To the recent anonymous reviewer (if you decided to continue reading) : I'm very sorry that I portrayed G that way. I didn't intentionally want to write in a way that would make him hateful. Now that I look back on the previous chapters I see how it came across that way. For me, I thought that he wouldn't be the type to deal with strangers kindly, especially ones that appear in such a far-fetched manner, but I went overboard and didn't think it through. So I'm really sorry! I went back and edited many of the scenes where G interacts with them. At the same time, I have to thank you for pointing out this very big flaw.

To everyone: Hello again... It's been about three months right? I have more bad news but before then, enjoy this last chapter (and preview)!

Chapter Eleven

Giotto entered Ienari's room to wake his guest up. Ienari was already awakened by his mother several hours ago, but Tsunayoshi was still sleeping away. He had gotten used to it, but as always, he wondered how anyone could be such a heavy sleeper.

"Tsunayoshi-kun," Giotto said softly and shook the boy. He grumbled and turned his head away. "Tsunayoshi-kun," he said insistently.

"Five more minutes…"

"Tsunayoshi-kun, I'm afraid there is no time for five more minutes. Alaude will be coming home soon."

"Hnnn…"

Giotto shook him harder and even made him sit up. "Tsunayoshi-kun! You must wake up now!"

"No, I don't want to do homework…"

Homework? Giotto shook his head and finally shouted into Tsunayoshi's ear, "ALAUDE IS COMING."

Tsunayoshi did not reply with another half-awake groan. Instead, his eyes snapped opened.

"What!" he screeched.

Giotto winced and let go of the boy. "Tsunayoshi-kun, Alaude is coming home today. There are some things that I'd like to warn you about him before then."

"Hiie! L-Like what?"

"Like…how we have not told him about you yet. He still thinks that you just collapsed on the road due to some sort of fight instead of you coming from the future and everything else that we know of you…" Giotto trailed off when he saw that the boy's face was pale.

I wish I'd be back in the future before he finds out! Tsuna thought.

"JUUDAIME! I heard that Alaude is coming back today!" Gokudera came through the open door with a determined look on his face. "Don't worry! I won't let him lay a single finger on you!"

"I-It's okay, Gokudera-kun," Tsuna exclaimed. "At least…I hope so. But I don't think it's going to be that bad, right?" Tsuna said in a panic, directing the question to Giotto.

Giotto was hesitant to answer. "That's hard to say. To some level, I could predict what Alaude might do, but this is beyond that. I've never encountered time travellers, after all."

HIIIIIIIE! I want to go home, Tsuna thought, seeing his death before him now…Alaude would drag him away to a dark dungeon and chain him up. Then the torturing would begin…

"I have to get out of here!" Tsuna scrambled to his feet and looked around for an exit.

"Ieyasu, Alaude-san is here to see you," Kiku interrupted. Giotto smiled anxiously at her and nodded. "He is in the garden. Lampo came by and he ran to tell the others."

"Hie! He's here already!" Tsuna's face showed all kinds of fear known to man.

"I was expecting him to arrive… a while later," Giotto said to himself. "Anyway, get dressed, Tsunayoshi-kun, Hayato-kun…" Giotto looked at Gokudera for the first time today and noticed that he was wearing his modern clothing. "Eto…Hayato-kun?"

"Hai, Primo-san?" Gokudera was instantly alert.

"…Never mind."

"G, are you home?" Lampo shouted in a panic as he reached the storm guardian's house.

"What is it?" G answered irritably while he held a piece of bread in one hand. He bit it casually as he glared at Lampo.

"Alaude's back!" G choked and dropped it. Lampo continued, no caring for G's purpling face. "Do you think he will find out what we did to his office?! But anyone could have accidentally set off those traps. It didn't have to be us, right? Anyone could have done it!"

G finally swallowed and took a large gulp of air and hit Lampo's arm. "Baka! Alaude's going to guess that it was us if you keep looking so guilty."

Lampo tried to not look so guilty without much success. G let out an exasperated sigh. "Act bored! Remind me to never let you play poker for me."

"But ore-sama actually did that once, remember?" Lampo said as they walked to Asari's home, looking as bored as possible, including the lazy eye and tone of voice.

"Yeah, and it cost me everything I brought with me," G snapped back. "I don't even know why I let you play in the first place. Come on, we have to tell Ugetsu and Knuckle."

Tsuna stared back and forth nervously with a small smile. Gokudera was glaring at Alaude and vice versa. Giotto meanwhile tried to figure out what Alaude's next move would be. He had just told him that Tsunayoshi and Hayato were from the future, and that there was no doubt about it. Alaude was forced to believe him, but it wouldn't stop him from asking questions on his own, or choosing how to get his answers.

Surely after all these years, Alaude mellowed down slightly, right? He isn't the rash child that we all used to know, Giotto thought to himself.

"Now that you have been introduced to each other…why don't we just wait for the rest to arrive?" Giotto said.

Alaude stopped glaring to shrug nonchalantly. When he heard G's shouting drawing closer, he got up to move away as far away from Giotto as possible.

"Welcome home, Alaude," Asari and Knuckle smiled while G glared, as usual, and Lampo was bored—as usual. Nothing seemed to bother them…Alaude was quite surprised when he himself decided that nothing out of the ordinary occurred in his absence.

"Good morning, Tsunayoshi-kun, Hayato-kun," Asari said.

"G-Good morning, Asari-san!"

Then small footsteps hurried over to them. A young Ienari crashed into the guardians while shouting out welcomes. Then he saw Alaude, whom he also ran towards.

Alaude stiffened and narrowed his eyes at the child.

Ienari stopped when he was right in front of the cloud guardian and looked all the way up to smile at him. "Alaude-ojisan, welcome home! Did you know? There are bears in the forest!"

Alaude raised an eyebrow. Then his gaze landed on the brown haired boy, who was looking rather startled and scared as Ienari spoke. Then he remembered the screams echoing from the forest while he was leaving Japan…

"Bear-chan wanted to play but I couldn't play with bear-chan," Ienari said in a gloomy tone, eyes down, mouth pouting.

Alaude kept a straight face while he said, "Mother bears are occupied with protecting the weak. There is no time to play with humans."

Giotto patted his son's head as he walked back into the house. "There's tea here for everyone. Once we're settled, we could start talking."

And when they were, Alaude began to recount what happened in Italy. When he was finished, G asked, "Which family did the man belong to?"

"It was just some family not worth mentioning. They won't last much longer if I was able to catch one of their men."

Tsuna gulped. Was this the stuff that guardians were supposed to do? He wasn't sure if he could actually ask any of his friends to sneak into a place as dangerous as a mafia family's head quarters. He looked at Giotto, careful not to make eye contact with anyone, and saw that he looked thoughtful, not worried for his guardian at all. There was nothing in him that said, "you could have been killed" or "what were you thinking, doing something that dangerous". Tsuna wondered about that for only a moment. After being Giotto's guardian for so many years, a high level of trust must have been reached between them.

Would I ever be able to listen this calmly to any mission? Tsuna thought. Then he snapped out of it. There's no way I'm going to be boss! I'm not giving out any missions. I can't believe I even thought of doing that!

"And you said that they replied…?" Giotto asked, hinting that he wanted to read it.

Alaude reached into his coat and brought out the envelope. "Here."

Giotto smiled and reached out a hand to catch the envelope that was whizzing through the air to cut at his throat. "Thanks, Alaude." He snatched it and broke the seal to the letter without a thought.

Tsuna, seeing Alaude just standing there, sipped his tea nervously.

"What is that?" Lampo asked Giotto.

"It's a letter from Cozart," Giotto murmured as he began to read.

"Ooh, how is Cozart doing?" Asari asked. "Is Magi-chan and the other children doing well?"

Tsuna and Gokudera choked on their drinks. SHIMON COZART! They thought. They're still contacting each other?!

He's definitely alive then! Gokudera thought.

"They are hardly children now," G said in reply to Asari's question.

"Magi developed flames!" Giotto said and stood. He was still clutching the letter in his hands as his eyes darted back and forth on the paper.

All of his guardians turned to give him a startled look.

Lampo glanced at Alaude. "Did you know this?"

Alaude shook his head and continued to stare at Giotto.

"When did this happen?" Lampo asked. "Isn't she only…" a confused expression appeared on his face as he tried to remember exactly how old Magi Shimon was.

Asari smiled. "She's eighteen this year, right?"

Lampo scowled. "I knew that."

"Hold on a moment," Giotto snapped out in impatience. "Let me decipher it first."

"Of course he would have coded it," Knuckle said with an understanding nod. "If that letter got into the wrong hands it would be valuable information to Daemon."

Alaude was offended. "Nothing would have happened to that letter."

Knuckle raised his hands in peace. "I was not implying that something would. I was just saying."

Alaude turned his head away from them with a glare.

Giotto let out a short laugh. "She developed her Earth flames a while ago…now Cozart has to explain what they are."

Tsuna and Gokudera looked puzzled. Who's Magi?

Giotto caught their look and said, "Magi is Cozart's daughter. They are all in hiding at the moment, but I can see that they are still having fun."

If…if Shimon is really alive, then…then what happened that day? Tsuna thought with a frown. How did Shimon escape?

When he finally paid attention again, Alaude was gone, leaving Tsuna with Gokudera, Primo, and his other guardians.

"I wish our kids could have met Magi," Asari said. "They would have been great friends."

Giotto smiled. "They will be together one day, even if it is their descendants who meet."

Lampo suddenly fell back, heaving a great big sigh. "Oh, thank god Alaude didn't find out about his office…"

G scowled. "Why are you so worried?" he demanded. "I'm the one who picked the lock and got us in in the first place. If he comes after anyone, it would be me. You don't see me getting scared."

Tsuna spat out his tea. Knuckle glanced at him. "E-Excuse me…"

"What did you guys do?" Gokudera asked roughly.

"Nothing that you need to worry about," Asari said cheerfully.

Tsuna was unconvinced but let it go. The first generation guardians were already talking amongst themselves, cheerfully reminiscing ridiculous moments that they shared with Shimon, things that Tsuna was greatly interested in knowing more about. But he could also see that they were avoiding the more recent history, going back to their childhood instead, to when Giotto and G were the first to meet Cozart.

I don't know why, but that day didn't happen the way Adelheid thought it did. There's a whole other story behind this that I don't know about. I fully believe that Primo… Primo and his guardians, didn't do anything. Tsuna realised that a part of him, until that moment, was wondering whether Giotto might have possibly done something, anything, no matter how small, to cause Adelheid to think how she did.

"Juudaime!"

Gokudera had a very stricken look on his face as he tried to reach for Tsuna's arm.

"What is it, Gokudera-kun?"

"Y-You—you're—you're fading!"

Tsuna looked down, and with a gasp, tried to touch his face but found that he couldn't feel it. He looked at his hands and saw that they were semi-transparent. When he turned back to Gokudera to express his shock, he saw that he, too, was fading.

"Hiiiiiiiiie! What's happening to us!?"

Giotto stared at the two boys in front of him were beginning to disappear in front of his eyes.

"What on earth..." G muttered.

"We must be going home now!" Gokudera was almost gone now, with a bright light beginning to make the outline of his body.

"But why now?" Tsuna stood up, though he felt much lighter, as though he were flying.

"Tsunayoshi-kun…"

Tsuna jerked his head to Giotto. "Primo—"

Giotto smiled. "It seems like you are finally going home."

Tsuna was still panicking. He wanted to know what happened to Shimon. And he wasn't going to find any answers anywhere but the past. He didn't know enough.

"But Shimon," Tsuna whispered, so the other guardians wouldn't hear him. "I don't know what happened, how can…how can I go back?"

Giotto gave him another smile. "I think you know enough to come up with your own conclusions. Besides, the Vongola lived until your time. I am sure you will one day find the true story. No one can erase everything. You are bound to come across the answer to whatever question you have in the future. Maybe even more so."

"Wait, what do you mean?" Tsuna shouted. His voice was already fading. He looked to his right and saw that he could barely see Gokudera anymore, just a bright light. "Gokudera-kun!" Heat filled his body until he thought he was going to burst. This was a sensation he recognised from the few seconds before he was transported to the past.

"Primo, thank you for everything," Tsuna said quickly.

Giotto raised a hand as his descendant disappeared.

Reborn gritted his teeth as he stood at the side lines, watching his student and his guardians struggle to fight against the Shimon's power. Tsuna… He immediately made his way to him when he saw that Tsuna collapsed. But when he was just metres away, Tsuna began to glow. "Tsuna!"

"Sawada!" Ryohei shouted when he saw what was happening to his friend. Then he saw that there was another glowing body. Gokudera. "Oi! Tako-head as well!?" Ryohei struggled to get up but his injuries held him down. "EXTREME!" with a roar, he rolled over onto his back and panted.

"Ryohei, don't hurt yourself any further. Stay where you are," Reborn said as calmly as he could while he watched the two teenagers. He hated it when unexpected things happened.

"I'm extremely fine!"

After an intense, blinding moment, the light faded to reveal Tsuna and Gokudera, exactly where they were moments ago.

Reborn knelt next to Tsuna's head to make sure that the mysterious light didn't do anything to change him. He frowned when he didn't see any marks of battle on him. When he inspected Gokudera, he found the same thing.

"They're severely injured," Dino cried out. The rest of the Vongola came out of their stupor and ran to help the Tenth and his guardians. "We need to get them medical treatment quickly!" he went towards his own student quickly. "Kyoya, are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Hibari snapped. He looked away and muttered under his breath. He walked over to Reborn, glaring at the unconscious bodies of Gokudera Hayato and Sawada Tsunayoshi. "What was that?"

Reborn said nothing, preferring to keep his thoughts to himself. Tsuna's outer suit jacket was missing, though he was wearing it not long ago.

"We won't know until they wake up," Reborn said.

"I told you to stop moving!" Reborn turned to the commotion, seeing Ryohei forcing himself to sit up, despite the two men who were trying to make him lie down.

"Juu…daime…"

Reborn quickly turned to look at Gokudera, who seemed to be coming around. "Gokudera."

Gokudera focused his eyes on Reborn and sat up quickly. "Reborn-san, what—where?" he took a quick look at his surroundings. He was right where he was before he was transported to the past. The room was in ruins, the craters still on the walls. He saw Dino, Hibari, Ryohei, the Ninth, and all the others who were present during the ceremony. "We're back?"

Reborn filed away Gokudera's reactions and looked at Tsuna, who was also sitting up, looking very confused.

"I'm fine," Tsuna said to Reborn's look. Reborn stared at him, disbelieving. What happened to them? "Chrome! How could I forget?" Tsuna shouted. "She's been kidnapped!"

"Oi, Tsuna. It didn't happen that long ago. What do you mean?"

"W-Wait…how long was I gone for, Reborn?"

"What do you mean, gone?"

Tsuna didn't know where to start. From when he met Ienari? Would Reborn even believe him? It could have been a dream for all he knew.

Reborn sighed. "We will talk about this later. For now, we need to see to your injuries."

"Injuries…" Tsuna muttered. "Enma just left…everyone…we're all still injured. So no time passed?"

"Damn! Where did the Shimon go?! Did they just leave?" Gokudera shouted. "We have to go after them."

"I already sent my guardians," the Ninth said gravely. "For now, focus on recovering. We will handle things from here on out."

"The ninth is right," Reborn said. "We will talk more once you get some rest."

Tsuna unsteadily got to his feet. If the memories he had of meeting Primo were really just a dream, he was going to regret standing.

"We should help onii-san," Tsuna said to Gokudera, who nodded. Reborn watched as the two of them walked, without any signs of injury, towards Ryohei who was still fighting the two men. There's no way Tsuna can hide his injuries so well.

Gokudera shouted at the two men until they left the three boys alone, with Gokudera claiming that "Lawn-Head could look after himself without you two getting in the way!" with very exaggerated motions, which panicked the two men who were now trying to make Gokudera sit still, in fear of his injuries becoming worse.

"Tsuna," Reborn said. "Come here." He walked to a corner of the room that was relatively clean and quiet, away from the main commotion.

What am I going to tell Reborn? Tsuna asked himself.

"Tell me everything. Don't you dare leave anything out, because I will find out and you will have hell to pay when I do."

"HIIIIE! Reborn, I told you not to read my mind!"

"Tsuna…" Reborn said.

"Okay, okay." Tsuna shivered at Reborn's threat and told him everything from start to finish. There were several times where Reborn wanted to hit his student over the head because of either his foolishness or clumsy mistake but he held onto his annoyance, piling it up for a later date when there weren't more important matters that needed attention.

"What do you plan to do, Tsuna?" Reborn asked.

"E-Eh? Reborn, you're asking what I want to do?" Astonished, Tsuna shook his head. "Well, there's nothing we can do until we catch up to Enma-kun, and save Chrome. Everything will have to come after that. Rescuing Chrome is the most important thing right now. And…after that I want to confront Enma-kun about this. He has been told the wrong thing the entire time!"

"He's not going to listen without a fight, you know that right? And the Vongola Rings are shattered."

"Not all is lost, Vongola."

Reborn turned away from Tsuna to see an old man standing at the entrance. He was bent over with an odd looking cane supporting him. The old man had his eyes covered by black bandages, which was probably why he had the cane. Around his neck were several items that looked to be claws, some of them were big while there were many that were small, hanging off of a smaller loop. Despite the way he dressed and how old and fragile he looked, Reborn knew that this man held more power in the Vongola than people would think. After all, who else has ever lived as long as this man has?

"Who are you?" Gokudera demanded.

"You are…" the Ninth gasped, "Grandfather Talbot!"

"Indeed I am. Ninth, you have gotten much older than the last time I laid eyes on you…" the man, Talbot, said in his deep, rough voice. "However it is not the time to talk. There is much to do."

O.o.O

THE END

A/N:THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THE 208 REVIEWS, THE FAVS, ALERTS, EVERYTHING!

In case you're wondering why I am stopping the story here, it is because the outcome will be just like the one we all read in the manga. Tsuna is still going after Enma, he's still going to fight with them, but he will throughout, try to convince them that the Vongola didn't betray the Shimon, though they refuse to listen, so they don't understand.

There might be some unexplained things here and that's because I didn't think that those pieces held much importance to this story but you can message me if you have some questions. I'll try to answer them as best I could.

One question I just thought of: Why were they sent back to their own time?

This is because Tsuna came to a conclusion. Before that, he was a bit conflicted. The reason why he was sent back, is partly to show him what really happened, but he didn't get to find out. But he was returned to the present because he was so sure that Giotto didn't do anything, so hearing the truth wouldn't have made a huge difference in what he thought.

Anonymous Reviewers:

- Lady Ariadna: You're very welcome! Oh well…at least you could look forward to my next work (though I plan to think about it a bit more before publishing it)!

- Guest: I'm sad about having barely any Ienari in the last chapter too, since it's also the end of the story now as well...

So, who's interested in a preview of Hibari's redone chapter in Power of Vongola Decimo ?

...

The Triads

ONESHOT

…

Timeline: After the Ring Battles, before the Future Arc.

...

Six Months Ago

A girl of sixteen pulled her suitcase behind her as she left the airport. Her dark, brown hair was slightly out of place because she had slept all the way from her home country and the same went for her clothes.

She let out a sigh of relief and took in her first deep breath of Namimori's morning air. "Namimori: a nice, peaceful town. It's just what I need to restart my life," she said to herself.

"Hey, little miss," someone called out to her. She turned and began to glare at the man with her cold brown eyes.

Is something trying to flirt with me already? I swear, if there are perverted doctors here too—

It was just a taxi driver asking if she needed a lift. She smiled and nodded. "Thank you."

"So where you from?" the driver asked her. "I think I hear a Chinese accent!"

She raised her eyebrows slightly. "You have good ears, mister. Yes, I came from Hong Kong. I'm coming here to stay with my other relatives."

"Ah! Then we have a new member among our community. Welcome to Namimori, young lady."

"I hope I'll like it here. How are the people?" she asked.

The driver shifted and looked at her on the rear view mirror. He shrugged and avoided her gaze. "The people are decent enough. It's rare to find trouble here. I heard that there is a Disciplinary Committee, but I haven't had a run-in with them yet."

"Disciplinary Committee?" the girl asked. "I thought that was just a committee within the school."

The man laughed nervously as he stopped at a red light. "Oh, sure, maybe at other places but here, we have one that looks after the whole of Namimori. I heard that the leader is very fierce and strict with the law."

"What about the actual law enforcers?"

"I don't know."

The girl leaned back and looked out the window. "Odd. I thought this place was normal. But here I am, listening to someone tell me about a Disciplinary Committee that has too much power."

The driver barked out a laugh. "Normal? Who said anything about normal? We may have no trouble here, but it is far from normal." The man chuckled and shook his head.

Half an hour later, they arrived at the apartment complex she was staying in.

The taxi driver thanked her and with a wide grin, named the price of the ride. The girl practically squawked at the outrageous amount. But she grudgingly paid the taxi driver.

"Thanks for the business!" he said as he pulled off.

…

Present Day

Thunder rumbled in the distance as Hibari walked the streets of Namimori looking for troublemakers. It was a Saturday evening, prime time for those herbivores to cause havoc. He had already bitten three groupies to death: the first one was trying to spray paint Nami-chuu, a terrible offence on its own. Even worse, they were trying to toss raw eggs into the grounds and smash them against the walls. The second gang he bit to death was a group of purse snatchers. The third group consisted of friends of the second group, trying to go against Hibari for revenge.

To preserve the peace in Namimori, I will bite them all to death, Hibari thought darkly.

He was near downtown Namimori when he heard running footsteps coming from a side street to his left. This street led to the residential areas, and it was usually quiet—not filled with pitiful screams and frantic footsteps.

He recognised them and glared fiercely.

"Hiiiiiiiiie! It's Hibari-san—not that way, I-Pin!"

BOOM!

Hibari only had enough time to raise his left hand in an attempt to shield his face from the sudden blast that came from nowhere.

They were engulfed in grey smoke and he heard the herbivore cough. "I'm so sorry, Hibari-san, it won't happen again, I swear—cough."

Hibari observed the wreckage, ignoring the herbivore for now. The walls were streaked with ash and there was a small crater on the floor. The herbivore, Sawada Tsunayoshi, had a few scratches of his own; Hibari didn't, but his arm band which distinguished him from the others was gone. The pin that held it in place must have been blasted away, the arm band along with it. Not a trace remained.

He stilled. Tsuna noticed Hibari's sudden stillness and looked for the source. He followed his Cloud Guardian's gaze and let out a small shout.

Hibari pulled out his weapons and a dangerous aura surrounded the prefect. "Herbivore…for disrupting the peace of Namimori..."

"I-It wasn't my fault," Tsuna said desperately as he backed away.

Hibari ignored him.

"…For destroying things that aren't yours…"

First they practically destroyed the school because of that stupid ring battle all the herbivores participated in. On top of that, he had his daily prefect duties. And on top of that, this herbivore dared to disrespect him, Hibari Kyoya, in this manner.

"I'll bite you to death."

"Hiiiiiiiiie!" Tsuna ran as fast as he could away from him while shouting apologies over his shoulder hoping Hibari will reconsider his promise.

Hibari gave chase and was gaining on him. They passed numerous shops as Hibari tried to whack the herbivore but the herbivore's reflexes were faster than he remembered.

The herbivore ran into the zoo, where citizens were leaving due to the hour. Only a few were left to see the occurrence of a brown haired, brown eyed boy being chased by one slightly older who had black hair and grey eyes, wearing a Disciplinary Committee jacket and Nami-chuu's uniform.

"Reborn, this is all your fault. Save me!"

Reborn was flying next to Tsuna using Leon as an air craft. "I don't fight my student's battles, Dame-Tsuna. Take care of it yourself. Mama's dinner will be ready soon. Be back by then or there will be none left for you. Ciao ciao!" Just like that, the baby left.

"REBORN, DON'T LEAVE ME HERE,"Tsuna screamed. "Hiie!" He ducked as Hibari's right tonfa grazed his head.

He chased after the herbivore for another thirty seconds before rain suddenly began to fall on them in buckets. Shouts of surprise rang out around them as people began to run for shelter. The rain was so heavy Tsuna and Hibari had a hard time seeing in front of their feet.

Tsuna turned a corner quickly, hoping that he could lose the pissed off prefect this way.

Not even stopping to think, Hibari continued to run straight. He took a turn which led to the monkeys. He squinted through the rain and spotted the small gap between buildings that would serve as a short-cut. He jumped over a few crates and ran through. The rain might have obstructed his vision, but his memory was flawless.

The path the herbivore had taken led to the goats. Beyond the goats were the sea lions, where he would have to double back. The exit from the area of the sea lions was hard to find without the sign—and knowing this herbivore, he wouldn't even remember the way he got in. With this pouring rain, the sign would be as good as invisible. It was perfect.

When Hibari took another turn, he saw the dark figure of Sawada Tsunayoshi running towards him.

Tsuna didn't stop running until he was only two metres away from the very same prefect that he was trying to run from.

"Hiiie!"

The screech was no more than a muffled shout with the rain but it didn't matter. Hibari gave the herbivore a nice, solid hit with his tonfa.

Tsuna fell but got up quickly. Hibari started to go after the herbivore but his jacket was snagged by something, forcing him to see what the problem was. That distraction was all Tsuna needed to escape from him. Hibari looked up from his jacket that he had just freed from the hook and found that the herbivore was long gone. He snarled at the crate with the hook and bit it to death.

Not feeling better at all, Hibari decided that he should just leave. He began to walk towards the entrance area when he heard someone shout. He stopped and looked around but didn't see anyone in the heavy rain. Or maybe there was someone he just couldn't see. Shrugging it off, he began to walk.

"Hey, wait!"

Okay so he wasn't imagining it. Someone was shouting at him. Who would be stupid enough to do that? He paused and looked behind him.

"Could you help me over here?"

Hibari glared at the figure he could barely see. He turned his back to the herbivore and began walking again.

"Oh come on—you're at the zoo! If you came all the way here, you can't be that heartless towards animals! And they're just little babies too!"

Hibari stopped walking and glared at what was in front of him: rain. He turned around slowly.

"What?" he asked tartly.

"These hooligans came over earlier and vandalised the support beams!" she—he figured the herbivore was a female from the voice—had to shout in order to be heard over the rain. "The roof collapsed and missed the cages, so the animals are safe for the moment but I need to bring them to a more secure location out of the rain!"

"Get your coworkers to help you," Hibari said and began to turn away again.

The girl swore and shouted, "DAMN IT, THEY ALL LEFT FOR THE DAY. THE MANAGER IS ALREADY HIDING IN HIS STUPID OFFICE. AND IF YOU ARE EVEN A BIT HUMAN YOU SHOULD AT HELP—I'M NOT ASKING YOU TO KILL FOR ME OR ANYTHING."

Hibari just stood there, feeling the heavy rain pour down, soaking him to the bones. Now that he was paying attention, he could hear the soft whimpers and cries from the animals in their temporary homes of cages.

He was suddenly next to the girl, looking down on the animals to see how he could carry them.

"O-Oh…thanks!" She honestly wasn't expecting him to turn around and help her after she screamed at him.

Hibari grunted and looked at her face to see which herbivore had the nerve to shout at him. He frowned when he didn't recognise her.

"Here. You take the hedgehog and birds. If we're efficient, we'd only need to come back once or twice more to get the rest."

She herself had taken the baby monkeys and kiwi birds which took up four small cages.

Hibari looked at the other cages that they were supposed to come back for. They all had a plastic covering to keep the animals dry. He bent down and stacked a few more to his two cages and picked them all up.

"…Or you can do that."

Hibari followed the girl down the road towards a building he recognised as the main centre. He felt some of the animals scratch his hands in a panic when they were moving. In response, he growled a warning at them and they stopped instantly.

When they got to the building, the girl pushed the doors open with her back and stumbled into the warm room. She carefully placed the cages on an empty table. Hibari did the same and unstacked the cages. He turned and got a good look at the girl. She wore the green uniform the zoo required, complete with the green cap which covered her brown hair that reached to her shoulders. It was flat against her back because of the rain, as was Hibari's own hair which stuck to his head. The girl had dark brown eyes and he could see a chain for a necklace hanging from her neck. She was almost as tall as him with just running shoes.

"Oh my, what happened?" a woman cried out from somewhere behind them. Hibari turned and saw another herbivore that was probably part of administration.

"I just got stuck in the rain a bit," the girl said. She turned to Hibari and smiled. "Thanks for the help, ehh…"

Hibari realised that she was asking for his name. "…Hibari Kyoya."

She nodded. "Thanks, Hibari-san. I'm Rina Emi. Shall we go and grab the others?"

"Hn." Hibari turned right around and walked towards the door with the girl following.

After going twice more, all twenty cages were safely under a solid roof. Hibari took a good look at the shelter they were once under previously and saw that it could hardly be considered a shelter, with its rickety frames and all.

"Thank you so much, Hibari-san!"

Hibari just stared at her. This herbivore is clearly not from around here.

"Hn."

"Wait! Why don't you just stay here and wait until the rain stops?" Emi asked when Hibari began to leave. "I could lend you a towel. I can, can't I?" she asked the woman.

"O-Of course you may," she stuttered, looking at Hibari cautiously.

Hibari ignored them. He gave the creatures he just helped one last look before walking back into the heavy rain.

I'll get that Sawada Tsunayoshi tomorrow, Hibari thought. It's his fault I was in the rain for so long. Thanks to the absence of traffic, he arrived home with no problems.

His house was a large traditional Japanese home owned by his parents who were always absent, which he didn't particularly mind. Ever since he was a child, he had been alone for most of the day with only seeing one of his parents occasionally. At other times, they would host gatherings which he was expected to attend.

A worker paused and bowed to him when he entered. "Kyoya-sama…"

"Hn. Don't disturb me," he said to the woman and continued on his way to his rooms.

"As you wish, Kyoya-sama."

The woman was practically useless in the house. He didn't understand why his parents insisted that she stayed with him during his time in Namimori while they travelled on business.

On his way to his room, he was met by Kusakabe who immediately noticed that his chairman was drenched from the rain. He found a towel and handed it to Hibari who took it without a word.

"I'll be leaving now, Chairman, unless there is anything you'd like me to do?"

"Hn."

The first thing he did when he was alone was open his jacket to let Hibird roam around the mansion. Hibird chirped his thanks and flew to his food bowl. Hibari then made his way to the bathroom to take a hot shower before getting dressed into a black tee and pants. Then he went into his bedroom where his black laptop sat on the desk. Settling himself down, he turned it on to view the applications for possible new recruits sent to him from Kusakabe.

He grunted when he saw the number of application forms. Usually, Kusakabe was good at filtering the nonsense ones, which left only a few for Hibari to look over. But this time there were more than the usual number.

Many were brave souls daring to join. Others were cocky and confident of their abilities. Usually only a tenth of the applicants were actually chosen due to their fighting experience and their background. The majority of them he simply crossed out. Some sparked his interest, which he left aside for further reading.

When he was left with just a handful, he began to delve into their past in earnest.

Hours later, Hibari finished his work with a total of four applicants that he was willing to let pass the first stage. He sent the names off to Kusakabe and shut down the computer.

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.

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A/N: Look forward to that!

IMPORTANT: I'm not going to say when I will have it finished since I seem to be miscalculating the amount of free time I have. After posting Hibari's chapter, I would probably be absent from publishing any new multi-chap stories, since I for once, plan to finish a story before even uploading the first chapter. I'll be gone for a pretty long while...since I also need to focus on keeping my grades above a certain percentage thanks to something called university admissions.

Good bye!

-LLM

Uploaded 2014-03-01st