"…It seems your spell was mutilated," a green-haired boy muttered, a mixture of worry and amusement in his voice. There was nothing they could do now, so what was the point of worrying?
"Nufufufu… it was only—"
"Shut up, mutant melon! Giotto-sama did his best!" The redhead scowled as hard as he could. "Idiots!" At this point, he didn't know if the yell was directed at the people in the present or the future.
"…Are you okay, Giotto?" Asari placed a calming hand on Giotto's shoulder, seeing how distressed he was. "He'll be fine. He's a strong boy; he always has been. If he can survive what he did…" Anyone else would have gone insane, committed suicide, or condemned everyone to a world of darkness. "This is nothing. Have more confidence in your descendant."
Giotto remained silent for a moment, simply watching what was happening. It felt strange to see his descendant—he wouldn't count the great-great-greats—so genuinely happy, even if it was just the result of a simple spell to make him forget everything for a few hours, combined with cartoons that he found so funny. It shouldn't have been strange, but it had been a very, very long time since Tsunayoshi had looked so cheerful or playful. It was as if he hadn't allowed himself to be happy, too focused on his family to remember that he was allowed to be selfish sometimes. And now, in a flash, he was going to remember everything. The worst part was that Giotto had hoped for more time, at least another week, so the bazooka wouldn't be fired in front of him, bringing someone from his family from his time. It felt like showing a person with a phobia their greatest fear, or at least that's how Giotto saw it.
"…I know," Giotto said, a tear falling from his eye. "But that doesn't make it any less cruel." It was all because of false illusions… all out of love, simple innocence, and fear of change.
Most of them remained calm when the familiar pink smoke appeared. With Lambo, this was a normal occurrence, and it would only last for five minutes—no more, no less. However, they didn't understand why Tsuna went as white as a ghost and looked like he was about to faint when the pink smoke made its debut. The few who saw his reaction didn't have time to ask what was wrong or if he needed to sit down before the smoke cleared, revealing a hunched figure.
"Stupid cow…" Gokudera cut himself off, just like the others, when he saw the new figure.
"Hey there," Future Yamamoto said softly.
Lambo blinked, then timidly—and fearfully—hid behind his older brother's legs, his eyes wide with surprise, stopping his tears instantly. The Yamamoto from the future smiled slightly at this, then looked up. Before anyone could react, he was hugging Tsuna as if his life depended on it, oblivious to the fact that Tsuna looked even paler than before and wasn't returning the hug.
"You don't know how happy I am to see you, Tsuna," the ex-baseball player murmured, a relieved and happy expression on his face. He let go of the hug, grabbed Tsuna's shoulders, and stared intently into his eyes. "How are you feeling? How have you been? Have you been eating well? How's your training going?"
Lambo slowly backed away and hid behind Bianchi this time. The room fell into a complete silence, and the tears Yamamoto was shedding from the sheer joy of seeing Tsuna didn't help. The look he'd arrived with suggested days of crying, depression, insomnia, and extreme worry. Now, his face was completely lit up, crying tears of happiness just from seeing Tsuna.
This scene made them wonder if whatever had happened in the future had to do with a "dead" Tsuna, one who was badly injured, kidnapped, lost, or had experienced something terrible and irreversible. A Tsuna who had forgotten them didn't seem right, nor did a truly dead one, or one who had decided to leave. Those didn't seem like plausible options for the Tsuna they knew—the one who had also come from the future, though they didn't know what year. It was also obvious, perhaps too obvious, that Tsuna wanted his family. But his reaction indicated that he hadn't expected this, and that perhaps in his own time, he hadn't seen his family in a long time… or didn't want to see them at all, as strange as that sounded.
"…I-I'm fine," Tsuna replied, his voice trembling. 'Remember, Yamamoto-san only thinks you're Tsunayoshi-sama. So remember to act like that monster,' he reminded himself with sadness and self-loathing. "I've been better… and everything has gone well." To a certain extent, but I wasn't going to tell him the truth no matter how much I wanted to. "What's wrong?"
His performance might have fooled everyone if no one had seen him turn pale, but almost no one was fooled. However, they couldn't tell if Yamamoto had been. He just smiled wider, ruffled Tsuna's hair in a friendly way, and hugged him again, clearly not wanting to let go.
"Have you been taking good care of him?" he asked, as if talking about a toddler, not a teenager. It was not only strange but quite worrying.
"Of course, you idiot!" At any other time, Gokudera would have lit his bombs, a threat for such an insinuation, but for now, he was analyzing the situation for any clue, no matter how small.
Yamamoto's smile faded, replaced by a gloomy, guilty expression. "We didn't," he said. He hugged Tsuna tighter, and Tsuna seemed nervous and uncomfortable, not even daring to relax. "It was one of the worst mistakes of our lives. Don't make it yours."
He said nothing else and simply held Tsuna close, not answering any of the threats or questions that arose. There weren't many, as less than a minute later, he was engulfed in pink smoke.
"…Tsuna," was the first thing Yamamoto said when he reappeared, but… "I didn't know you were so organized." The smile on his face was anything but funny.
The others looked at him as if he were crazy, but Tsuna only laughed nervously, almost knowing what he was talking about. His office was well-organized because he worked there daily, not because he liked to tidy things up as Yamamoto was implying. Without Tsuna's knowledge, Yamamoto was only telling a half-truth to make him forget what had just happened. Yamamoto wasn't a genius, but he wasn't stupid either. That office was lonely and cold, well-organized but almost completely devoid of anything personal. The only thing that truly caught his attention and almost made him cry was a family portrait on the desk. The frame was broken and worn, just like the glass, which made him wonder how important that photo was to the Tsuna of that time. And from what he could see, this Tsuna must have been at least ten years older than them.
This last comment explained how he knew them so well, why he played with them, and why he unconsciously acted so elegantly, not to mention his sadistic side and his superb acting. But it didn't explain what had happened to make him so depressed, other than the fact that he was a murderer, based on how he had acted the other time. Yamamoto sighed, and before the poor boy saw it coming, he was slapped.
"Yamamoto!" Tsuna complained, trying to free himself peacefully, but the baseball player just laughed and shook his head.
"You're going to die!" Everyone stopped and looked at Yamamoto; even Tsuna froze. "It's going to be an 'heladicide'!"
Before Tsuna could open his mouth to complain or ask what the heck an "heladicide" was, he was… bathed in ice cream, to the point of looking like a multicolored snowman with a murderous glare. The plan worked; they had successfully distracted Tsuna from the previous event because they frankly didn't want the depressed Tsuna to return so soon. But there's always a "but." This time, it was a "BUT" that wasn't big enough to express the displeasure of everyone present when they were shot with popcorn, gummies, ice cubes, and whatever else the ice-cream-covered boy found for the rest of the night… all with perfect aim.
"Ninja ice cream!" Blam!
"You deserve it, idi—Ouch!"
The whole night went like this, with a vengeful Tsuna giving them the most resentful, irritated, and annoyed look he could, along with a murderous aura that made their hair stand on end. Of course, they tried to apologize, but Tsuna didn't even let them finish a sentence… something about it being "unforgivable." Note to self: next time, use something other than ice cream. Apparently, Tsuna either loved or hated being stickily cold, multi-colored, and looking like a living snowman.
Changing the subject, the phrase "We didn't…" from Future Yamamoto left a bad taste in their mouths. What exactly did he mean? Tsuna didn't need much looking after; he was strong, had a good sense of self-preservation, and his appearance was quite deceptive. Besides, he wasn't so badly off that he was a serious cause for concern. In other words, Tsuna could take care of himself very well. Was Tsuna in a fight and badly injured, leaving him in a bad state or resentful because they hadn't taken good care of him or given him enough attention?
But looking at Tsuna, that didn't seem to be the case, as he didn't seem like the type of person to hold hatred or grudges. He didn't seem dead, either, unless he was from a time closer than Future Yamamoto. Dead due to a lack of care on their part didn't sound good, and it made their blood run cold just thinking about it. Another theory was that, due to their lack of care, Tsuna got into trouble and… it ended badly. It sounded possible and perhaps was what happened in the future, but they had no way of knowing. On the other hand, there were many possibilities and their derivatives. Maybe they hadn't paid him much attention or had a misunderstanding. Maybe they fell out with him and left him alone, and something happened to him.
Tsuna was a very kind and good person. They didn't think he was capable of starting a fight with them without a very good reason, or of doing something bad. In fact, they didn't even think he was capable of hating. And the Tsuna they had now only reinforced that idea, because he was still a good boy, though he was undoubtedly more audacious. Even with his sadism and desire to have fun, he still didn't do much harm, and the harm he did usually had a dual purpose (the first, obviously, was to have fun). Maybe he was bolder, more intimidating, sadistic, and intelligent than the Tsuna of this time, but he was still just as loving and kind, just less shy and fearful… and more dangerous, but not enough to make them tremble for their lives (except for his murderous aura).
Although they had to take into account that Tsuna, when he wasn't happy and having fun, was either sad or depressed (which was worse). And from what Primo had told them, maybe they did something, or stopped doing something, or both, that affected Tsuna so badly he became depressed, and probably something worse, given the way Primo treated them. They deserved it, they admitted, but how they would love to know what exactly they had done in the future to Tsuna to cause him to come to their time just to heal.
All this left them with only two clear conclusions: they caused Tsuna to become depressed (and surely worse) in the future, perhaps to the point of wanting to commit suicide if Primo hadn't intervened. Second, it was a lack of care, but they had no idea what kind of care it was. However, what made the current Tsuna sad (though not very visible to the naked eye) was being left alone for more than a few days. They assumed it was because he had gotten used to having them close and destroying everything (and him trying to prevent it). Maybe it had something to do with that? Had they left Tsuna alone for too long? Or had something happened that caused them to distance themselves from him? Maybe he had been kidnapped or badly injured, and when they rescued him, they felt so bad that they unintentionally walked away, or had Tsuna himself left for some reason, and they let him?
Too many unknowns, too many variables, and too many interpretations!
They couldn't do anything, at least not yet. Asking Tsuna anything—directly or not—was out of the question; they didn't know how he would take it, and they didn't want to make things worse after he had been so happy. Going to the future and/or asking one of their future selves using the bazooka was impractical—only five minutes! In that time, there would surely be more questions than answers, even if nothing strange happened (like getting stuck as before, for example), and Tsuna might notice. Asking for help from the mechanical geniuses would be counterproductive, because not only would Tsuna surely realize, and only God knows how he would take it, but it could also have unwanted side effects.
"Maybe it has to do with him being a murderer?" Yamamoto whispered to the others, looking cautiously at Tsuna in case they woke him up. He didn't want to be shot again.
They took about five minutes to think about the question. In a way, it made sense, because killing was a big deal, especially if Tsuna was the one doing it. Not only had he promised not to do it (Byakugan didn't count because he was more than fine in the present and that future was eliminated), but it was quite difficult to imagine someone so shy, fearful, and kind doing something like that. In fact, maybe that was why the two of them had taken it so badly, especially since Tsuna acted as if killing was the most normal thing in the world, which in a sense, it was. At least he hadn't killed anyone, he had only defended himself. Perhaps in his time, he had become accustomed to killing when attacked, which was a good course of action to avoid unpleasant surprises from enemies. They would be honest: it was still somewhat unrealistic for them to think that Tsuna would kill, but that didn't mean they would stop talking to him or anything (at least not for long). He didn't do it badly after all; he had good intentions in his heart, and the mafia was a pretty dark and extremely cruel world.
"…Maybe," he conceded gently. "…But I don't think the shock would have lasted more than a week. Juudaime always has good reasons for what he does." He paused and looked at his boss before adding, "Especially if he broke a promise."
"But it would make sense if he had killed for the first time, just by seeing what happened before…" It was enough to create a good mess, and Tsuna wouldn't have reacted as badly (or worse than them) without a good cause.
"Partly… but I don't think that was a good enough reason to 'not take care of him.' It's just a death. Juudaime wouldn't kill just because."
And he didn't think they would become so stupid as to forget something like that. It must have been something much worse. Although he wouldn't deny that they surely didn't take it well for him to kill; it was natural. They wouldn't even take it well if one of them killed… in fact, no one would.
"Well, then it must have been something related…" Maybe they were the ones who killed, and that started a huge problem?
"Maybe missions kept us very busy in the future, and Tsuna was stuck with paperwork. Something big could have happened in the middle of it all…" And they couldn't help it or realize it in time.
"We could be doing this all night and we still wouldn't get to anything concrete," the devilish pineapple declared, appearing after getting a detailed summary from his beloved Chrome. "Kufufufu, you'd better go to sleep. Tomorrow, the little tuna won't be as docile as you'd like." Not at all, not after having had such a good day.
"Who are you calling a little pine-headed tuna?"
"Shhh… you don't want to wake him up, do you?" The illusionist joked mockingly, pointing to Tsuna, who was on the sofa, seemingly dead from exhaustion, after the children covered Gokudera's mouth with a pull.
"Ma ma, if I were you, I wouldn't pull it off…" the baseball player murmured nervously. That would hurt a lot, and the last thing they needed was to wake up Tsuna with a cry of pain.
Yamamoto could imagine it perfectly: Tsuna waking up suddenly to such a scream, looking around as if searching for an attack, only to realize it was a false alarm. Instead of ignoring them and going back to sleep, he would squint his eyes and look at them like a predator about to pounce, along with an aura full of anger… and then he would kill them with gunfights, rhetorical questions, murderous auras, threats of games, or who knows what else.
"Scream like a girl at the top of your lungs, and I'll hang you from the ceiling, Cocotera," a rather sleepy voice said.
On any other occasion, all the teenagers except Gokudera would have joined in the laughter of the children at such a nickname. However, not laughing didn't stop them from thinking about coconuts. Now several of them wanted to drink coconut water. On the other hand, Tsuna must have been quite asleep to make such a blunder. Gokudera cried, but no sound came out (because of the pull), at his boss's mistake and knelt down, asking for forgiveness, but Tsuna hadn't even raised his head.
"And you stop laughing, you chattering demonic pineapple!" Tsuna added that last part because it was the sound of the laugh that had woken him up, and boy, had he spoken a lot in those few seconds.
Before the "chattering demonic pineapple" could start a fight over the name, Tsuna was already snoring again.
"You should see your 'pineapple' face, hahahahaha—Wahhhhhhhh!"
"The same goes for you, coconut plant!" Unlike Lambo, Fuuta had a plan: he hid behind Bianchi, who was laughing at the whole event.
He slowly opened his eyes and blinked, silently wondering where the hell he was and why he felt so… strange. He couldn't feel anything, not even his fingers. After what felt like an eternity, he slowly sat up, his thoughts sluggish and his focus difficult to maintain. With the slowness of a snail, or at least that's how it seemed, he looked around the room.
He didn't like the color white. The walls were white, the curtains were white, the door was white, the small table in the corner was white, and it had a white vase with red flowers, thank goodness. Then, he noticed some giant equipment he'd overlooked three times and stared at them for a long time. Ignoring the irritating beeps, he followed one of the wires until it led to his hand. Despite how weird it felt and how everything seemed to be in slow motion, he was a little surprised to see so many wires attached to his hands.
For a moment, he wondered what all this was for, but his brain refused to cooperate. After a few minutes, he simply concluded that they were there for a reason and the most sensible thing to do was leave them alone. So white, he thought, noticing that even the bed and sheets were white. He could tell he was in a hospital. Why am I in one? He didn't remember doing anything dangerous. Actually, the last thing he could half-remember was… something about garbage and ice cream, more specifically the "garbage lord." Although, why "garbage lord"? He didn't sleep in the garbage… did he?
"…Tenth-sama!"
He trembled and blinked slightly at the sound of a door closing. Had someone entered? No, he didn't see anyone. Maybe they had just left? Who knows. The door swung open again, startling him.
"Juudaime!" An old man with gray hair exclaimed.
"Tsuna!" He blinked, not knowing what to think of the man, except that he looked like a clown with that big smile.
"Tsuna-nii!" In my head, were those cow horns?
"Kufufufu…" That was… a mutant pineapple? "…so you finally decided to wake up, Vongola."
He tilted his head again. Vongola? What was that, and what did you eat it with? Thinking about it, he wasn't hungry. Another person came in, or what he thought was a person. She looked like a blonde doll dressed in white. He ignored the confusion of the whole situation, why he was the center of attention, and the fact that he was starting to feel claustrophobic.
"Cir-co?" he managed to say, pointing at all of them at once.
Strangely to him, the strange beings stopped as if he had just said something silly. It could be true, or it couldn't. He didn't care at this point. He didn't feel anything. As if to make sure, he pinched himself, only to hear:
"What are you doing? You shouldn't do that." Whoever said it, he didn't care. He just cocked his head, not understanding, but let the person take his arm.
"How do you feel, Juudaime?" He blinked, briefly wondering why the guy with the horns decided to sit on his bed and, apparently, poke at the wires.
He didn't say anything. They hadn't even answered him, and he didn't know who "Juudaime" was. It could be any other person who entered, but that didn't make much sense if everyone was looking at him. Apparently, the clown understood the problem because he said after a while, or what he thought was a while:
"No, no, we're not the circus." He laughed a little, which made no sense. "Although I have to admit that we do look funny." He paused and ran his hand over his face before moving on to Tsuna's head and ruffling his hair in a friendly way. "How do you feel, Tsuna?"
He tilted his head slightly. His name wasn't Tsuna. What was his name, anyway? He couldn't focus enough. For some reason, at the tilt of his head, everyone present lost their smiles, making him blink and wonder what had caused the change before he simply looked around again. He decided to get up and go somewhere else, but was stopped by two hands on his shoulders as he placed one foot on the floor. He looked up, silently asking why he was being detained, but only received this in response:
"How do you feel? You should stay in bed. I'm sorry, friend." It sounded sad, but he was more interested in walking.
"Nothing," he answered as simply as he could. It was difficult for him to focus or think of something complex, and his throat felt scratchy. Maybe because of a lack of water? He couldn't say.
"Nothing?" repeated the purple thing with a trident. He had an idea.
"Poseidon~" he sang with difficulty, pointing to the weird being, and adding: "gay~"
"…The poor thing is more than overdrugged." said the guy with the trident, with a face of few friends but without getting upset for some reason.
"That explains why he doesn't feel anything… they went too far—Hey!" Wow, the horns were removable.
"Well, he doesn't even recognize his own name…" Name?
"Forget that he knows who we are—"
"Cir-co," he insisted. If you knew, they were the circus. What else did he need to know?
"…At least he's awake."
"And on drugs."
"And painless."
"And—"
"Trick," he complained. Weren't they supposed to do something funny or silly? They were from the circus.
Everyone present fell silent for some reason, which he did not care about. However, one of them decided to simply push him back to the bed until he was lying down and run his fingers through his chin, face, and hair.
"Kayayayayaya!" Following the laughter, several explosions occurred.
From the sofa, a certain mafia boss got up in a very bad mood for having been awakened so early and in such a rude way. He had been having a good night's sleep for once… although he didn't even remember what it was about. He only remembered that it had to do with a circus and a gay Poseidon who was purple and had the shape of a mutant pineapple. Yes, a very good dream, too bad he wouldn't remember anything in a few minutes.
"Wahhhhhhhhhhh…" Tsuna didn't even blink at the crying. He just got up (still in a bad mood from the rude awakening) and went to the bathroom.
Ignoring all the screams, tears, and explosions, Tsuna took a good shower, got dressed, and wondered internally what the children were doing awake at 5:37 in the morning. It was simply too early, but it must have been a good thing for them to be so lively and destroying the house. When Tsuna went to the dining room, he partially understood what was happening. Apparently, Bianchi had woken Lambo unintentionally, and from there, everything went down the drain. Now, the question was why Bianchi was up so early. Tsuna shrugged; he would find out later. For now, he had no interest in that, and it was better not to ask when everything was in chaos. It was the best thing for his health.
"Good morning, Tsu-kun. I didn't expect to see you so early…" Nana smiled sweetly and then scolded him: "What are you doing dressed like that? You won't go anywhere today."
You have to be kidding… I feel fine, and you don't like me to miss classes, Tsuna thought, very confused. His mother forced him to stay home when he was sick, but once he was better, everything went back to normal. That included the mild scolding here and there about his bad grades… which he hadn't had in a while. Tsuna frowned mentally, confused. Why is she laughing? I haven't done anything funny… and the house is being blown up with tears and gunpowder. No one should be laughing about that, especially if it's their home… Although Mom has always overlooked many things…
"My cute Tsu-kun…" Tsuna blushed slightly, and she just laughed at him. Like any mother, she enjoyed embarrassing her son sometimes. "There's no school for you today, so go and change." Seeing that her son wasn't moving, she took out one of her secret weapons: "Bianchi~"
At the sound of the name, Tsuna reacted quickly and rushed to his room. He didn't need anyone's help, thank you very much, and much less from a girl. That would be too awkward, aside from the death threats and poisonous food, of course. Nana just laughed softly. What else was she going to do? She had to enjoy the fun of the situation. She wasn't very confident about how good he looked, which could be the fault of the medicine, although she was glad he was already better. Besides, Tsuna could miss a class or two more. He had such good grades that it not only surprised her and made her feel like the proudest mother in the world but also made her happy. Apparently, all her Tsu-kun really needed were friends and a good tutor, nothing more.
Because there was another day missing, nothing happened. Plus, Tsuna needed to rest and relax a little more. But for now, she had to make breakfast, clean the house, and go shopping. She would take the opportunity to buy something special for her son while she was out.
"…I can't believe Mom did that." She was never the strictest mom in the world, but she wasn't exactly happy when I skipped school or stayed there too late… which wasn't my decision as such…
Tsuna sighed deeply before grabbing the most comfortable clothes she could find at first glance in her closet, and then dressed up again. If I ask him something about it, he will not tell me anything, or the answer he gives me will be cryptic and will leave me with many more questions than answers… I guess I'll stick with the questions I have. They're fewer than they will be if I ask any of them…
Even with that conclusion, Tsuna was still not satisfied, but he had no choice but to leave it at that unless he wanted to end up worse. Well, at least he could always go see what was happening on TV or watch movies, or maybe get his precious sleeves and entertain himself for a while. And if none of that worked, he could go back to sleep or play with Natsu, who must have been a little annoyed for not being called to eat sweets… something he would not allow to happen now. A high-sugar lion cub only meant one thing: terror. Why terror? People generally didn't take kindly to seeing a lion or a lion cub, hearing roars, seeing teeth and claw marks anywhere, and God only knows what else. And frankly, he was not in the mood to deal with the neighbors or try to keep up with Natsu in those conditions, who would surely want to play with him and would do whatever he had to do to achieve it.
"…What are you doing in my bed?" Tsuna asked curiously after making sure he was seeing well. "And how did you get here?" Reborn may have had something to do with it, but…
Leon didn't say anything and seemed to smile at him, his eyes fixed on him, purring when his hand touched his skin, and… Tsuna did a double-take, mortified and incredulous at what his eyes saw.
"You…" He didn't know what to say to him. Worse, he didn't know what to think of himself about it.
Leon only laughed before climbing on his head and snuggling into his hair, satisfied with what he had achieved and with having surprised him in such a way. Yes, Leon was very happy. Twenty-five years old or not, he was still the same old boy who could be easily surprised. Besides, he was sure that no one had given him a gift in a long time because of the way he reacted. It was sad because it had been too obvious that he was preparing a gift for him. What kind of future would that boy have? Apparently, one he didn't want to meet and at the same time wanted to change because he didn't like what he had been perceiving since Tsuna arrived.
"…No… I don't know what to say…" Tsuna murmured, taking the gloves, now without fingers, very similar to driving gloves.
León only laughed, now much more than satisfied. He had only tweaked them a little so that he could have them on all the time, so he couldn't forget them, could he? He had also reinforced them, but they were basically still the same.
"Thank you… thank you very much…" He couldn't think of anything else to say.
However, the gloves weren't the only thing he was seeing. There was another object: a short chain. Tsuna didn't understand what the chain was for, but he did know one thing: it was indestructible. Maybe he could tie someone or something… it was the only thing he could think of, though… Tsuna blinked several times, unable to believe what she was seeing, and unable to help it, tears began to fall down her cheeks. Taken totally by surprise, León ended in a powerful hug and a shower of thanks.
"Who is Tsu-kun talking to?" Nana wondered, since Tsuna didn't have a phone at the moment. Reborn-chan had told her that he had lost it.
In an unfamiliar place, an elderly person got off a plane, a friendly smile covering his face as he was escorted to a nearby facility.