The Summoning Pact

Chapter 20 - Beaten Down, Built Back Up

Chapter 20 – Beaten Down, Built Back Up

The cacophony of noise that follows makes Tsuna feel sick, stomach roiling uncomfortably. Byakuran's Cheshire grin, the smug smile of the cat that got the canary and the cream, barely even wavered.

"How you even think any of us – " Colonello began in a snarl, stepping forward as his eye glittered.

"Now, now," Byakuran interjected. "It's not just personal feelings at stake."

Tsuna watched nervously, hand reaching out to grasp Skull's arm for reassurance, and as Byakuran turned to face him in the same movement, his skin seemed to ripple and wave, as if not completely attached properly to his skeleton, his muscles and flesh floating freely.

In that ripple, Tsuna saw something he didn't expect and his mouth went dry.

"W-Wait," Tsuna stammered, using his grip on Skull to lever himself to his feet. "It's Mammon, right?"

The room went still and silent, aside from Bermuda's pained gurgling from the floor, the slick sound of Reborn's hands and wrists twisting around inside of him still.

"You snake," Colonello spat. "You know we can't see you as you are and you still come in here wearing that ugly mug!"

Byakuran-Mammon gave a careless shrug and in the same moment, slick, like oil over water, the disguise slipped away leaving a hooded figure behind. Or, at least, most of him.

Mammon slowly flipped his hood back with his remaining hand, the left simply gone to the elbow with just a smooth stump remaining but everything still on display, bone, tendon, muscle, just no blood to show for a crippling injury.

Tsuna barely noticed this, as clean a wound as it was. Mammon's face was so much graver, a gaping hole in the upper right of his head, half an eye still oozing down his face, splinters of skull bone still left behind in the gut wrenching dip left behind.

Reborn made a move to stand and Mammon shoved his hand forward, a motion to stop.

"No. Bermuda needs your help more than I. My wounds are superficial, Bermuda's are so much worse. I can help. But I want – need – the contract with Tsuna. Otherwise I can't help."

"You mean you won't," Colonello muttered bitterly. "You only do things for the right price after all, and a contract with Tsuna seems like a fair a price as any."

"No," Mammon said patiently, and the mess that was once some of his eye hit the floor with a wet splat. Tsuna gagged, and a morosely silent Skull rubbed circles into his shoulder in a soothing motion.

"I mean I can't. Bermuda has been Splintered."

And if Tsuna thought the room had been loud upon the fake Byakuran's entry, it was nothing compared to the roar of noise that followed Mammon's angry, hushed words.

"Here," Fon murmured some indistinct time later, pushing a cold bottle of water into Tsuna's hand, the Summoner once again seated. Tsuna hadn't even seen or heard him arrive.

"Drink this, you look a little shell-shocked." Fon paused only long enough to watch Tsuna's fingers curl around the bottle before his worried gaze passed first to Bermuda and then to Mammon who Skull was tending to manually with gentle, diligent care.

"What does it mean, that Bermuda's been Splintered?" Tsuna asked the lid of his bottle and Fon exhaled heavily next to him, lowering a hand to rest gently on his shoulder.

"Barbaric," Reborn spat from across the room, staring into the depths of Bermuda as if he were a knot and he was trying to find where next to pick it apart. "A disgusting, ugly practice that crawled out of the deepest, darkest hole from when everything was new and bright and all the bad had to hide out somewhere."