He equipped Time Accel and Speed. Shock Absorption had its place, but speed is king. He flexed his fingers lightly as he cast a look at Reborn on his shoulder. If he pushed his speed to the absolute limit, would he be able to take the fucker out?
Reborn must have read his bubbling, violent intentions as he looked at Tsuna with a raised eyebrow and a taunting smile. Again, that violent urge to punch him in the face flared up, but he held it back.
Reborn was irritating, but he was a source of valuable information. If he did not get that info dump from Reborn about Harmonization, he might have snuffed out the connection he formed with Hana, fearing what it was without knowing the truth.
Besides, killing him was no longer on Tsuna's to-do list. The guy was annoying, and he was a threat, but he agreed to leave his mother alone, so there was little point to nearly breaking every bone in his body to attack him.
"Awww, did the little Tsuna-fish give up?" Reborn mocked him, and Tsuna clenched his fists and gritted his teeth but held back. Reborn's mockery was telling him even in this state, he was not a threat to the monstrous creature.
"Did anyone tell you that you have a punchable face?" Tsuna spat back and rushed towards Haru's school a fair bit faster already as his base speed was enhanced from Speed.
Reborn let out a snort and cracked his tiny knuckles.
"Plenty of people, but those who did tend to die in mysterious ways. You want to join in on the trend, Tsuna-fish?" Reborn poked him again, and Tsuna had his murderous intentions rising again despite his self-control.
Reborn really knew where to poke to get a reaction from someone. The only person who called him fucking Tsuna-fish was his deadbeat father. As you can imagine, that particular word was driving Tsuna nuts.
"You have a punchable face, and a kickable body, you midget." Tsuna spat back with some hostility. Reborn stared blankly at him from his position on Tsuna's shoulder.
Tsuna matched his look fully; if the little shit wanted to be annoying, Tsuna could be annoying as well. Besides, he could tell that Reborn was not going to attack him over something like this. He was likely to mess with Tsuna, but he got the vibe that Reborn was going to do that anyway.
Reborn eventually broke the stare and let out a chuckle.
"Brave little shit, you're lucky I like you, or you would be waking up in the Atlantic without any clothes on." Reborn shot back and dropped the subject.
Tsuna let out a snort and let it go as well. Tsuna tested Speed and spent some energy to increase his speed. The already rapid base was expanding as he reached almost car levels in speed.
The world blurred around him, and he felt the drain appearing almost instantly. Although he was surprised at what was being drained. His dying will flames were draining from his Speed ability. It was not even a lot. Compared to the vast amount of flames slumbering underneath his flesh, the small amount being consumed might as well be a joke.
It was like trying to empty a lake with one bucket at a time.
He frowned for a moment and tried another experiment, briefly activating Time Accel to see what was being drawn from that.
He traveled across the ground at an unreal speed for a brief moment, houses flashing by. The same strain on his body appeared as the timeline put pressure on his separate timeline. He turned the ability off quickly, but he could tell that it also drained dying will flames.
It was even less than Speed, partly because he flicked the thing on and off, but mostly because the cost appeared to mainly be the physical strain the timeline forced onto his body.
That was interesting; it was likely that all of his abilities would draw upon his dying will flames, leaving him an easy way to raise his pool of energy. His pool of flames expanded massively when he first got the Hanma trait, which made sense.
The Hanma trait was all about giving your bloodline the best physical potential, and Dying Will Flames were based on his body's cell activity.
"You figured out another trick? This newfound speed, plus the time manipulation you were doing, would be a massive threat." Reborn hedged after a moment, interrupting Tsuna's thoughts.
Tsuna gave a smug grin of his own at the little shit. Let's see him prod Tsuna when he gained the ability to dog-walk the smug prick.
"Yup, just you wait. One of these days I'm going to punch you in your smug little face." Tsuna bragged, and Reborn rolled his eyes and gave him a mocking smile.
"Kid, I've been hearing that all my life, and trust me, scarier guys have said it. You got potential, but I am on a whole different level." Reborn declared with an idle shrug.
Tsuna rolled his eyes at the smug prick. He was not sure where Reborn stood in the hierarchy of the hidden world, but the Chaos Gacha had interactions with Lady Fate herself. Tsuna would not be surprised if he grew strong enough to blow up a planet like Goku.
Finally, Tsuna arrived at Haru's school. The campus was really impressive, large and expansive, and the buildings looked brand new. The gate for the school was also a lot more secure with guards instead of the old man who usually sat at the school.
Then again, Namimori had Hibari; there was little chance of anyone slipping by that guy.
Tsuna slowed down and approached the guards at the gate, not even breathing heavily from the run from Namimori to this school despite the distance.
The man at the booth examined him with a deep frown as Tsuna approached, wary at the boy he did not recognize coming towards the gate.
This school was for the elite, and anyone approaching it without reason was a problem. The man took out a walkie-talkie and reported the strange boy and waited for him to approach.
The confidence Tsuna was feeling stilled at that sight, but he got over it and continued his journey to the booth.
"What do you need, kid?" the guard asked gruffly, his gaze boring into the smaller boy. Discipline screamed in his every action.
Tsuna gave a disarming smile and took out the blazer he had stored in his bag.
"One of the students here lent me this blazer. I came to return it." Tsuna spoke softly, not wanting to make a scene over something so minor.
The man let out a grunt and looked him over.
"You got a name? If you do, you can leave it here; I can return it when they pass the gate." The guard offered.
Tsuna frowned for a brief moment. He was planning on heading in and finding Haru himself, but that appeared not to be an option. He could do it anyway, but he did not want to make a big scene here.
"Haru Miura," Tsuna stated simply and hesitated for a moment.
"Can I not wait here for her to come out?" Tsuna hedged, not wanting to leave without talking to the girl at least. The guard frowned back at him and let out a sigh.
"Look, kid. A lot of important people go to this school. Having a strange kid waiting at the gate because he might have to return something is not going to work. Either hand it over or get lost." The guard spoke out firmly, and Tsuna frowned at the guard.
"You got the connections to waltz in here if you want, Tsuna; just a call to Nono, and they will roll out the red carpet for you. Don't underestimate your influence." Reborn offered, and Tsuna blinked at that.
The guard almost rolled his eyes at the baby's nonsense but held it back. The man was disciplined enough not to let his personal feelings interfere with his job. Besides, what if the baby really was telling the truth? Why risk offending someone when you can choose to follow the rules?
Tsuna almost felt his jaw go slack for a moment. He knew he was effectively an heir to a supernatural syndicate, but he never really thought what that would mean in society.
He hesitated for a moment, thinking about doing just that, but eventually gave up. He may be the heir, but the more he involved himself with the Vongola, the faster he would interact with the supernatural world. He wanted to wait a little longer before entering that world.
"No, that's fine. I'll leave the blazer here. Can you thank the girl for me when you hand it over?" Tsuna asked politely, and the guard grunted as he took the blazer but nodded at the request.
Tsuna let out a sigh at the wasted trip but left the gate, heading towards his home. Not rushing this time.
"You are too polite for your own good. Take what you want, kid. There is very little that can stop people like us." Reborn offered his advice after a moment.
Tsuna let out a snort.
"I know I could do that, but what would be the point? I wanted to thank the girl again, but if it turned out to be too much of a problem, it would be better to just retreat. I'm strong, but as you can attest, there are forces out there that can absolutely destroy me. It's better to lie low for now."
Tsuna shot back, not paying much attention. There was a buzz in his mind that was distracting him.
"Sensible, surprisingly so from the boy who tried to kill himself to kill me." Reborn spoke out quietly, and Tsuna snorted.
"You know exactly why that happened," Tsuna spoke out and frowned even deeper as that buzz started to ring louder.
His feet were leading him in a direction he did not plan on going. Still in the direction of his home, but more on the main street instead of the side ones he wanted to take.
"I do; you got lines in the sand. I crossed one. Still, the amount of self-control you have is impressive." Reborn spoke out as he hummed to himself.
Tsuna went to respond, but the buzz rang sharply as he caught sight of someone standing near the road, stock-still.
A thin girl with long purple hair that covered one eye. Her other eye was showing a vivid purple. She was wearing the same uniform that Haru had, so they went to the same school. But her noticeable looks and her uniform were not what caught his attention.
Lonely, lonely, and even more lonely. That was what his mind was screaming at him as he looked at her. She was so desperately alone in a familiar aching way. It had his heart throbbing and his palms sweating as he caught sight of her.
He took a step towards her before he even knew what he was doing.
Her gaze was locked onto something in the road with an almost panicky mood. She looked left and right desperately and gritted her teeth. Before she jumped over the rails on the road and ran with everything she had towards something in the center of the road.
Tsuna froze for a moment, Reborn letting out a curse on his shoulder and already moving to do something, but paused as he felt Tsuna shift.
Flames that did not answer his call bloomed as he rushed to act. Orange flickering to life, enhancing his physical body as he pushed all of his speed abilities to their max.
His sight narrowed in an instant on the girl who clutched at the small cat she picked up from the road. A car barreling down on the two of them with enough speed and force to cripple the girl if she were lucky.
His form blurring as speed reached impossible standards, plucking the two out of the way with only seconds to spare. Holding the small girl to his chest as he vaulted over the rails again and arrived at the other side of the road with his heart pounding.
A loud screech of tires burning the road and honks coming from the car that tried to swerve out of the way of a girl who was no longer there. The girl in question was tucked into his arms and was shaking with fear as her wide eyes were dazed, likely thinking she was still on the road.
Tsuna gently held her close and murmured that everything was fine. His own body shuddered from the backlash of forcing such a drastic timeline on himself. Blood slowly leaked from his mouth, but he held those signs back to reassure the trembling girl.
[Feat achieved! Change the Fate of the character Nagi/Chrome Dokuro]
[Received one advantage Gold Ticket!]
He had no idea why his instincts guided him onto this path, but this girl, who was aching in an oh so familiar fashion, felt so special to him for some reason.