VONGOLA RELOADED!

04: Friend

A week had gone by since the incident involving the Varia's attack. Although Nanami had recovered, she wasn't allowed to attend school--or go out anywhere else for that matter until she had passed several check ups, which owed much of its gratitude to Tomoe and Shin, who were both excellent Sun Flame users of the Vongola. Not only were they responsible for the checkups, but the two of them had also been there, nursing her back to health from the very beginning."

You should be fine now," Tomoe said. "All tests came back negative--which is very good. There's no internal bleeding or anything."

"Of course not," Nanami said. She smiled, glad that the tests were finally done. "I told you that it was all just exhaustion."

"Yeah, well..." Tomoe grinned, equally happy for her friend, "You got beat around by that ass pretty bad. We're just making sure."

"Thanks." Nanami snickered at Tomoe's sudden swearing.

Tomoe looked like an angel at first glance, but her foul mouth would always betray her appearance. It was the result of growing up with a mother who wanted everything to be prim and proper and a father who wanted her to become a fighting champion. Her parents would constantly fight over her future. Tomoe had always loved the action she embraced when she was in combat, but she also loved her mother. So when Tomoe had finally entered high school, she decided to leave behind the training her father had given her and become a proper young lady who attended art classes. Even so, despite the fact that she was highly skilled in painting, she would've taken up a pair of boxing gloves over a paintbrush any day of the week if she was given the opportunity.

Shin remained silent for the most part of the examination. His eyes were focused on the hospital monitors. Occasionally, he picked up his pen and began writing notes on the paper atop of his clipboard.

Nanami recalled that Shin was a very friendly person when she had initially been introduced to everybody by Kiou. He had even offered to look after Nanami if she found being around Ran to be too uncomfortable. Thats why it felt almost unnatural to see him so quiet. She glanced over to her friend, Tomoe, recalling the conversation they had before the attack:

"I ran away and now Shin refuses to talk to me or even look me in the eye," Tomoe had said.

It's not as if Nanami suspected Tomoe of having lied about that, but to hear about something and then actually witness it were two very different things. She wondered about Tomoe and Shin's relationship before the two of them had stopped talking to each other.

--

"You're all better now?" Ran asked. The lack of concern in his voice that contradicted his question worried Nanami, but she decided to ignore it.

"Yes." She was headed for the exit, but Ran stood in her way. "What is it?" she asked, avoiding his gaze.

"This." Ran reaches for Nanami's neck. He pulled out the necklace chain that Nanami had tucked away into her sweater. The inactive Vongola Sky Ring dangled from the chain. Fear had taken ahold of Nanami as she stood rooted to the ground. She didn't dare to move a single muscle. "So the rumors are true then. How did you come to acquire this?" He looked at Nanami menacingly.

"Nobu," she said hesitantly, "Nobu had given it to me in a small pouch on the day he had left. I had no idea what it was and by the time I opened the pouch up to see what was inside, it was already too late." Nanami's throat was dry. She felt useless and very much like she was a burden to the Neo Vongola. She had the ability to stop Nobu from leaving, but she didn't. "I'm sorry..." she unconsciously said to Ran.

"And?" Ran folded his arms. Nanami looked at him with a confused expression on her face. "What do you expect me to say-that it's alright?" Ran said, annoyed.