For what had to be one of those rare moments in her life, Noelle was up before seven. Before, she'd need the help of her alarm clock to accomplish that but today she had actually managed to get up on her own. Though she was still somewhat sleepy, she knew that if she fell asleep again she'd probably wake up three hours later and would be late for her first day at Namimori Middle School.
Which was not a good thing considering who headed the up Namimori Middle Discipline Committee in the first place.
"Ugh... what a great way to start off." Noelle muttered as she vividly remembered her first encounter with the demon skylark.
About a week ago, when Noelle had decided to go see what the school she was soon going to attend was going to be like, she had come across the actual and in live tonfa wielding delinquent Kyoya Hibari who made it clear that he didn't like her being near the school grounds when she wasn't a student there.
Yet.
She only had to see the flash of his concealed weapon to know that she was to get out of the area immediately.
So while she looked forward to attending the school where she'd meet Tsuna and the others, she was definitely not looking forward to the part where she'd have to see Hibari again.
He didn't seem as scary as everyone thought he was in the anime or manga when you were behind the lines of reality and fiction reading about Tsuna's adventures, but it was a whole different perspective when she had come across him face to face and he had been out for her blood.
And since it was Hibari, he'd probably recognize her; not that it was a hard thing considering that she had the stereotyped all-american girl looks which she hated with a passion. That sort of thing made you stand out; especially when you were in a foreign country in a town like Namimori.
Thinking about the people she had once recognized as being characters in a manga, she remembered one evening when she had just narrowly missed being run over by Ryohei Sasagawa when he was doing one of his training regiments. She had been out for a walk when she saw the tanned middle schooler running towards her. Fast.
She had barely managed to throw herself out of the way.
Finishing up her breakfast which was cereal and buttered toast, she dumped the dishes in the sink and quickly washed them before heading to her bedroom and getting dressed in the school uniform that she had been provided with.
She examined herself in front of the body length mirror that her condo (it was way too nice and shiny to call an apartment) provided for her. The skirt was black and she wore a white blouse with a red bow tied on it. Since it was spring, she had to wear a beige coloured blazer with the Namimori Middle crest over top the blouse.
Having gone to a public schools for most of her first life, it was definitely going to take her a while to get the whole japanese school uniform concept down.
Brushing the long strands of hair that came down to the middle of her back, Noelle wondered if she should get a hair cut. It was easier to fight with short hair, but she could also easily tie it back with an elastic.
But the thing was was that she had also grown quite fond of her hair being long. Back at the Serafin mansion, she had wanted to cut her hair but most of the other females didn't want her to; apparently, they designated her as their dress up doll and often did her hair in various styles or made her wear frilly clothes or other things they wanted to see her in.
The bad thing about it was that she had grown so accustomed to having her hair put in various styles, she always had to wear something in her hair. Whether it was a hair clip, a ribbon, a headband or it just had to be tied back in either a pony tail. Geez, she felt like she was the new Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket. She could probably easily cosplay as her too if Noelle's hair was dark brown instead of platinum blonde and her eyes were a darker shade of blue.
After a five minute debate that consisted of her standing in front of the mirror and wondering how she should do her hair, she decided on brunches. She divided her hair up into two sections and using two black elastics with blue coloured balls attached, tied them into low ponytails that lay on her shoulders.
"That should do it!" She exclaimed, examining her handiwork proudly. Noelle had wanted to add in the red ribbons she had gotten for her birthday but decided that would make her seem too standoffish- not to mention she wasn't sure if it was allowed in the rules and she did not want to find out by Hibari chasing her all around the school.
Glancing at the thin wristband watch on her arm, she saw that it was nearly eight. School wouldn't start for a bit, but it wouldn't hurt to leave now to check what class she was going to be in.
And it would be nice not to always be rushing for class before the last bell would ring like she always did she was still alive.
0000
"Angel gene?" A ten year old Noelle asked as she sat on the grass cross legged.
She was sitting in the huge garden in the Serafin estate surrounded by trees whose leaves were gently blowing in the wind accompanied by the sound of birds chirping. This was usually where she went for her Serafin history lessons since her teacher who taught her their history preferred the great outdoors rather than teaching in a stuffy room.
Sitting in front of Noelle was a woman with shoulder length blonde hair even lighter than her's that it could be white and hazel green tinged eyes. She was wearing a white dress with a ring of flowers on her head, also sitting cross legged. If there was only one word that could be used to describe her, it was that she looked like a hippie.
"Yes." The woman said. She was Noelle's teacher in Serafin history; something Noelle found fascinating to learn. "It's what we use to explain our different... body physiology."
Since they had already died, their bodies in the world they went to complete their trials was a bit different than those of the actual living. It was a reminder that while they weren't entirely dead any more, they weren't fully alive either.
They were more durable, so pain wasn't a concerning factor but they also had to be careful about it. That meant they had to fake many of their injuries being more serious than they actually were.
Many people in the mafia world were already interested in the Serafin and it didn't need to be said that they should give any more reason as to why they should be scrutinized by those greedy eyes. While Vongola may have been the most powerful famiglia in Italy, the Serafin were known as being the most mysterious not only in Italy but the entire world.
"Can we get killed?" Noelle asked.
"No." Her teacher replied. "But that's another factor working against us and something we especially have to be extremely cautious about."
"Huh?" Noelle looked surprised. "But if we can't get killed, doesn't that mean we're likely to complete our trial since we're basically guaranteed not to kick the bucket?"
"Yes. We don't die until our trial is completed." The woman nodded. "But if we're struck fatally and are still alive, how do we explain it to those who witnessed us surviving a fatal blow?"
"Uh..." Her teacher had made a very good point. Exactly how would she be able to explain getting shot in the heart and walking around like nothing ever happened?
Noelle thought about it for a few minutes and came to the conclusion that she would not be able to bluff her way out of that one.
"So how do we depart from this world after our trial?" Noelle changed the topic since she wasn't able to get an answer to her previous question.
"We disappear the same way we died in our previous world." The teacher sighed softly. "I was killed during an earthquake when part of the already exposed structure of my house fell on top of me so it's likely that's how I'll die in this world as well."
Noelle blanched; did that mean she was going to get shot again when her time came?
0000
Noelle had gotten to school with plenty of time to spare. Unfortunately...
"You're that herbivore from last week."
Standing behind her and pressing his tonfa against her neck was the one and only Hibari. She knew that it would only be a matter of time when he confronted her, but first thing in the morning when she was checking to see what class she was going to be in was ridiculous.
Then again, he had been hiding in the shadows somewhere surveying the students who entered the school grounds. She had barely sensed his presence before he had his weapon at her throat.
"Um... nice to see you again?" Noelle winced when the head of the Namimori Middle Discipline Committee tonfa dug even further into her skin. "Hey! Watch it!"
Around them, various students stopped to watch the scene unfold. The second and third years could only guess too well what the delinquent was about to do to the poor student who had caught his eye. The first years who had no idea who Hibari was were going to learn first hand as to why he shouldn't be annoyed.
"Dyeing your hair is against the school rules." He stated.
Noelle could feel a vein popping up from behind her head. That's why he was threatening her? He thought she had actually dyed her hair?
She whirled around to glare at the most feared person of the school. She didn't care that he could beat her to the ground, but like hell was she going to let him get away with implying that she had dyed her hair.
"This is my natural hair colour." She told him, annoyance lacing her every word.
Noelle heard the people around them gasp. No one stood up to Hibari; even those who didn't know what he was like. His glare was enough to put off any one who had the notion of telling him off.
Hibari didn't seem fazed by her outburst but then again, as far as Noelle knew, hardly anything made him bat an eyelash.
There was silence as everyone waited with abated breaths as to what would happen next.
With a grunt, Hibari turned away from her and walked off to continue his student watching.
Noelle wasn't the only one who stared after him with disbelief as onlookers gawked. Did he just let her go without saying his trademark phrase of 'I'll bite you to death' translated as 'kamikorosu' in Japanese? She stared at his retreating form for a few seconds before turning back to the class listings for the freshman to try and find what class she was in before Hibari had so rudely interrupted her.
She ignored the whispering around her as the other students began talking about the new girl (who was a gaijin none the less) standing up to Hibari without so much as a trace of fear and did not get beaten for her efforts.
While she gave off the pretense of looking for her name on the board and not being bothered by their whisperings, she was biting down on her lip; something she did when she felt uncomfortable in a situation.
Noelle finally spotted her name on the list for Class 1-A. Her eyes roamed the paper and to her delight she saw that the very boy she was suppose to be protecting was in the same class with her along with Yamamoto, Kyoko, Hana and eventually Gokudera.
Yes! Noelle broke out into a smile for the first time that morning.
She turned away and headed inside the school to find her class for the rest of the year.
0000
It shouldn't have surprised her that the news about her standing up to Hibari had already spread through out the school. Some things like gossip were just universal no matter where you went.
Practically everyone she had come across stared at her while also standing a respectable distance away. After all, someone who could stand up to him deserved some kind of respect.
She finally found her assigned classroom and walked in...
...only to find more people staring at her.
Noelle sighed and concentrated on going over to the back seat at the row closest to the windows. At least she'd be able to avoid most of the stares; but once she plopped into the seat, people still found a way to steal glances at her.
She contemplated the idea of glaring at them to tell that she didn't appreciate being the target of gossip, but that would probably make things worse and earn her a reputation that would probably scare away Tsuna; something that she did not want because it was hard to protect someone who was terrified of you.
"Think that maybe she's a delinquent?" She heard someone say. "I mean, her hair is blonde."
"Nah. She told that scary guy it was her natural hair colour." Someone whispered back. "Plus, she has blue eyes. She's definitely a foreigner!"
"How do you know? She could be wearing contacts!"
"Don't think so! There was a 'Serra Noelle' written on the class list; I bet that's her!"
Noelle slammed her head into the desk with a groan, tempted to repeat the action several times. But she didn't want to give her future classmates even more fuel to talk about; she had enough being the center of attention for one day, thank you very much.
Instead, she allowed herself to rest her forehead against the cold wooden surface of the table as she tried to drown out the noise.
"Oof!" A sudden crash made her look up but she couldn't see anything. Several of her classmates peered around their desks to see what the commotion was all about and when they saw the cause of the noise, several of them broke out into laughter.
Noelle couldn't see what it was that her peers found amusing from where she was sitting, but she had a feeling about what the source of the noise was. She got up from her desk and walked to the front of the room to find someone sprawled all over the floor.
It was a boy with tall spiky brown hair. His eyes were closed as he grimaced at the impact of falling onto the floor and he didn't seem to realize that Noelle was standing right over him.
Reaching out, she grabbed the boy by his upper arm and easily hauled him up as if he weighed as much as a feather. It wasn't that hard a feat with her cursed super strength that could easily send anyone she punched flying into a wall.
"Eh?" The boy opened his eyes and blinked at her with light brown orbs.
It was definitely him.
The boy she had helped up was Tsunayoshi Sawada, the future tenth Vongola boss.
She smiled at the boy, unable to contain her joy at finally meeting the person she had been assigned to protect. "That sounded painful. Are you okay?" She asked.
Tsuna stared at Noelle dumbfounded, not quite sure as to what he should say. His face turned bright red and he stammered when he tried to speak to her, not quite able to comprehend that someone had been nice enough to help him, much less a girl. The only one who had ever given him the time of the day was Kyoko-chan.
"Y-yes." He gulped, his eyes unable to meet hers. "Th-thank you very much!" He bowed.
"You're welcome!" Noelle was still smiling. It seemed that despite the fact he was practically mocked everyday by his own classmates, he still had manners. "But you don't need to bow to me when you thank me. I just did what any person in my position would do."
Noelle spotted his school bag quite a distance from where he had fallen. She was about to go over and pick it up when someone else beat her to it.
A girl with fair skin, orange hair and soft golden eyes walked over to them. She handed Tsuna the bag also smiling.
"Here you go, Sawada-kun!" She said cheerfully.
Noelle didn't think it was possible since she was in an actual reality where the people and events of Katekyo Hitman Reborn were real, but were Noelle's eyes deceiving her or were those actual sparkles behind the girl? She could already tell who the classmate was by her appearance only, but the sparkles...the sparkles pretty much spelled it out.
It was the one, the only, naive, kind and caring Kyoko Sasagawa; the School Idol and the object of Tsuna's blatantly obvious affections.
Tsuna seemed utterly speechless this time as his face reddened ten fold with him holding onto the very bag his crush had returned to him.
His face was completely red and his mind seemed to have died at that exact moment making it impossible for him to form any words in his head, much less say them. Noelle turned away slightly from him chuckling at his compete flabbergasted expression, her shoulders shaking as she tried not to outright laugh at him.
"Sawada!" A fourth voice interrupted, giving Noelle a chance to contain her laughter.
A girl with long black wavy hair and grey eyes who Noelle recognized as Kyoko's best friend in Namimori Middle, Hana Kurokawa, snorted at the boy's completely beet red face.
"Two cute girls talk to you and the only thing you could do is just stand there and gape like an idiot?"
It was Noelle's turn to redden as she realized that Hana just called her 'cute'. Not once had anyone actually called her cute (okay, except the Serafin but they didn't really count since she had been six at the time). Her super human strength seemed to throw most people off and according to society, you had to look like a 'come save me' damsel in distress to either be considered cute or pretty.
And not be able to out strength the boys because no one wanted a girl who could easily emasculate you.
"H-Hana-chan!" Kyoko sounded as horrified as Noelle felt at being referred to as such.
"What? It's true." Hana actually 'tsked' at the boy who seemed ready to faint on the spot. "The School Idol and the beautiful foreigner all on the first day of school. He should consider himself lucky."
"Um, how about we just get back to our seats?" Noelle coughed, her cheeks tingling as she tried to fight down the blush forming on her face. "Class is going to start soon..."
She turned away from her three classmates, walking to her desk as fast as her legs could take her.
Her first day at Namimori Middle could not end soon enough.
This is my longest chapter and I wrote it all in one day
3281 words