me and I think my eyes widened.

The flicker became a flame.

"What are-" The storm guardian began to object, face filled with fury, but Takeshi's smile threw him off guard.

"As short as it is, we are still teammates, aren't we?" Then, he glared at the mafiosi. "And we are better than them. Tsuna is better than them."

"Fine...But only because I honor the Tenth's virtues!" Hayato grumbled back, clearly displeased with the situation.

Meanwhile, I was at a lost of words. I knew that they went as far in canon for Chrome, but to experience it myself, to help me in this moment of weakness…

The flame grew in size.

"But first, you have to cure the poison in his system. Then, we will give it to you," the rain guardian demanded with a determined face. In response, the two assassins shared a small glance, before shrugging at the same time.

"Hmph. Fine. We will win anyway," the floating baby said in a condescending tone and threw the mist ring at the prince, who in turn pressed them into the arm device of mine.

With a click, I could feel a small prick at my wrist, before my head slowly, but surely began to clear and the numbness began to vanish. Meanwhile, I saw how Takeshi began to motion with his hand to throw the rings forward in order to start his trick.

Knowing that it wouldn't work and could cost everyone's lives here, if outside help wouldn't arrive in time...

The fire began to go out of control.

I was a bit touched by how the two of them cared enough for me to save me and risk their lives with this gamble. It felt like a soft warmth in my heart, next to the small feeling of fear and panic at the situation.

Oh, and the big stain of being high, despite the antidote starting to work against it.

Anyway, it reminded me of my friendship with the girls. Not on the same level, but it made me feel...happy.

However...

They stopped what they were doing when I began to chuckle. The swordsman stopped in his tracks before he could throw the rings forward and do his trick. He and the others turned to me in confusion.

First quietly, but then it grew louder and louder, into a full blown laughter. In response, the four of them shared uncertain glances with each other, completely forgetting that they were enemies.

However…

Those feelings were overshadowed by all this UNYIELDING RAGE!

My amusement instantly vanished, replaced by a furious snarl as the inferno called wrath went out of control in my body. Barring my teeth, I strained my muscles against the remnants of the drug in my bloodstream and the restraints they used on me.

At the same time, I locked onto the aura of the two Varia, in case Viper wanted to use its illusions against me.

"Next time you are in a bad spot, focus on your dying will."

Time to follow the advice of the hitman teacher.

"I've had it with you fucks doing your holier than though bullshit! I've had it with you motherfucking mafia shits in this shit stain of a fucking school!" I screamed, this time coherent and in full control of my own body as if I willed my body to be free from the drug.

For a moment, the others stared at me in shock, but it was the prince who shook his head in schadenfreude.

"Pff, there is no way you can-"

He was jinxing it.

It fueled my rage.

Murphy, grant me your might!

With a feral roar, I put all my power into my limbs and with a jolt, I broke free. A moment later and I threw the backs of my fists after the two Varia members. They quickly dodged out of the way despite the surprise, but I used the time to take a jump forward, standing next to Tsuna's friends in mere seconds.

Breathing heavily, I wiped my mouth from the sweat and drool I created. Ignoring all talk around me, I stared at my hand in confusion.

My body felt like it was on fire. As if it was about to break apart, as something from the outside cut it open and released all emotions out of me.

And honestly, I didn't care for some reason. All I cared about was one thing.

"I am going to beat the shit outta you and if it's the last thing I'll do!" I said in a heated tone and pointed with my right index finger at them, with my palm pointing upwards, while my head tilted slightly to the right and with a sneer.

Then, I noticed one other thing as I tuned out any banter my allies nor my enemies did.

One thing on my ring finger on my right hand.

These idiots forgot to take my hell ring away from me!

With a wide grin, I erased my presence and hunched over the ground a little.

"Belphegor!" Viper immediately yelled at its partner before I could finish my disappearance and the prince already had a handful of knifes ready, while the baby began to spawn tentacles out of itself and around us.

"Already on it!"

I clicked my tongue in irritation.

How annoying.

I didn't want to use more flames than I already did. Oh well, erasing presence only it was then.

With that in mind, the ground underneath me cracked immensely as I shot off in high speeds, ignoring the enemy attack as I aimed for Viper.

Because I didn't have to deal with it.

"Last Minute Rain!"

"Rocket Bombs!"

Just when Belphegor was about to throw his knifes with high precision as I dashed off, crossing the distance in a mere two seconds, a katana pierced his right shoulder like a bullet, preventing him from his attack. At the same time, the swordsman followed his weapon only slightly slower than me, fully intending to commit to his preferred range against the prince.

At the same time, Hayato blew up any tentacles that might have stopped me or Takeshi.

Including the ones in Viper's face.

Normally, there was no way they could have hit the real ones with such ease, since they were under the illusion of Viper.

Thankfully, all I had to do was overwrite it with my own illusion. And creating exact images of other people was completely in my power.

Take that, overly exotic illusions!

No offense, Chrome.

Anyway, Viper saw the cracking floor, so he could prepare a mental assault on me by shooting off its tentacles at my face, recovering from the explosions rather quickly.

Still, his mind was shaken from the damage. The illusions were not even remotely as threatening as before.

Therefore, they gave in like wet noodles, not stopping my super man punch in the face in the slightest.

My fist dented its face and blood spilled out of it as it was about to shoot off from my attack.

But I didn't let it fly off, instead keeping a strong hold on the tentacles. Viper, with what little consciousness it had, gave me a scared stare.

Well, bitch. Believing those limps to be real bit you in the ass, huh?

I let the satisfaction of the situation show on my face with a wide grin.

"Where the fuck you think you going, little baby?! I still need to pay you back, ARCOBALENO!"

Landing on the ground, I held the baby high above me, as my hand had an iron grip on its tentacles. I was certain it tried to erase them, but I concentrated on keeping them real.

Memo to self, I could support other people's illusions.

Anyway, payback.

Long story short, I went full Hulk on it. Flailed him against the ground like a morning star, destroying the ground more and more until it was a destroyed floor.

When I finally felt satisfied, I threw the body against the ground one last time.

Well, less ground and more baby sized crater.

With a spit against the barely conscious baby, I walked off.

"Puny Arcobaleno," I said and cracked my neck.

Man, did that feel good!

Though in hindsight, the hell ring was redundant in this...well, fight.

Anywho, I heard another body fell down like a sack of potatoes and I sighed in relief.

Guess Takeshi finished the prince.

My suspicion got confirmed when the teenager appeared to left with a wide smile, slapping my back.

"Good work, team!"

I hissed in pain from the gesture, despite feeling equally happy. Takeshi held his hands up in a sorry manner, but I waved him off with a strained smile,

Speaking of strain, the feeling the strain on my body growing past my pain threshold. Considering the super human feats I committed, I guess that was natural.

Before I could take the rest I wanted however, Hayato's eyes widened and took out a mini dynamite out of his pockets.

"Watch out!" He exclaimed, but Takeshi and I already turned around.

Just in time to see a blood crazed Belphegor reaching for us with his hands like a beast.

How did Takeshi not knock that idiot out!?

Still, with the warning, all three of us were ready for the giggling maniac.

The swordsman quickly held his weapon in a baseball batter stance and swung it at the enemies' head with the dull side. The mini dynamite was about to hit the maniac at the legs. I did a front kick, that despite its amateurish execution, still flew in high speeds and power.

All three attacks landed solidly on Belphegor and shot off like a cannonball, denting the wall behind him with his body and created big cracks on it.

Much to our shock however, the prince was still conscious. And he could still move, judging from the body twitches and the way he slowly raised himself from his cross position body imprint in the wall.

"Huh, forgot how tough he was," Takeshi said in slight awe. The bomber man and I sent him a flat glare, before I directed my anger on Hayato.

"What the fuck is wrong with that guy?!" I asked, pointing at the prince in agitation.

"Believe me, I asked myself the same question!" Hayato yelled back, prepping more dynamite in his hands.

As the prince managed to break his right arm free, he pointed it at himself with a blood stained, crazy smirk.

"Because I'm a prince!" He said gleefully.

I on the other hand, was done with his shit.

"Fuck you!" I yelled at him and put up my kick box stance.

How did he even hear us?! He must have had a concussion and broken bones!

As if heeding my wish, the universe decided to throw me a treat.

Just when the prince managed to free his left arm, the wall behind him exploded. Belphegor gagged out blood when the main force of the blast hit him straight in his spine. Our trio ducked when he got sent flying yet again.

We turned our head around and carefully observed the body outside on the ground.

Despite the occasional twitch, the Varia didn't make any moves to stand up.

The three of us let out a sigh of relief and then turned to the source of the explosion.

Said source held his bleeding hand with a smirk of pride.

"Ryohei Sasagawa, reporting for duty!" He raised his bleeding fist and pointed it at me. "I still need to give you a good punch, so I have to extremely rescue you!"

I blinked.

"Thanks, I guess?"

Luckily, Hayato had a bigger reservoir of words against the boxer as he ruffled his hair in irritation and pointed at him with aggression.

"You're late as hell, idiot! We already had this!" The bomber man yelled in anger. This agitated the boxer as well, as he crossed his arms, ignoring his own injurie.

"I just saved you!"

"We could've finished this guy ourselves!" Hayato countered and gesture to Takeshi and I.

I blinked, feeling all the heated emotions of mine slowly draining out of my body.

The rain guardian on the other hand laughed casually and stepped in between the two with raised hands.

"Now, now, guys! We're all on the same team here!"

Ryohei and Hayato sent each other a heated glare, before sighing in surrender.

"Right...we have more important stuff to think about. As in..." Hayato turned to me and shot his finger at me with a glare. "How do you have the Dying Will Mode?!"

Wait, what?

I blinked a third time. Seeing my confusion, the bomber man pulled out a mirror from...somewhere and showed it to me.

When I looked into it, I didn't saw my usual reflection.

My usual reflection did not have a bright, indigo flame on the forehead.

I blinked yet another time. Then I jumped back with wide eyes.

"Holy shit, I'm in Dying Will Mode!" I exclaimed in disbelief.

Just when I said that, the flame went out.

"Aaand it's gone. Of course," I said with a sigh. Still, I felt excited.

I had a transformation! Somehow!

I threw my arms up in the air in excitement and the two sports junkies shared a smile with me.

Hayato on the other hand tapped his chin in thought for a moment, before his eyes widened.

"Baseball head, catch him! I'll get the ring!"

"What are you-"

Before I could finish my question however, a wave of exhaustion and pain hit me. The world began to spin, so I was barely noticing the other three moving.

Memo to self, find out how to deactivate and activate Dying Will mode at will, so that I do not pass out because of bad energy management.

At least I was alive. That was the only thing that was important.

With that in mind, I felt my body surrender itself to gravity as darkness claimed me.

I fell unconscious way too many times.

 

[ObsidianNoir]

Chapter 8.1 – Tsuna Interlude

Tsunayoshi Sawada knew for a fact that a middle school student should not be visiting a hospital that often.

It just happened that his entire friend circle, including himself, tended to get themselves into dangerous situations, whether they wanted to or not.

Scratching his bandages a little, he fidgeted around in front of a certain room. By all means, he should be on his way to a celebration party. Officially, it was for Lambo's release from the hospital, but it was actually for their victory against the Varia.

However, Tsuna still had some time left before going to the party, according to his teacher. Because of that, the teenager decided to deal with one issue. One that had been hanging around in his head ever since he met him and had been growing stronger in the last few day.

In order to get rid of the heavy weight, he needed to talk to one person before the party. Well, technically two, now that he thought about it, but she wasn't the one who he needed to talk to the most.

Since this would be the first time they would actually interact, if even that happened that was.

Tsuna shook his head. He had been standing in front of the door for at least five minutes. Thankfully he was alone in the hallway. Maybe because it was early morning, but he wasn't so sure.

The teenager was a bit suspicious that Reborn left him alone for this, but it was appreciated.

It would not do to get kicked into the room for his own 'stupid hesitation'.

Taking a deep breath, determination filled his face and Tsuna knocked on the door, before opening it.

The moment he entered, all courage left him when he laid his eyes on the sleeping form of Obsidian and the very awake Chrome sitting to his right, keeping Obsidian between her and the door.

The latter turned her head away from her book with Latin letters and stared at him blankly. This only caused the teenager to lose more of his composure as he began to blush and bow down to a ninety degree angle in top speeds.

"G-good morning!" He greeted louder than intended and Tsuna reflexively winced at his own volume, making his face flush even more.

When he carefully glanced up, the girl's face didn't change at all. She only tilted her head slightly, like a confused bird.

To be honest, it looked a little cute...Not Kyoko-cute, but cute nonetheless.

After staring each other for a while, during which Tsuna's back began to hurt from his bow, Chrome made a small head notion that might have been a nod.
"Morning..."

Tsuna frowned slightly.

He could barely hear her! It was as if the wind tried to carry her word from meters away into his ear.

Before he or she could say anything more, they heard a groan.

As if her voice was the trigger, Obsidian began to stir up. Slowly opening his eyes, the illusionists yawned and raised himself, cracking his neck as he scratched his hair.

Immediately, Tsuna straightened up his back and stood stiff as he observed the rather casual wake up sequence of the young adult.

From the corners of his eyes, Tsuna could spot how the girl adjusted her position in her chair. But that was enough to tell him a lot for some reason.

She held her back more straight and actually radiated more...happiness. Before, it was a big gloomy, repressed feeling. But now, it felt like she was opening up more.

As if she felt more safe now.

She cared for Obsidian, Tsuna realized. Nothing too deep, like best friends or something, but it was enough for her to feel comfortable around others, now that he was actually there. Following on the gut feeling he had, Tsuna saw that she didn't have a lot of friends. Because of that, she valued the ones she had even more than other people.

Anyway, with this sudden insight out of nowhere done, he focused more on the person he actually wanted to talk to.

Said person stretched his arms as he let out another loud yawn, before shaking his head slightly. Then, he stared at the blanket on his legs, then let out a deep sigh.

"Another hospital bed. Didn't expect that," he began to mutter. "Wonder if I could get some tea here..." As if he only noticed now, he turned his head to Chrome, who stared at him with nearly zero emotion.

Nearly zero, meaning that Tsuna could still feel the slight hint of...annoyance.

Huh, who would have thought someone like her could feel that, the student thought with a raised eyebrow.

Obsidian appeared to recognize it as well, since he scratched his cheek awkwardly.

"Uhm...sup?"

To Tsuna's surprise, Chrome's eyes-err, eye, narrowed, making the young adult smile sheepishly.

"You need to stop falling unconscious."

He lowered his head, but then snapped his gaze up with a worried expression.

"Oh crap, I didn't-"

The girl shook her head, which calmed the Vietnamese down a little as he sat back down.

"Don't worry. Mr. Dino had an illusionist ready for me. It only...hurt for a moment."

At this, Obsidian tilted his head with disbelief.

"He has an illusionist?"

The sky guardian raised an eyebrow at that.

Were illusionists that rare? Even if they were, surely Reborn knew at least one more, considering his ties.

No, it wasn't that.

It was almost like Obsidian didn't expect Dino to have any illusionists ready, despite Reborn probably telling him about the organ issue.

Before he could ponder more on it, suddenly, Obsidian's expression changed, as if he realized something and relaxed a little more.

Tsuna frowned. How weird.

Chrome didn't react if she noticed any of that and instead calmly continued to elaborate.

"I heard he borrowed that person from some other family."

"Huh...The more you know." Obsidian scratched his chin before turning to Tsuna. Blinking for a moment, he waved his hand lazily. "Hi there, future boss. Sorry for not noticing before."

The teenager grumbled in response. Not that he was offended at being ignored, he was used to it, but the man did it again.

Boss.

"Again, I don't-"

"Yes, yes, I know," Obsidian interrupted him with more handwaves and rested his hands on his legs with an easy going smile. "We won, didn't we?"

Tsuna blinked as he took a seat and sat next to the door, keeping a respectful distance.

"H-how do you know that?"

"Well, we aren't dead," the adult deadpanned and shrugged. "Nothing against details though."

Despite the rather morbid comment at the start, the teenager decided to delve into an explanation.

His fight against Xanxus, how he froze him with the First technique, the same the Ninth used on Xanxus, how the rings rejected the Varia boss, the background story of him being adopted and later filled with rage with the knowledge of it, finishing with the arrival of Lancia, who cleaned up the reinforcement the Varia wanted to use to gain the authority over the Vongola with force.

Tsuna was not the best talker, so he stumbled over his sentences a few times, but during all this, Obsidian and Chrome listened to his story in a calm manner.

Wait.

Tsuna narrowed his eyes.

The former wasn't just calm.

He didn't react. At all. Like he expected all of that to happen.

Maybe he had future sight or something, Tsuna mused as he crossed his arms. Wouldn't be that much out of the ordinary.

There was a time travel bazooka.

When he noticed the unnerving stares he was receiving, the student gulped.

Damn awkward silence.

Now that he finished the story and that Obsidian was wide awake, the words were stuck in his throat.

"Uhm..." Tsuna managed to force out and he let out an awkward chuckle. "G-gokudera, Yamamoto and Ryohei are sending their greetings to you! Oh, and...Ryohei decided against...the...punch thing."

He tipped his fingers against each other with a slight blush and Obsidian nodded slowly while Chrome still stared.

"Neat," the man said blankly, his eyes not moving from him.

Waiting patiently.

Tsuna let out a sigh.

Was it that obvious?

Well, he couldn't just break in the topic just like that.

So he decided to go with his intuition. He might not be in Hyper mode, but it had to be active at least a little bit, right?

"I...just want to thank you. The two of you," Tsuna said, letting the words flow out without any planning.

Processing his own words, the boy couldn't help but perform a small fist pump.

Good ice breaker for his standards.

Now to keep it going.

"For what?"

Seeing Obsidian's honest confusion, Tsuna turned to the girl, who blinked owlishly just like her friend did.

The sky guardian wondered how unused they were to a simple thanks.

Probably as much as he did, so he scratched his hair with an awkward smile and decided to explain it as good as he could.

"For...well, everything. You fought for me, at the risk of your own life...And...and I heard from Kyoko of how you helped her, C-chrome."

This made the two illusionists blush slightly.

Okay, they were very not used to this stuff.

"It..wasn't much," Chrom said softly while Obsidian first looked at her then shrugged helplessly with the blush still there.

However, Tsuna shook his head, then stared at the ground.

"No, really. I don't know what would have happened if you guys weren't there..."

"Nothing much. You would have still won."

Tsuna looked up with a frown.

Obsidian's voice sounded so nonchalant, as the man stared at him with a lazy smile. It sounded...too confident.

"How do you know that?"

The adult tapped his chin, his eyes narrowed at the question. Then, after a while, he snapped his fingers and pointed at him.

"Because I saw you guys in action. Your power. And your morals." Obsidian paused, his face losing its serious expression, replaced by a more contemplating one. "And you were trained by Reborn, so there is that."

In response, Tsuna let out a small snort of amusement. Obsidian's comment also seemed to entertain Chrome, whose mouth corners twitched

He couldn't argue against that. Say what you wanted about the baby, he was a good teacher. Though he did always choose the path with the most pain involved.

However, as his smile fell slowly, the boy took a deep breath and stared at the ground, gaining their confused attention once more.

Now or never, while the momentum was going.

At least that was how Tsuna thought it worked, right?

"I...have been thinking." Since he didn't get interrupted, the boy continued on, staring quietly at his hands. "Xanxus...all his pain...it was caused by how the mafia acts now, doesn't it? Because power was everything to him."

Well, Tsuna didn't assume it was purely the mafia's fault. Considering Xanxus was living on the streets, the mafia only worsened his thirst for power. Act like the mafia or lose your power, that was the Varia's leader's mindset, most likely.

So that he didn't have to feel the same weakness as before.

"If...if I became boss...Not that I would!" He awkwardly cleared his throat after his little outburst when Obsidian and Chrome stared at him in a neutral manner and Tsuna's gaze turned back to the ground, shoulders slumped. "But...could I...prevent those tragedies from happening?"

"No."

The answer came so abrupt and was delivered like a fact that the boy couldn't help but do a double take at the adult.

"Huh?"

Obsidian raised an eyebrow, confused by Tsuna's response. Turning to Chrome, she stared at him with expectation as well. With that, he sighed and scratched his hair with small frustration as he tried to search for the right words. Then, he folded his hands and pointed at Tsuna with a neutral expression.

"You can't prevent it. Ever. But you can try. Make them happen less often. Try to be better than the previous ones." He raised his arms for a moment, before leaning back to the wall in a tired manner. "Sometimes...a little good change can cause the biggest ripples."

Tsuna frowned at his words.

That sounded...rather pessimistic. He expected something like "Good will prevail" or something like that.

Then again, he appreciated Obsidian's...honesty on the topic. It felt real and Tsuna needed real advice on this situation.

"Do...you want t-to be a boss?"

Chrome's question surprised him slightly, as well as her stuttering.

Was she starting to get sick of his presence? Tsuna sweatdropped. He hoped not, but he wouldn't fault her.

Strangers made him feel nervous as well.

Anyway, the question.

Did he want to be?

The old him, before meeting Reborn, would have responded with a definite no.

But now...

"I don't know," Tsuna muttered and closed his eyes as he let out a sigh. "All the time, all I knew about the mafia was the usual stuff from TV. Suits, threatening others for money and all that, smoking cigars as they laugh about their crimes..."

The boy shook his head and smiled softly, opening his eyes at the same time.

"But then...I see actual mafiosi. Reborn. Dino. Basil. And even the Varia..." He straightened up his back and looked at the two illusionists. "Some of them are real people. Sure, they sometimes fall into the stereotype...But they are just like us. They fear, they laugh…"

"You sure about Reborn?"

Even though it sounded like a joke and Tsuna laughed for a moment there, he nodded, receiving some surprise from Obsidian, while Chrome stayed neutral. Though she did start to scratch her left arm a little in discomfort.

"Hm. He hides it...but sometimes...I just-just get that feeling, you know? I'm not sure if it's my intuition or not…But even he is human." Tsuna's smile fell as he clenched and unclenched his fists. Gathering his thoughts again, he stared at his palms. "It's just...power can corrupt."

A shaky breath escaped him, as he thought about what to say next.

He wasn't a saint.

Even when he was No-Good-Tsuna, there was the occasional dark thought about what he would do if he wasn't no good anymore.

And that was only on a school level. Gaining the power of the mafia?

It wouldn't just stop at simple resentment, Tsuna was sure of that.

With that in mind, he tore his eyes of his hands and stared at Obsidian, who focused on the ground in front of him, biting his lip slightly.

"I mean...what kind of stuff did all these people do? What decisions did they had to make? What...could have changed them? Not everyone would turn out like the Varia, I know that, but..." Struggling with his words, he grit his teeth, as if he did a straining exercise, and gestured wildly with his hands, before letting out a sigh. "I'm talking too much...What I'm trying to say is..." Folding his hands, Tsuna stared at them with exhausted eyes. "I'm afraid if I am that special like everyone wants me to. And if I start to let it go to my head, if I am special."

"Good that you don't have power now, huh?"

Yet another time, the boy looked up to see the man cross his arms with approval.

Maybe he should stop staring at the ground.

"I mean...Right now, you are a gentle person. Charismatic. Idealistic. By all means, a little naive. And wimpy. And..." The adult trailed off when the sky guardian narrowed his eyes and pouted, while Chrome's expression became ever so slightly flat and Obsidian cleared his throat awkwardly. "Not that it's bad. It's the opposite. You inspire others. Wanting them to be better, to be brighter than the usual mafia world." He pointed at Tsuna with a small smile. "You aren't perfect. Nobody expects you to be. And there is no guarantee that you won't fall into the darkness. But...in case you ever lose your path...Know that others are always behind you, following you on that path. They will guide you back. Remind the future you of the you of now."

Processing the words in his head, the student leaned back on his chair and stared at the ceiling.

To be honest, some stuff went over his head. Path, darkness…

Yet for some reason the words resonated in him. Encouraged him.

Then the boy noticed something else.

His chest felt rather light all of a sudden.

When he thought about, images from his friends and close ones appeared in his head.

He wasn't alone. He didn't need to be a normal mafia boss.

Tsuna's eyes widened.

Because that was what Reborn wanted. An irregular mafia boss. Someone who would regain the Vongola's former glory.

Reborn called them a mafia family already and Tsuna dismissed it back then, but now with the new opinion from Obsidian.

But what if Reborn meant it? What if Reborn saw the old Vongola in their friendship and interactions?

Tsuna smiled slightly.

It wouldn't be easy, but...maybe the mafia stuff wouldn't be so bad?

But it wasn't something he could simply decide now. But the new perspective from Obsidian made him consider that thought.

Still, there was one thing that bothered him. Or rather amused him, as his smile grew a little wider.

"I just noticed...you aren't hanging over your sentences again."

"Had...some help."

For some reason, Obsidian's smile was a bit more strained and Chrome gave him a worried look.

Tsuna didn't press it, trying to not look to obvious with his interest. If it was a sore topic, he didn't want to press.

He wouldn't have been able anyway, because in that moment the door opened.

His breath hitched.

Kyoko entered the room cheerfully, ignoring him entirely, quickly followed by Hana.

Then Tsuna felt like his heart got stabbed when he saw his crush hug Obsidian.

Rather fierce, judging from his face color fading into white. Chrome gave him a worried look as she patted Kyoko on the shoulder.

Since these barely had any power though, Hana let out a groan and pulled her best friend away from him.

Tsuna felt rather happy about the lack of body contact. When he realized that, he took some deep breaths.

No jealousy fits, the man helped him out and they were probably friends anyway.

It only helped a little bit.

"I felt like we did this before. Did we do this before?" Obsidian said with a pained expression as he rubbed his throat and looked into the round.

Hana in response let out a small huff and crossed her arms.

"Yes, we did. Seriously, I thought you promised that you wouldn't almost die again."

"I remember that I said I would try," the adult snarked back, but gulped when Kyoko put her hands on her hips.

"Don't think that leaves you off the hook!" She exclaimed, making her cute anger even more apparent. "You are so reckless! And you used so many curse words!"

"To be fair, I was juiced up on dying will flames."

Hana let out a small snort at Obsidian's words as he raised his hands in weak surrender.

"Yeah, that super saiyan flame mode or whatever it was called."

Wait what?

When did that happen?

Sadly for Tsuna, he didn't receive any more explanations when Kyoko clasped her hands together in delight.

"I'm just glad you are okay! The two of you!"

The purple haired girl blushed slightly while the adult scratched his cheek with the same flushed face.

Meanwhile, Tsuna observed the scenario like an outsider.

As always.

His shoulders slumped slightly.

The small motion, for some reason, gathered Obsidian's attention as he tried to look past the girls.

Who in turn followed his gaze and saw Tsuna.

Awkward silence filled the air as they stared at each other.

"Uhm...hi?"

The sky guardian weakly raised his hand in a form of greeting.

His flushed face grew redder when Kyoko blinked at him, while Hana and Obsidian facepalmed. Even Chrome, with a blank face, looked like she was judging him.

What did he do wrong this time?!

A while later, with the air growing heavier by the second, the girl of his dreams finally processed that Tsuna was in fact there and her eyes widened.

"Tsuna! I didn't know you were here!" She let out a nervous, adorable giggle and folded her hands behind her. "I thought I would meet you at the party."

"Y-yeah...J-just wanted to talk to them...a-a little."

Scratching his hair, he smiled nervously.

"Hm. That's nice."

After Kyoko nodded with an easygoing smile, the silence came back like a vicious wind.

The fact that three other people had to witness that pathetic exchange made Tsuna wish Xanxus would have killed him. Just a little bit at least.

Thankfully, Obsidian cleared his throat and gave Tsuna a pointed look.

"Can you...leave us alone for a while? I need to talk to them in private."

He gestured to himself and then to the girls, who turned to him in confusion.

Any other day the sky guardian would have been questioning what he meant.

Today however, Tsuna grabbed onto the lifeline like a man who was drowning.

Abruptly standing up, he stood stiff like a soldier and nodded fiercely.

"Of-of course!"

Without waiting for a reaction, he turned around and swiftly opened the door.

Just before he could walk out however, his crush stopped him.

"Tsuna!" Turning around after the shout, he saw Kyoko play with her hair for a few moments before smiling brightly at him. "Uhm...see you at the party!"

Tsuna blinked for a moment.

The party. He almost forgot about it.

Quickly, he nodded with a strained smile.

"S-sure!"

With that done, he walked out, enjoying blissful silence as he took calming breaths.

Still, Tsuna smiled.

Despite the social disaster at the end, it went rather well. He got his talk and was satisfied, if not completely.

And Kyoko was looking forward to be at the party with him!

He couldn't wait to be at a party, where everyone would be busy among themselves hopefully while he would try to talk to her.

The boy would need to practice beforehand however.

With that in mind, Tsuna quickly walked down the hallway, trying to get the blush from his way just because he interacted with his crush.

Speaking of Kyoko though...

Looking back, something confused him.

Why was she blushing as well when they talked with each other?

As he wondered about that, Tsuna did not notice the small figure grinning in the shadows.

 

[ObsidianNoir]

Chapter 8.2

The moment Tsuna left the room, the awkwardness managed to leave with him. Silence still reigned, but at least it wasn't trying to choke me to death.

While nobody said anything yet, I delved into my mind. Probably a bad habit, but hey.

Unlike my last time in this hospital, I didn't completely feel like shit. At least mentally.

Mostly because the reasons I felt awful the last time weren't there this time.

Chrome was alright, I contributed more than last time and found out some stuff about myself.

On the other hand, my body felt like it went through the meat grinder again and I missed other stuff, again.

But I guess it's natural to have a half dead body when one went into Dying Will Mode. However I did that.

How could I enter Dying Will Mode without any pills or bullets? Was it a one time thing?

I shook my head slightly.

Experimenting later, grumbling about it on the sick bay wouldn't help.

What I could think about was the shounen hero of this universe.

Tsuna's heart to heart was rather surprising, I must say.

And I was surprised at my ability to not show my pain on my face. At least not obvious enough, considering Tsuna didn't show any sign of reacting. Either that or he was too focused in showing his development to me.

Honestly, I didn't expect to have that much influence on him. Maybe it's because of the different perspective I could offer?

Whatever the reason, I had to give Tsuna one thing.

The boy had a talent for speeches.

Or it was his protagonist power that made his heartfelt confession have such an impact on me.

Before I could ponder more about the recent events, the girls finally decided it was time to say something, since they shared some questioning looks with each other, as if they were trying to communicate on how to proceed.

Surprisingly it was Chrome who broke the silence first.

"How long did you rehearse that speech back then?"

She stared at me with a slightly narrowed eye and I chuckled slightly at her suspicion filled gaze.

"Ever since our last talk, in two hours intervals of training and resting, spiced with some improvisation," I replied with a shrug and a smirk. She rolled her eye in response, but smiled nonetheless.

I didn't even a lie.

Because like hell I would accept the main character to be indecisive as he was in canon.

Had a bigger effect than I thought. Maybe I was the one with a talent for speeches, thanks to mental manipulation.

Anyway, the other two girls shared a confused glance and Hana crossed her arms.

"What speech?"

"Motivational one to Tsuna," I said as I waved my hand dismissively. The sun girl hummed in thought. Her best friend on the other hand had a more expressive reaction.

Clapping her hands, she smiled brightly with closed eyes.

"Oh, that's nice of you!"

Used to the ironic ball of sunshine in front of me, I didn't even flinch at her happiness.

Instead, I smirked.

Why you ask?

I was very tempted to tease her about Tsuna.

On the other hand I was too tired to do that. So I left it at the smirk and let Kyoko interpret it herself.

The latter either recognized what it meant or decided to ignore it, because she stared at me for just a moment before crossing her arms behind her back.

"Anyway! How are you doing?"

I winced and leaned back in my bed, the pain getting past my poker face.

"Like crap. This time, only physically." Letting out a snort, I closed my eyes to relax a little bit. "Heard it was quite the action when I was out? Tsuna got me up to date."

They didn't recap much, thankfully, but they did fill in some holes that the sky guardian didn't know of, like the other fights.

I didn't focus a lot on what they said and rather paid attention to how they looked like when they said something.

Awe. Happiness. But also some solemn emotion and pity to some extent were there too.

The small hint of fear was still there, but it was a lot more subdued than last time.

Naturally these emotions were weighted differently from each person, but generally they had the same feelings regarding certain topics.

Overall, pretty much what I expected from the two of them.

With that little analysis done, I listened back into what they had to say.

I wished I didn't had such a bad timing when I heard Kyoko speak with a small blush and smile.

"Tsuna was strong. I mean, I saw a little when he saved you but...His determination...his resilience..."

She let out a sigh and held her left cheek with closed eyes.

My eyebrow twitched.

Dear lord, it sounded like she was daydreaming about him.

…

Wait, she was daydreaming about him!

What kind of change did I bring here?!

Nothing against the ship, but so fast?!

"Yeah, nothing like the usual No-Good-Tsuna I know."

Just as I began to get a mental breakdown from the sheer difference in attitude of Kyoko, the sun user in the room let out a snort and shoved some hair from her face.

Praise Hana for interrupting my thoughts!

I took a breath I didn't know I was holding while Kyoko turned to her best friend with a pout. Chrome gave me a concerned look, but I weakly smiled back and waved it off, making her back off.

She was still worried though.

Anywho, Kyoko's objection.

"Hana!"

It was as loud as I expected.

Luckily this hospital was always dead when I was in here.

…

By all means, that should have worried me more than it did.

Meh. Mafia anime logic or something.

Getting off that tangent, I observed the very uncaring shrug Hana did to the popular school girl.

"What? He is no good."

As she opened her mouth, I decided to jump in by raising my hand.

"She has a point. Badass Tsuna is rather rare," I said in a calm tone.

I tried not to shrink down when the happy girl was not so happy with me.

But I could not prevent a smirk appearing on my face when she opened her mouth, just to get interrupted again.

"Looks like it."

Kyoko gave Chrome the stink eye.

Chrome blankly stared back.

A while later, Kyoko sighed and stared to the ground.

Holy shit, shy girl won staring contest.

As if reading my mind, said shy girl pouted slightly and poked me in the side.

Soft as it was, I hissed in pain. But I guess I deserved that, considering my smirk probably grew in size.

"You guys are mean..." She muttered, then slapped her cheeks lightly and brightened up in an instance as she put her hands on her hips. "Anyway, long story short, it was cool and Tsuna was cool." She paused and pointed at me with a nervous chuckle. "Well, you too. Everyone was."

I nodded passively, thinking about her words.

Was it cool?

It probably was, once you get past the "almost dying and suffering part."

But being part of that battle? After, cool. In the middle, not so cool.

Shouldn't say that out loud though, since it might put a damper on overall morale here.

I had to give them a mindfuck already, so no need to depress them on top of that.

Taking a deep breath, I scratched my head as I bit my lip. The two school girls raised their eyebrows at that.

"I...wasn't exactly honest about the reasons why I couldn't be Tsuna's mist guardian," I said slowly, unsure how to do this.

Chrome's eye widened slightly, realizing what I was going to tell the other two girls. The two of them blinked for a moment and shrugged at each other.

They probably suspected something like that and they didn't judge me for it.

Ah, friendship. Felt nice.

"Alright. All ears," Hana spoke for the two of them and crossed her arms. After I turned to Kyoko, who nodded with a smile, I tapped my chin for a moment.

I could try to be more eloquent this time. I think I had the mental capabilities to do so.

On the other hand, blunt was way easier. Didn't have to think too much about it.

...

Fuck it, blunt it was.

"Long story short, Multiverse theory is real," I said in a blank tone, not bothering to change my lazy position in my bed.

Kyoko tilted her head in confusion and turned to her best friend with an unsure smile.

"Hana, what does that mean?"

Said friend rubbed her eyebrows with her index finger and thumb as she let out a long, suffering groan. Then she peeked through the gap in said fingers with a very a flat stare.

"Long story long please."

And a long story it was.

I told her everything about me and what I was going to do in the future. From my death, to my multidimensional shenanigans, I left nothing out.

By the end of it, my throat was dry as hell. Thankfully, Chrome gave me a cup of water from somewhere and after downing it, I licked my lips and nodded casually.

"And...that's basically it."

The scene in front of me felt familiar. Probably because it happened once before.

Confused Kyoko, trying to process the information, not interested Chrome and disbelieving Hana.

"You're from another universe. Like a stupid manga story. Again," the brutish girl asked blankly and I took a sip from my water.

"Yup."

"And you have to travel across the multiverse because reasons."

Another sip.

"Yahaa."

"And it's out of your control because literal higher powers are making you, slash, forcing you?"

One final sip.

"Yorp."

Hana stopped and gave me a dirty look.

"Wait, I feel like we did this before."

I shrugged in response, after putting the glass down.

"World breaking information, you asking for clarifications and me giving short confirmations...Yup, did that."

It took a lot out of me not to break out into a smile after this little trolling session. But I think I did a good job.

If I ignored the fact that Hana touched her nose bridge in frustration, Kyoko gave me an uncertain smile and Chrome's eye narrowed so ever slightly.

"Well...guess that's a thing now," the tall school girl said weakly and let out a sigh. Chrome and I nodded at her comment.

Ryohei's sister on the other hand showed more of a reaction, as she gave the two illusionists in the room a worried look.

"We can still contact each other, right? When you go across...the thingies."

She made a small handmotion when she said thingies and I shared a glance with the eye patched girl, before shrugging helplessly in a somber manner.

"I don't know. I don't know how the two of us go around in the first place. My...well, boss didn't tell me anything."

With my explanation done, everyone lowered their heads almost on command. Probably processing and realizing the information.

I doubted that communications would be that easy. Didn't know how the multiverse worked, but whatever way Checker Face had, I didn't count on maintaining any relations with other universes.

Maybe I was pessimistic with this. I just ask the guy himself when the time comes.

With that thought done, Kyoko looked up first and crossed her arms.

"Are you afraid? I mean, about this whole thing."

At her worry filled question, I bit my lip, while Chrome grabbed her right arm.

This room had way too many conversations about fear. But I guess one couldn't avoid it.

Was I afraid?

As I thought about it, Chrome already found her answer and meekly nodded at the other two girls.

"I am. Honestly...I-I'm not sure if I am up to it..." She took a deep breath and smiled at me with a small blush. "But I have to go with Sid."

I felt my face heat up.

How can a girl like her be so pure sometimes?! Or was this the anime effect?

"Nicknames already?" As Chrome and I blushed even more when the two girls chuckled slightly, Hana became a bit more compassionate. "The organ thing, right?"
The meek girl let out a quiet hum of confirmation.

"But even without that...I would still go with him."

The small smile and the sentence made me frown, even when the girls shared that smile.

That was quite the absolute thing to say. So she would come with me even if she wasn't needing me as her life support?

Then it hit me.

Mukuro was dead. Even if she had new organs, it wouldn't bring him back.

Right now, nothing was holding her here. Not by much at least, discounting Kyoko and Hana.

Chrome needed purpose. And a journey throughout the multiverse would be an eye opening experience.

It would make sense.

Chrome did breakdown when her master and savior wasn't around until late in the manga.

It was heartbreaking to read, sometimes. But with some friends early on, I guess we mitigated that problem. Still, she was lost without Mukuro and would follow me for two reasons now.

The organs and finding her new meaning of life.

By all means, a girl her age shouldn't think about such things.

...

Now I made myself sad.

Aaand they were staring at me.

Right. Fear question and I needed to answer.

I cleared my throat and stared at my blanket.

"I'm also scared. Hell, anyone would be in my position. I don't even know where we will go. We are at fate's whims basically." Letting out a sigh, I leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. "What I know for sure...it will be one hell of a trip."

A snort escaped me, making the others give me a confused look.

I couldn't help but smile slightly.

I didn't only feel fear.

Fear and excitement. How paradox.

Maybe Chrome felt the same, but I didn't know.

Anywho, Kyoko clapped her hands together and shook her hands, before putting on her bright smile.

"I'm sure you will do fine. The two of you."

Hana put her hand on Kyoko's shoulder, grinning as well.

"Yeah, you're our teachers. If you kick the bucket, what would that mean for us?"

The eyepatched girl and I smiled at the encouragement and I felt more at peace already.

"Thank you," Chrome said quietly and bowed.

I nodded along, then took a look at the time.

Frowning, I pointed at them and at the clock.

"Well, don't you have a party to go to?"

The two students turned around, then looked at each other with wide eyes.

"Oh right! We're late!"

"I swear if they took all the good sushi already…!"

The two of them hurried over to the door in small panic, but didn't leave before waving at us with smiles.

"See you tomorrow!"

With Kyoko's goodbye said, only Chrome and I remained in the room.

I turned to the only girl and raised an eyebrow.

"You don't wanna go?"

In response, she shook her head.

"Hm. I want to stay."

"Social quota filled?" I asked slightly amused.

"Yup." Chrome smiled for a moment, before tilting her head innocently. "You look tired."

Like a trigger went off, I let out a yawn.

She giggled quietly, while I scratched my head in small embarrassment.

"Guess I should rest a little," I said quietly and made myself comfortable in my bed.

With that done, I glanced one last time at Chrome, who nodded with a mouth twitch, before I closed my eyes.

Sleep slowly began to take me.

My last sleep on this universe for now.

 

[ObsidianNoir]

Chapter 8.3

I wondered if this was what people moving away from their old home felt.

A sense of impatience and melancholy, but also some nervousness as they stood in front of the street, waiting for a certain thing to pick them up.

At least I felt those emotions as I tapped the ground with my right foot, waiting next to the three girls that were my only friends so far, in front of Kawahira's realtor home.

It surprised me a little. I could have sworn it was a ramen shop. Maybe I had the details wrong.

Anywho, Kyoko and Hana wanted to say goodbye personally to Chrome and I, which touched the two of us.

Honestly, I felt some tears form in my eyes, but I managed to control myself. Chrome didn't even show any tears in the first place, but showed her happiness nonetheless with a smile that should usually belong to a teenager her age.

Ken and Chikusa weren't here, but they weren't that close to either of us in the first place. Hell, they had Chrome in their group because of her connection with Mukuro. With that gone, not a lot of heartfelt emotions were exchanged when we left Kokuyo High.

In this morning, the streets were empty and our group didn't do much besides idle chatting to pass the time.

Though one thing that was worth mentioning was the small stop I made with Chrome before meeting up with the school girls in front of Kawahira's house.

Shamal's clinic he set up in Namimori. The man was every bit of a pervert as I remembered and I had to make sure to always stand between the doctor and my friend, who obviously felt rather uncomfortable with the flirt.

I pitied Chrome and didn't want to take her with me, but she was my only ticket into the damn clinic in the first place.

Why I talked to him?

Because Haru needed a trainer. As a close friend to Kyoko, she would be dragged into the mafia world way deeper than in canon, courtesy to my actions.

Anyway, it took a bit of convincing, informing and some ominous warnings about the future to get Shamal to at least train Haru in fighting and dying will flames.

Only a bit, because this guy was very passionate about the female sex.

Speaking of flames...

She had a storm flame. Considering her temper sometimes, not a big surprise.

Now that I thought about it, I didn't interact with her at all.

…

Meh. Not going to lose sleep over this. My actions to get her some training should create enough butterflies and I didn't like her that much anyway in the manga.

Then again, I didn't like Hana that much either.

I'll just chalk it up to convenience.

...Let's hope this will be enough to let Haru's future self leave some hints behind.

Anyway, that was the only thing that was worth mentioning from the moment I woke up and to this moment. Well, there were many apologies from me to Chrome and I needed to bribe her with chocolate to make her stop giving me a judging look.

I didn't even know it was her favorite food, but hey, the more you know, right?

Speaking of the more you know, the girl tended to happily nibble on chocolate like a hamster and forget all past misgivings she might have had.

It was as adorable as it sounded.

Well, not as happy as most people, but she was more upbeat after getting her sweets. And getting the hell out of that clinic, but you get the point.

Where was I?

Right, waiting for Kawahira.

I could see how the other girls shared my impatience, as Hana and I let out a groan of annoyance at the same time, while Chrome peeked through the windows of the Japanese door thingie and Kyoko idly looked at her watch.

Of course, the moment each of us expressed our slight irritation of being kept waiting, it happened.

"Greetings. I believe you are ready?"

Kawahira in disguise, sounding every bit the gentleman he looked like and acting every bit the non gentleman he actually was, spawned right in front of me.

Again.

Naturally, the four of us let out screams as we automatically jumped together and created some distance between us.

My voice was not girly, no matter what Chrome would say on future conversations.

Anyway, when the screaming died out, I grasped my chest and let out heavy breaths as all of us tried to calm down.

Funnily enough, I was the one at the front, with the three girls using me as a meat shield.

I could feel the love.

Anyway…about the calming down…

It did not work for me.

"Stop doing that!" I snarled and pointed my finger at him, while I was bent over a little and supported myself on my legs.

In response, the masked man chuckled, hands firmly on his cane.

"You could have appeared any time. I was just wondering how long it would take for you to lose your patience." He rubbed his chin. "Half an hour. Impressive."

"Hope you got your kicks..." I muttered and glared at him at the same time as the other girls did in varying degrees. Then, I huffed and put my hands on my hips. "So. Multiverse. How does this work?"

Without saying anything. Checker Face pointed towards the sky.

Automatically, we all looked up.

Time froze for us at the sight.

All of us blinked. Then we slowly turned to Kawahira, staring at him in a blank manner.

Despite the mask, I could feel the smugness oozing out of him.

I opened my mouth. Then closed it again. After nodding a few times, I pointed up.

"That's an UFO," I said dumbly and the girls nodded as well.

It was...rather plain.

A silver, air saucer. That was its appearance in a nutshell.

An UFO you could take straight out of an 80s budget movie.

Kawahira was the only one unfazed by the oldest space ship in human history and simply nodded.

"It will carry you to different worlds and universes."

"It's a fucking UFO," I repeated, my voice as blank as everyone's faces.

In response, the planet's ancestor let out a deep sigh.

"Yes, I am not that old to not know what that is." A shrug followed as he gestured to the sky again. "Also, it's bigger in the inside."

I blinked, as did the other girls.

Kawahira won't be giving any explanations, I assumed.

...

You know what, I'll just accept it and move on.

I let out a sigh and narrowed my eyes as I crossed my arms.

"Like a TARDIS?" I raised an eyebrow at the UFO. "Does it have a name?"

"No. You can give it one," Kawahira replied, sounding rather pleased with my surrender to his shenanigans.

I hummed in thought, scratching my chin.

"I think of one later."

It didn't look very cool or had any characteristics that would make it stand out, so finding a name might be difficult.

As I pondered about it, Hana jabbed me in my right side. Rubbing it in annoyance, I faced Hana's unamused expression with a frown.

"So we'll just accept that UFO out of nowhere?"

I rubbed my forehead when I heard her question and sighed.

"It will give us less of a headache if we do."

"Point."

Kyoko patted her best friend's back encouragingly when she conceded to my point, shoulder slumped in surrender. When the former looked up and opened her mouth, Kawahira raised his hand calmly, stopping any words from coming out.

"Before you ask...I'm afraid there will be no possible way for two way communications."

At least he sounded sorry about the fact. He better was, because Kyoko looked like she was told that her dog died, as she stared at the ground with great sadness.

The rest of us were sad to an extent as well, but we focused on patting the one who looked like she was at the verge of crying.

While we did this, I raised an eyebrow at Checker Face.

"Then how are you going to contact us?"

"Through a middle man. And no, he will not provide the service to any other person than me."

His explanation made me frown.

So he didn't make the spaceship.

Either Kawahira had a contact from another universe or there were multiverse powers in Rebornverse I wasn't aware of.

Whatever the case was, I knew one thing for sure.

"Rude."

Hana and Kyoko let out a small snort at my dry comment, while Chrome cracked a smile. Hell, I felt amusement from Kawahira himself, but I didn't care a lot about that.

There had to be a reason for prohibiting communication with others.

As if reading my mind, the ancestor raised his right hand in a placating manner.

"Please understand that the creator of this ship does not want to cause too much chaos by letting universes act with each other, simple communication included. He has...personal reasons to keep your journeys simple. Well, simple to an extent."

"Bad experience?" I asked, wondering a little what reasons there could be.

Kawahira nodded in response.

"From what I could gather...indeed. Be assured, you can act as you see out there."

"Even revealing OOC information?" I asked in a skeptical tone, crossing my arms. My boss waved his hand dismissively.

"Prophets do that all the time, so yes."

Well, that was one way to look at it. I shrugged. Would make things easier for me. My future self will probably hate me for those words, but I wasn't my future self yet.

Anyway, Kawahira didn't say anything more, so we took that as a cue to turn to each other and say goodbye.

Goodbye, as in one big group hug, that didn't make me uncomfortable at all.

Hurray for friendship. Though it was sad that my friends were middle school students.

Eh, I took what I could get.

"We'll miss you," Kyoko muttered, hug becoming slightly stronger.

"As short as it was?" I asked in small amusement and she nodded with closed eyes.

"Even then."

We didn't cry, so that was a plus.

But all of us felt sorrow to varying degrees, that's for sure.

Hugs needed to stop sometime, so we let go of each other after what felt like a couple of minutes and the two students went on their way, waving to us as long as they could see us.

Chrome and I did the same, smiling without crying like little babies.

Though I did pet the girl's head while waving. If she had anything against that, she didn't show it.

Soon enough, they vanished around a corner, probably to get ready for school.

And with that, only three were left.

Without missing a beat, Kawahira cleared his throat, making the two of us turn to him.

"Before I forget..." He threw something at Chrome, who barely caught it and stared at the silver ring with a purple gem in it. "High quality mist ring. Not a Vongola Ring, but it can take a lot." Explanation done, he threw something at me as well, only this time it was a bigger object. "And for you."

Catching it, I stared at it with a wide grin. Another ring would be a good upgrade.

Then I realized what it was and my mouth corners crashed down faster than a meteor. Chrome noticed my reaction and leaned towards me to get a better look at it.

She as well stared at the pipe. Only with a blank look, instead of an unamused one.

It was a wooden pipe, with a vial full with white dust in my left hand.

…

You gotta be kidding me.

I looked up, slowly like a robot, face filled with disbelief. Chrome wisely took a step back.

Then I exploded.

"Dude, I know that illusionists are supposed to be constantly high, but this is taking it literally!" I yelled at him, jabbing the pipe at him with the part where the ash was supposed to go to.

Kawahira did not give a single fuck and gestured towards the smoking device as if I didn't say anything.

"It will put you in the Dying Will mode. You can get more if you ask. With payment."

I raised an eyebrow, not moving from my current position.

"What, do you know all exchange rates in the multiverse?"

"I know enough," he replied with cheek and I growled.

Friggin sma-

Wait, he distracted me. He didn't explain why a pipe.

And I had the feeling he wouldn't explain anything even if I asked, so I let it go, as irritating as it was.

Shoving the new items into my hoodie pockets, I took a deep breath. Gotta calm down.

There was one question I needed to ask him.

Just when the man wanted to do his thing with the UFO, I raised my hand with a deep frown. Noticing my serious expression, his right hand froze in mid motion, as he was about to snap his fingers.

"Kawahira. Did you or did you not fuck with my mind?" I calmly asked him, crossing my arms.

Kawahira slowly lowered his hand and stared at me. Then he tilted his head.

"What brought this on?"

He didn't deny it. He sounded honestly intrigued.

Letting out a sigh, I scratched my hair.

"The fact that I somehow managed to get the balls to be more confrontational and that I arguably became more confident. Hell, I don't stumble over my words anymore...Chrome can confirm, so say yes or no." I threw my thumb at my friend, who nodded in response, despite the worry written on her face.

"Observant, I see." Chuckling for a moment, he removed his mask to reveal his real face and vanished the Checker Face persona, leaving the idle looking man in front of me. Smiling at me, though with a hint of an apologize in it, he nodded. "Indeed, I did some minor modifications. Just to increase the performance. Does that bother you?"

"You kidding? It's the best thing you could have done for me," I replied with a snort and shook my head with closed eyes. When I didn't hear a reply, I opened them just to see Chrome and Kawahira stare at me with slightly wide eyes. "What?"

"Usually people are not that happy about such things," the Japanese man replied after a small pause and sharing a glance with Chrome.

Huh. Was it that weird?

I blinked for a moment, before taking a deep breath, trying to find the words. When I found them, I stared at the ground, crossing my arms.

"Do you know how it feels like not having the guts to speak out your own mind? To let everyone trample over you because you usually think that staying quiet can avoid conflicts?" I look up and nodded at him with a serious expression. "Speaking out what I think feels awesome and I thank you for that."

Kawahira adjusted his glasses after a pause and then bowed slightly.

"Hm. Unexpected. But I accept the gratitude."

Before I could react to it, I felt a tug at my left sleeve. Taking a look, I saw Chrome close to my body, biting her lip.

"Did...you really feel that way?" She asked, her voice barely a whisper and stared at me with an eye filled with sadness.

I wet my lips in discomfort. I did not want to go there again, so I decided to brush it off.

"Sometimes. It wasn't that bad," I shrugged, but flinched when she lowered her head and pinched my arms through the sleeves.

"Liar," she muttered and I couldn't help but smile and pet her head again. She was so adorable, but it was touching me that she cared enough for my past.

"Illusionist. Also, you are one to talk," I said with a quiet chuckle and Chrome cracked a smile after putting some distance between us again.

So the two of us shared some dark humor. Good to know.

The sound of someone clearing his throat got our attention, Kawahira raised his right hand.

"Well, if we are done here, let me show you your new home."

With a finger snap, I saw the world shift around us and moments later, we found ourselves in a big round and white room, with the entrance open behind us. Light illuminated the room from the ceiling, though I couldn't spot any lamps or light bulbs.

Anyway, one could fit in a five to five car field in this. Regular sized of course. On the other end of the room, so to say, was a big computer screen and some sort of high tech interface, that three people could interact with at the same time.

Long story short, a shit ton of buttons.

To the right, I saw a door with the word "bathroom" above it. I assumed the bathroom was bigger as well.

Anywho, the only other things noticeable was a regular sized kitchen in the middle, together with a few couches directed towards the computer screen and a very big, curved bed that almost took over the entire left side of the UFO interior.

I had the feeling it was meant for a bigger party.

Oh, and before I forget…

There was not a single wall.

I turned to Kawahira behind me and raised an eyebrow, trying to suppress the terror at the open entrance and the height we were currently in.

Reading my question on my face, he chuckled and gestured around the room.

"You can put up walls with the interface. If it's simple enough, you can just use voice input, of course. You can even increase the size if needed."

I grinned and turned back to the wide, big room with my hands on my hips.

"Great. Make up wall between bed and literally everything else please. Don't forget a door!" The moment I left out the loud command, blue lasers shot out of the ceiling and began to create a laser grid of a round wall around the bed, door included, in mere seconds, before it started to materialize it moments later with the same material the rest of the UFO was made of.

Chrome and I blinked.

I wasn't even that specific with my words.

Suck it, Siri.

As glee filled my face and Chrome shared my smile, we both turn to Kawahira and bow to him.

"Thanks. For everything," I said and the girl nodded in agreement.

The planet's ancestor smiled back in response and waved his hand.

"Good luck on your journey. If you need anything else, you can use the console to edit stuff in. For a fee that is."

With those words, the man left the spaceship. Left, as in jumped out casually. Moments later, the entrance closed and I assumed we already flew off to wherever we were going. I didn't even feel the take off and since there weren't any windows, I couldn't see where we were anywhere.

Anywho, now I was alone with Chrome.

Silence reigned and I scratched my head with an awkward smile.

"Welp...On the adventures ahead I suppose."

Chrome tilted her head in response.

"Do you know how long it will take?"

…Son of a whore.

"Maybe we can decorate the place," the girl suggested with a nervous mouth twitch at my pained expression and I nodded.

Not like we had much else to do anyway.

Prologue: Rebirth - End​

 

[ObsidianNoir]

Intermission Series: Daily Chaos​

Intermission 1.1

I was not a tech expert, but I could appreciate new devices and so on. Probably the reason I liked tech stores the most when strolling around in shopping malls. Not that I could understand all of it, but it was nice on the eyes or fingers, depending whether I touched stuff or not.

The high tech space computer was very pleasant to work with and Chrome seemed to share the opinion with me. It was easy to use and overall felt nice as the two of us experimented around with it. Considering that the girl was not very tech savvy herself, it spoke volumes of the efficient design.

Though that efficient design felt off itself.

It felt...alien. Like, it was tailor made for humans.

Too tailor made. Too efficient. Like an outsider observed human nature long enough to create the perfect tools for it, like a human for an animal in a sense. So it couldn't have been something very human to begin with. At least that was my hunch.

Anywho, there were a lot of functions for the Flying Mist (name pending), so many that it would take too much time to count them.

I focused on the ones that interested me personally. Three things actually.

First one, the observation function.

It was basically a video feed of our surroundings and had some sort of zoom option. No satellite pictures of the future world we landed on, only around the UFO. I didn't know the range because...well…

Everything looked the fucking same, so I had no reference.

Dimensional gap, void, darkness, interspace, you could call it by any name and you would be probably right.

Short describtion, it was dark.

The end.

No, seriously. It was pitch black. No rainbow colors, no mist formations, no stars. It was complete darkness.

Multiverse traveling was boring if you had nothing better to do.

Luckily, the creator of this ship knew it and made sure to have plenty of entertainment ready.

Like a multimedia platform.

No, seriously. I had access the what was pretty much the internet and all video consoles in existence.

Weirdly, it had almost no anime, manga or Japanese styled video games in it.

Therefore, I assumed this was going to be Japanese style only journey, judging from the information I was allowed to have.

Or it was trolling me, I had no idea.

Anywho, barely any Japanese products here, except for games like Tetris or Super Smash Brothers.

Funsies.

At least I could watch funny videos, some video games and more importantly music.

The third one was the most useful one I believe.

Teleportation.

Only problem, it was one sided, since it could only call residents from this UFO back onto itself.

So Kawahira did not port us up, though I was sure it could.

Still, it was handy to have, not having to worry about walking too far away from the spaceship.

However Chrome made the helpful comment that some sort of operator would be useful, for emergency teleportations.

Until then, it was pretty useless, the two of us realized. Or at least, out of our control, judging from the "automatic" setting it was on.

Whatever automatic meant, none of us had no idea.

Anywho, that was all that interested me and Chrome didn't find anything too useful for us as well, besides some weird analysis lab science magic thingie that neither of us could use.

With that done, the two of us focused on the task we originally planned.

Bringing some life into the interior.

Decorating the UFO and getting to know it was a good idea to kill time.

Because it killed our time like a serial killer with a hand fetish.

Not the decorating itself, but all the decision.

Size, color, equipment, etc.

We didn't want it too big, but also wanted it to have enough room to walk around.

Before we could decide that, we needed to check what we could put here.

And boy, was the selection big.

We didn't want to change the bathroom, kitchen, interface and bed, since they were already there, so we needed to build around it.

I like to say it went well, especially since nobody of us learned the arts of interior decoration. It was simple, but I think we did a pretty good job.

Nothing to flashy, but we decided to put down some fluffy, black carpets on the ground. Much better than whatever metal the silver was made of. Not everywhere, like in front of the interface computer thing because of computer chairs and the kitchen.

A wooden drawer for each of us located inside our bedroom for our clothes and some randomized, purple symbols so that the walls wouldn't be too boring.

Anyway, one of the more important stuff we created was for a training "room". Or rather, training area. Obvious reasons for that one, healthy body led to having a healthy life.

And I liked having a healthy life.

We weren't sport buffs though, so we threw in everything that we expected of a gym.

Weights, treadmills, the usual.

One little thing caught my eye however while browsing. Maybe because it was one of the things that stood out to me on the internet.

"Huh, Salmon Ladder from Arrow," I muttered at seeing the device. Chrome tilted her head in confusion as she sat on one of the computer chairs.

"Salmon Ladder? Arrow?"

I spun around on my own chair before coming to a stop when I faced her while pointing at my part of the screen.

"Reference for the latter. For the former, you basically do pull ups, but have to jump up with the staff into those free spaces."

The girl frowned slightly.

"Sounds exhausting."

"Probably is, but training is mandatory here. No offense," I said with a shrug, looking at her, then looking at myself.

Yeah, not the fittest.

Chrome agreed, as she nodded slightly, before turning back to her own screen. Moments later, she made a small 'ah' sound, just as I was to turn back to my browsing. I raised an eyebrow at her, who blinked a few times at the screen.

"Healing station," she read out quietly and my eyes widened slightly. "Only works for injuries from the last twenty four hours and cannot revive from death. Extent of injuries do not matter, unless life ending."

She turned to me with a neutral expression.

We both blinked at each other.

That sounded random as hell. Like a game actually.

And considering I did not see any game windows or level ups, I was not in a Gamer fic.

Anyway, I scratched my head and leaned back in my chair, letting out a sigh.

"Well, that's a bummer about the dying, but sounds useful considering the lack of actual healers on the team."

"Death isn't easy to cheat," she replied with a shrug and I chuckled dryly, fully knowing the irony.

"Don't we know it..." Chrome smiled awkwardly at my comment, coming to the same conclusion as I did. Then, I scratched my chin. "Why wasn't it here in the first place? Eh, whatever. Let's put this between training and bathroom."

Well, we didn't really separate the two with walls, but you get the gist of it.

With a press of a button, a human sized, egg pod materialized near the bathroom door. It looked like a high tech bed, considering the cushions inside, so no healing juice. Instead, I assumed healing waves or whatever.

Speaking of bathroom, we took a look into that before.

And it was as gigantic as I expected. Pretty much public, Japanese bath sized, with a couple solo showers for our convenience and some big bath tubs that could fit in ten people and still have some room.

How many people did Kawahira, or the creator of this ship, thought we would get to warrant this size?

Anyway, with that question added to the questions that shall never be answered, most likely, the two of us let out a big yawn when we finally finished. For now, at least.

"Okay, I think we should be done for now. How long did we do this?" I asked as I lazily spun around in my chair, while Chrome rubbed her eye, before glancing at her screen.

"Five hours."

"Huh. Explains how exhausted I am." I let out another yawn and the girl nodded absentmindedly, yawning her self. "Jesus, I need some sleep."

The two of us look at each other and we nodded at the same time, standing up and going into our bedroom.

Swiftly changing our clothes from the student uniform and jeans-hoodie combination respectively, keeping our privacy safe with the drawer doors, the two of us stood in front of each other, with the vague banana shaped bed in between us.

I wore a white and blue striped t shirt, with dark blue shorts with it.
Don't judge me, I like feeling the blanket on my skin. Especially smooth blankets.

And Jesus, was it smooth.

Though, as I glanced at my legs, maybe I should shave. Never did that in my life, but maybe I should.

Anywho, Chrome wore it a little more complex.

With a little, I mean she wore a full body, dark green pajama. With buttons.

I frowned slightly and waved off Chrome when she tilted her head in confusion.

Seriously, pajamas with buttons were so bizarre to me.

There was a bigger reason for my frown however, as I crossed my arms.

"How are we going to do this?" I asked and Chrome shrugged with her hands folded.

"Sleep on the other ends? It is a big bed,"she suggested and after contemplating it for a short while, I sighed and shrugged.

"Feels weird, but sure. Too tired to fix the beds and don't wanna sleep on the floor."

"Same."

With that enlightening conversation over, the two of us duck under the big blanket. It should be long enough that neither of us could steal it from the other.

…

There was definitely going to be a problem, but since I already was in the bed, I did not want to get up again.

I would deal with it tomorrow.

Anyway, with the two of us making ourselves comfortable, I glanced at Chrome with a small smile.

"Good night, Chrome."

The girl put her mini form of her trident on a night table, before turning to me, mouth twitching.
"Good night, Sid."

Gotta get used with that nickname.

With that in mind, I closed my eyes after clapping my hands four times for the lights to turn off.

…

God damn it, I can't sleep.

With that realization battering in my mind non stop, I had to accept the fact and I opened my eyes widely.

No matter how I shifted around in the bed a few times, sleep could not take me.

Considering I felt and heard similar motions from Chrome, she had the same problem.

Either that, or I annoyed her.

Hopefully the former.

Maybe it was the new surroundings or the fact that this place was so damn quiet.

I grumbled a little as I turned back on my right side, pondering how to kill time in order to sleep.

Luckily, my fellow illusionist decided to team up with me on this problem.

"Can you sleep?" She asked in a whisper, sounding wide awake.

I shifted to my left side, so that I would be facing her, if the darkness wouldn't be impeding my vision.

"Not really. New place, gotta get used to it," I said in a whisper, before pausing with a frown while Chrome hummed in agreement.

Why the heck did I whisper?

The two of us were the only people on the space ship.

I blamed the darkness and carried on in normal volume.

"Wanna talk until sleep takes us?" I suggested and I could feel the girl raise her eyebrow at me.

"About what?"

Good question. I clicked my tongue and let out a deep breath of thought.

"I don't know...any books you like?" I asked in an uncertain tone.

Luckily, I hit a good topic to kill time with.

Apparently she liked Harry Potter.

Thank god for universe parallels. We talked about it a lot and I have no idea for long.

I like to believe we both had our fun.

Her favorite book was the first one, solely for the background story of Harry and liked Hufflepuff and Neville Longbottom, while charms interested her the most.

I liked the fourth book the most for the tournament and all the special training Harry did to get past the problems. I could even overlook the drama of the trio, a little bit. Didn't had a character preference, besides the twins maybe and picking a house was harder than I thought.

Chrome found it funny when I had to stop myself every time before choosing, taking my time to reconsider, before frustration took me over.

Anyway, overall it was fun to get to know each other a little more as friends.

Not long enough after that, sleep managed to take us after we reached the fourth book as a topic.

 

[ObsidianNoir]

Intermission 1.2

Let me tell you that I hated to get used to other places to sleep in.

Hotels, guest beds, busses, no matter where, I hated it.

Not that I couldn't fall asleep, mind you, but it was the simple fact that my body felt like hell every time, as if the different sleeping location pinged off like a virus for my body. And I never knew where I was in the first few minutes, wondering why the fuck my room looked so different.

The downsides of falling asleep like a normal person, opposed to falling unconscious or sleeping in the hospital.

Anyway, long story short, I felt like a corpse when my eyes slowly opened.

Though for some reason, my right side felt more dead than the rest, including my chest.

Wiping my eyes, I yawned and raised my head slightly, while snapping my finger to turn the lights on.

What I saw, made me groan and let out a "daw" at the same time.

Somehow, she managed to snuggle up on me without waking me up.

Well, more like we managed to snuggle up to each other without waking each other up, in a sense.

We were in the middle of the bed.

Considering it could house ten people, with squeezing, that meant the two of us slept that uneasy to move the entire distance to the middle.

The singular blanket did not make it any better, since it was a big bundle, lying on the ground because of reasons.

Anyway, she snuggled up on me, using my right, numb as hell arm as a pillow.

Like a small teddie. Or a little, cute sister I never had, so that mitigated my pain a little bit.

Luckily for me, she stood up soon after the lights went on, sparing me from the agony.

Still, I had to safely guide her to the bathroom to get ourselves freshened up, because she was a morning muffle and was not aware of what she was doing. Not that I was one to talk, but hey.

Brushing teeth, throwing some bread into our mouths and changing our clothes would be our "morning" routine in the near future.

By the time we changed our clothes into a simple white t-shirt and some short pants, Chrome finally woke up for real and blinked at me when we left our bedroom once again.

She didn't look at me for a few minutes.

I think she was embarrassed, but I wasn't so sure. Maybe she didn't like the fact I had to babysit her body until she was mentally there.

Anyway, it took a good five minute run on the treadmill for her until she faced me.

Right as I was failing horrendously at simple pull ups.

She had a good laugh, lost her balance on the running machine and fell flat on her face.

I myself dropped on the ground in shock, slipping and hitting the back of my head on the ground.

The two of us were groveling around on the ground for a few minutes in complete agony.

Did I mention the two of us could be complete idiots sometimes?

Good news, none of us got injured too much and we even managed to laugh about it.

In pain, but laughing nonetheless.

Honestly, if I had any choice, I would not train because of the pain in the first place.

But I did not have a choice in this.

Training was mandatory. I wasn't naive enough to believe I could avoid conflict, so work outs were going to be a thing for the two of us.

Not that I was very diligent in training before my first death, but considering I did not want to die again, it was a good motivator. Chrome saw first hand, with me as the example, what would happen if we didn't train, so she didn't complain.

Anyway, it was good that we weren't hurt that much, because we were going to get hurt a lot more.

In that ten times ten square of a sparring arena.

So yeah, my earlier estimate about the cars was wrong.

The size of the spaceship was "enough".

Seriously, no matter how much we threw into the room, it never felt small. There was always enough space.

Space magic be praised.

Where was I? Right, sparring.

Of course we didn't just start to throw senseless attacks at each other without purpose, so I proposed one simple goal for our first session.

Viper didn't really attack me physically and that weakness of mine could be counteracted with my aura sensing. But against bigger targets, with way more flexibility and reach, I needed to see them with my eyes.

So, anti blinking training was a thing.

Which meant that Chrome had to smash my face in with a wooden staff. Repeatedly, until I got it.

I wasn't idle either and tried to hit her as well, with my fists. We both needed dodging and eye skills, so I needed to attack as well.

…

Okay, so we did throw senseless attacks at each other, but mostly at our faces.

The results were...rather okay actually.

Plus side, the two of us didn't flinch at any attacks after an hour or so.

Down side, we felt like hell. Exhausted and I think our faces began to swell slightly from all the hits in the first ten minutes.

Still, biting through the pain, we focused on our main arsenal: Illusions.

It was very likely we had to create them under pain anyway, so Chrome didn't have any objections, even with the blue eye I gave her.

I still felt guilty.

Anywho, we made some good progress on our mental training, both offensively and defensively.

I could somewhat create things like the flame pillars easier, while Chrome began to focus on real illusions by mimicking the clone trick I used in the ring battle.

If I didn't know any better, I would believe Chrome had the Path of Naraka as well, with how much substance her illusions had even without mist flames after just a few minutes of training.

Well, was to be expected. She was part of a protagonist team, originally, while I was…

A normal guy, basically.

Not that I felt jealous, it was a fact and I was happy for the girl.

I wasn't even "weaker" than her. It's just that her talent was way better than mine.

We were about even, in terms of skill. Though she had better skill at old fashioned illusions that fool the senses, while I had a better hand at stuff that helped us out directly.

Organ creation, pseudo human creation, pain reduction (handy I found that out early in our session) and even minor physical buffs.

Kinda like she was the debuffer and I was the buffer, in RPG terms.

Maybe that was were our specialties lied?

Eh, too soon to make a sure theory.

Suffice to say, I didn't have enough information to find out where our strengths lied, but it was a start at least.

One more fun thing I found out on pure accident.

Apparently, I could summon my hell ring back, as in, it spawned back on my hand when I focused on it like a Green Lantern ring or something.

The sky battle made a lot more sense because of that. The Varia wasn't that stupid after all.

Also, speaking of physical buffs…

The pipe. Or more specifically, Dying Will mode.

At the end of our session, I decided to test it out.

Well, I could use it. Often enough in rapid succession.

Apparently, the regret of dying in the first place, so to say, was enough to trigger it.

But…

Let's say that the pain came after a delay and piles up. And that illusions did not erase injuries and pain forever.

Which led to the natural conclusion of me being stuck in the Super Saiyan pod of healing, coughing like hell while soft green light scanned my entire body.

"Are you sure this was the best way?" Chrome asked after leaving the bathroom, drying up her hair as she gave me a concerned look.

I waved it off with a pained expression, mentally noting how she wore the same clothes from the training.

Automatic cleaning was handy.

"Well, can't have me coughing in-in mid battle. Also, mental training!" After yelling, I fell into another coughing fit, tears coming out of my eyes. "Oh god."

"How much did you have to pay for the vials?" The girl asked skeptically, though her face didn't change at all as she finished drying up her hair.

"I'm in debt. But it was for science!" I exclaimed and she rolled her eye in amusement.

I on the other hand had to cough again.

So yeah. That was fun. Somewhat. Not the coughing, but the training itself. I felt a sense of accomplishment.

Good job, Sid. Pat yourself.

Mentally that is, because that was one of the few things I could do in this thing.

It took like twenty minutes in that pod to heal all the damage and pain away.

If it took that long for these minor injuries, I did not want to know how long serious injuries took.

Plus side, my voice didn't become raspy from all the smoking, surprisingly enough.

Cancer free smoke, would you look at that.

Also, I didn't need to take a shower because the machine healed it away to. How handy.

Still preferred a bath, because the healing pod was boring.

I could barely move in the somewhat soft pod as it quietly made a "wrrrr" sound emitted by the green, misty light. All I had was listening to the music the computer was playing on random, the small window in front of me and my fellow illusionist's company.

Maybe I should reposition the pod in front of the computer. Videos would do a lot to kill my boredom.

Still, while I was healing up, Chrome did some small talk with me while she cooked, so it wasn't that boring.

…

Oh right. She could cook.

In the anime she couldn't cook, but I heard that in some novel she was a good cook.

Guess it took after the novel. Considering the people she had to live with, it was understandable.

One could last on low budget instant food only for so long. Someone had to get the skills to make something with basic stuff.

And basic it was, I mused when I left the healing pod and stretched myself, before sitting in front of Chrome on the dining table.

Rice, some pork roasted in honey and vegetables.

Simple, but I wasn't complaining, because it tasted good anyway. I complimented Chrome on it, but she waved it off with a small blush and offered to cook for us.

I didn't object, because my culinary abilities were not that good. I quickly choked the small guilt in me before it could grow.

Even when my father was a cook, I didn't learn any of that.

"Wonder when and where our next stop is..." I muttered as I leaned back in my chair after finishing up the food and putting the chopsticks down.

As Chrome did the same, she tilted her head.

"I think it can't take that long. Kawahira wouldn't do this to us. Probably."

I cracked a small smile at her uncertain tone and shrugged.

"Yeah...he should know we aren't trained astronauts. Some normal earth under our feet is necessary." I frowned slightly as I stared at the ceiling. "Hopefully it won't be anything too overpowered as a setting."

"What is...overpowered?" The girl asked with hesitation and I glanced at her.

Right, she wasn't a nerd like I was.

"For our standards, a lot," I replied as I leaned forward and scratched my hair. Her eye narrowed slightly and I assumed she didn't want to hear that. I awkwardly cleared my throat. "If we are lucky, we get something like Harvest Moon or something."

"What is Harvest Moon?" She asked, tilting her head.

I blinked.

Never expected to explain that one in my life.

While I stood up and gathered the dirty dishes I thought for a moment how to explain the game.

"Well, it's basically-"

All of a sudden, the computer screen lit up in a red light, blinking non stop, with the words "Attention" on it.

Chrome and I took a glance at each other, before turning back to the screen.

Almost on command, the computer voice spoke up the moment we looked back at it.

"Destination reached. Landing commences."

Then, the warning got replaced by a view of the planet we were flying at.

It looked a lot like Earth.

"It is Earth," Chrome helpfully supplied and I raised my thumb at her with my right hand after dumping the dishes into the sink.

Thank god that thing was automatic, because cleaning it myself was the last thing on my mind right now.

"Well, speak of the devil and he shall appear," I said with a nervous smirk as I crossed my arms.

"We didn't talk about the devil. Do you feel one?"

I sent Chrome a flat stare, making her stare back in confusion even more.

"I didn't mean it literally."

"Oh."