Damn! He had felt his Intuition intervening there. He had wanted to ask if it was the blond's first time out of his birth-country, but the little alien in his head had seized the commands and spouted its own question. The thing was only growing more imperious over the years. It had been more subdued back in Namimori. Meeting Hayato and returning to save him had been the first time it had given what had felt like an order; before that it had only been strong suggestions.
He had dismissed it a the time, thinking it had been a fluke, but his Intuition had acted up again when facing off against Mukuro, Ken and Chikusa, and he been even worse against the Vindice. The whole debacle at the Varia mansion had been the same, and Tsuna had figured that his Intuition only ever forced him to act in life-threatening situations, and settled for suggestions and advice in any other circumstances.
But that was clearly not the case. Spanner was not at any real risk that he knew of, and his Intuition didn't give off the feeling of impending danger. Yet for the first time, it had forcefully made Tsuna do something he had not intended to, even if only in the form of switching a question for another. If the brunet and his friends had not been saved multiple times by the alien in his head, and if he had not felt the intrinsic certitude that it was a part of him and would never truly act against him and those he held dear, he would have been seriously freaked out.
Or rather, he would have been seriously scared; as it was, he was freaked out, but not really frightened. Probably because his Intuition was whispering to him that there was nothing to be afraid of, which was a conundrum, but he didn't have the will to think about it anymore.
"Ah, no." Deadpanned Spanner. "I was thinking that I would find a corner to sleep for tonight and try to figure something out afterwards. I don't mind sleeping on the streets : it's warmer here than in Britain, and if anything happens, I'll have my Mosca to protect me. I left it in its transportation box in a deserted alley a few streets over, and it is programmed to issue threats if anyone gets too close, followed by warning shots and actual shooting if someone other than me still tries to take it away."
There was so much wrong with that statement that Tsuna didn't even want to deal with it. So he didn't. However, he did catch Shoichi and Byakuran -two schemers, even if the redhead didn't openly admit it- sharing a meaningful glance before turning to him and making puppy dog eyes. They were not as practiced as Hayato's, but Tsuna had never been good at saying no to his friends (unless they wanted something truly ridiculous, and even then, he often folded).
Curse his bleeding heart and his manipulative friends!
"Fine." He huffed at Byakuran and Shoichi. The Sun gave him a grateful, if slightly rueful smile, but the older teen only looked smug. Hayato was looking back and forth at all three of them curiously since he had missed the byplay. "Hey, Spanner?" He looked at the blond. "We have a house not very far from here by bus and there are several free rooms. You can crash there until you find a way back home if you want. You can even bring your robot, since I don't think it's very safe to keep it in a street." For the robot, and for any unlucky passerby, but Tsuna was not about to explain that. He knew enough weirdos and eccentrics to know that Spanner would likely not understand why what he had done was actually dangerous.
Spanner's eyes lit up. "Really? Then I'll take your offer. Thank you, Tsunayoshi. Maybe you guys could even show me the labs you spoke about earlier."
Oh, Tsuna could already imagine the chaos that would arise if one more mad scientist entered their labs, especially since Spanner didn't know about Flames and most experiments revolved around those. But before he could try to kindly object, the door to the conference room opened and a mad rush to the seats started.
While they had been talking, more people had gathered in front of the room where Verde would give his lecture without them noticing. Thankfully, they had been at the front of the queue, and they all managed to find a seat near each other in one of the first rows. If they had been any farther the waiting line, they would have likely been pushed around by the frantic adults, and, being much smaller, they would probably never have found available seats.
Tsuna would have to wait for the end of the lecture to decline Spanner's visit of the labs. For now, he was preparing himself for two hours of scientific gibberish he could not understand in a hundred years while his friends ascended to geek heaven. But he was fine as long as they were happy, and they were obviously elated to attend this mysterious Verde's conference, so the Sky would make do.
No point this time for figuring out who the next character to be introduced will be ;) but you can try guessing who the one after than is.
Chapter 23: That learned about robots
Start from the beginning
