Hibari Kyoya was running away from a fight.
After accidentally getting his box weapon partner flame drunk and causing mass destruction in the area they were in as well as Irei trying to move the locations around, Kyoya decided to help Kusakabe out with the unconscious and beat up members of Vongola.
Adult Kusakabe looked at the younger Kyoya in shock as he wrapped Gokudera's arm around his shoulder, helping carry him. "I still owe this guy a favor. Plus, if I let you die here, I won't be able to bite you to death," Kyoya explained.
"Kyo... Kyo-san..." Kusakabe muttered. Then his eyes widened. "Tomoe-san?! Where is she?!"
The two looked around frantically. 'Dammit!' Kusakabe cursed under his breath. He was too distracted with helping the others and Kyoya's fight. And the moment he looked away from her...
Tomoe was gone.
"Vongola has already passed our third defense block."
"It's fine, just as expected," Irie replied, hand placed on the orb. "My defense block is more than that!"
The moment Tomoe awakened she realized that she was in the middle of Kyoya and the Phantom Knight's battle.
She had to get out of there as soon as she could. And when Kusakabe turned his attention away from her, shouting at Kyoya what to do with his flames and box weapon...
She ran.
Now, in hindsight it might have not been the best idea to separate from her allies and run around like a chicken without a head, but Tomoe's hyper intuition was yelling at her to get the hell out of there.
So, the girl trusted it.
Did she currently have a plan? I mean, no. No she did not. All plans were scrapped after adult Kyoya knocked her out. She one hundred percent knew that she got a concussion from that.
Tomoe was going to wing it. Improvise everything and anything. She'd make use of her surroundings and the people she somehow meets up with.
That's how she'll survive. I mean, that's what she's done from the beginning, right?
But for now, her main goal was to meet up with her family. That would be difficult though, it's not like she's going to-
"Tomoe!"
-run into them. Huh. Looks like plot armor was on her side for once.
The raven head stopped running, coming face to face with Ao, Juno, Momo, Aiko, and Hikari.
"You're alive!" Momo cried out in relief, hugging the shorter girl. "Thank goodness!!!"
"I'm glad you guys are safe too," Tomoe let out a happy sigh, accepting the hug before looking over at each of them. "Any injuries?" She let out a humming sound as Momo's sun flames gently wrapped around her injuries, healing them.
"None at all," Aiko answered, fixing her hood. "Thankfully, somehow we were all moved to the same place."
"And now we ran into you," Juno added. "This is perfect."
Ao nodded in agreement. "Let's go brats. I know the quickest way to get to Irie's device."
Hikari gripped her spear tighter. "Shoichi-kun..."
Tomoe fixed her cloak, expression serious. "Lead the way, Uncle Ao!"
Tsuna, Spanner, and Reborn all looked at the big device in front of them, the one that appeared in Tsuna's dreams, haunting him.
"This is... our goal," Tsuna mumbled, looking up at the giant piece of technology, his dying will flames burning brightly on his forehead.
"Yep, Shoichi's device," Spanner clarified.
"That you would actually beat Genkishi was beyond my calculations," a new voice said and the three turned to see Irie approaching them, two Cervello sisters on his sides. "Sawada Tsunayoshi."
"Irie... Shoichi!" Tsuna growled out, lifting up his gloved fist with sky flames, before noticing the two girls. "You're Cervello?!"
"First put down your fists, the talk comes after."
"Talk...?"
The redhead didn't bat an eye. "Didn't you hear? If you pull any smart moves they will die."
The walls opened to reveal a glass container with his comrades inside, some unconscious and some slowly waking up.
"Everyone!" The brunette screamed out, shocked.
"I put them with sleeping gas in a place surrounded by nanocomposite walls so they couldn't escape," Irie explained. "If you try something stupid to save them I'll change it to poison gas." To prove his point, the Cervello sister to his left held up a remote.
"Guh!" "...Shoichi?"
"Okay, that should do it." Click.
The gas cleared, filtering out and letting the guardians come back to reality.
"...Ugh..." Gokudera groaned. "...What a nightmare... strangling the tenth's throat..." Then, it seemed to hit him as he jumped up into a crouch, putting his hands against the glass wall. "Tenth! Did we get caught?!" His shout alerted Hibari and Kusakabe, proning them to jump up as well. "That's... the Cervello women!! Why are they?!"
"Your life is in my hands," Irie said. "I want to talk, so behave, won't you?"
"Irie Shoichi!" Kusakabe shouted, irked.
"Bastard!" Gokudera screamed, putting a hand in his pocket only to find nothing. His eyes opened in shock.
"Resistance is futile. I've taken... all your rings and box weapons." He opened his palm, showing the Vongola rings with a slight smirk.
"Wha!" "WHAT?!"
"What... is going on here...!!"
"Ugh... Sawada..." Lal Mirch grunted out. "Don't mind us! You must destroy the device!"
"That's right tenth!" Gokudera replied. "The round device! If you destroy that, we might be able to return to the past!"
"...Don't..." Chrome whispered, hesitant and Gokudera turned back to look at her.
"Why you! Did this situation make you want to lose your life or something?!"
"No... but..."
Irie cut off the simple talk. "Honestly, I'm amazed at your ignorance. If you destroy this device, the ones to be inconvenienced will be you, right?"
Tsuna looked confused. "What?!"
"Inside this device..."
The device began to open.
"It's opening!"
"Those who disappeared while being switched with you... are your future selves," he revealed and inside the device stood the bodies of their future selves, shocking everyone. "Although what we're seeing right now is a holographic image, they're actually disassembled to a molecular state and preserved inside."
"Wha... What is going on?!" Sweat rolle across Gokudera's face. "But ourselves from the future time..."
"They were supposed to have gone... with the Ten Year Bazooka's effect!" Kusakabe cut him off.
"That's right. In reality, someone shot by the Ten Year Bazooka should switch between their ten years later and present day form... however, this device managed to keep your future selves here before they went to the past," Irie explained to them, expression not faltering. "If yourselves from this time went to the past, they would do unnecessary things and cause a disturbance to the Tri-Ni-Sette Policy."
"Tri-Ni-Sette... policy...?" the storm repeated. "...If he knows about the Ten Year Bazooka... no way..."
"The one who shot the Ten Year Bazooka and sent us to this time... was it you?" Reborn questioned the redhead who stayed silent for a mere moment.
"Of course. The me of ten years ago could use this time's box weapons and technology, so I shot you with the Ten Year Bazooka. For example, by being exposed to the Anti-Tri-Ni-Sette, we managed to restrict the Arcobaleno's movements."
"...And that's how I was paralyzed at that time," Reborn realized.
"...But... why?!" Tsuna asked, yelling at the man. "Why would you go through all that trouble to get us in this time!"
"Irie-sama, any further..."
"No... I'll answer," he told the Cervello, not taking his gaze off Tsuna. "It's a simple story... For Byakuran-san to be able to destroy the world in his hands and make a new world, he needed the Vongola rings. In this world, there exist a large number of rings with hidden powers, which we call the Mare Rings, the Vongola Rings, and Arcobaleno Pacifiers, which all contain a set number of seven, a total number of twenty one rings. Well, 22 now with the snow ring. But, it was called the Tri-Ni-Sette. The Tri-Ni-Sette's ores are the cornerstones that created this world."
Those who did not know this information before were in shock, eyes wide at the sudden bomb drop.
"What... a story..."
"You're free to believe it or not, however... The Arcobaleno who sacrificed themselves because they were ordered to protect the Tri-Ni-Sette, can't deny this story." Lal Mirch and Reborn flinched from Irie's words.
"What?! Eh? Sacrifice... What? Re... Reborn and them have something to do with this?!" Tsuna couldn't wrap his head around it.
"We're done talking. I'm leaving the rest to you," Irie declared.
"Yes sir," the Cervello said as Irie turned his back to them. "Sawada Tsunayoshi, hand over the sky ring. If not, we'll poison your guardians."
"We're not done talking yet, Irie," Reborn called out to him. "There's one part I can't agree on."
"We're not negotiating. This is an order," the Cervello continued, holding the control in one hand while the other held a gun pointed at Tsuna. "If you don't obey within three seconds, you can't escape destruction."
"Just a..." "WAIT! You're Cervello right?!"
"Three."
"Damn woman! Tenth! Don't mind us, please get those guys!"
"But... there's no way i can...!"
"Two."
"HIIII!!!"
"Do it Sawada! After they get the sky ring, they'll kill us anyway!" Lal Mirch screamed.
"But..."
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Irie let out a sigh. "Couldn't you guys have waited until one?" he grumbled, turning back to look at the two Cervello sisters who suddenly fell to the ground.
"Iri...e...sa...ma...?"
"Don't think bad of me," Irie said, holding a gun in his hand. "It'll just make you a little sleepy."
"Ours won't," another voice said and the Vongola looked in shock as people in cloaks entered the room, steam coming from the two who held guns.
"Ha! Take that bitches!" the one holding the P90 cackled.
"Language." They were wacked in the back of the head by another cloaked person with a spear.
"Ouch!"
"You deserved that," the one with daggers said.
"Haa~... It's so hot... I'm all worn out," Irie whined, removing his cloak and ruffling his hair as he took off his Gesso uniform. "I thought I'd try it out just once... Sawada Tsunayoshi and everyone from the family. Ah... I'm so nervous. My knees are shaking." He let out a sigh once his uniform was off, revealing his casual clothes underneath.
One of the people in the hoods ran up to the red haired male before he could fall to the ground, supporting him. "Nice job, Shoichi-kun."
He smiled at the person before looking back at the Vongola, scratching the back of his head. "You did well to get this far. I was waiting for you..."
"Well done Sho-chan," another one of the hooded people said as they approached the exhausted male.
"Thank you, Tomoe-san."
"KOCHO-SENPAI?!" Yells rang out and Tomoe removed the hood from her head, smiling at the group.
"Yo." She lifted a hand in greeting.
"You're safe!!!" Tsuna hollered before the situation hit him and he looked at Irie. "YOU'RE ON OUR SIDE?! Senpai, did you know this?!?!"
The black haired girl nodded, patting Irie's shoulder. "Of course. Sho-chan is an old friend of mine."
"Y-Yeah. That's right..." At his answer, the Vongola group looked dumbfounded. "Normally, everything I do is under a 24 hour surveillance by my subordinates and the cameras which transmit directly to Byakuran-san, but that's to you guys and Kocho's fa-... er friends, everything's in a mess. Finally, I can talk without alerting the Millefiore people... Haaa~ I've been waiting forever for this moment... Being able to meet you in this base, under these conditions, was the goal we were planning from the start."
"Goal...?" Tsuna repeated.
"Wh-What the hell are you talking about?!" Gokudera snapped.
"The fact that you were brought to this era because the Millefiore wanted to take the Vongola rings is true," Irie said, slowly removing himself from the hooded person supporting him so he could stand on his own. "But, ever since you guys arrived in this era, I've been pulling the strings to get you here according to a secret plan we'd devised without the knowledge of Millefiore, so that you could undergo training and become stronger." Irie looked hesitant. "A lot of bad things happened though... for that, I'm truly sorry... but you had to be trained to increase your strength exponentially in the shortest possible time, so that you'd be ready for the battle that's to come. This was the only way!"
"For the battle that's to come...?" Reborn raised a brow.
"That's right! I am not the enemy you're after."
"Fuck you! You're making all this up! You're the one who got us all into this mess!"
"Gokudera is right!"
"Who'd believe a thing you say?!"
Irie gulped, taking a step back in surprise and the hooded person who supported him before took a proactive stance in front of him.
"W-Wait a second!" Tomoe shouted. "Just think about it!"
The redhead looked gratefully at her. "If I'd wanted to kill you, I'd have killed you much earlier already!" he blurted out. "No matter how much the Millefiore drop their guard, their firepower is light years ahead of yours. Instead of replacing your future counterparts all at once, I made sure your counterparts of this era could guide and train all of you from the past. Also, once you entered this base, I could have moved the base much earlier and captured all of you. But, that wouldn't help you to gain experience, so I had to delay it on purpose! That's not all. Did you think about why I-Pin, Sasagawa Kyoko, and Miura Haru were brought here from the past even though they were not your guardians? You'd grow a lot stronger when they're people you want to protect. We'd decided that was a necessity we couldn't avoid. Actually-"
Before Irie could continue, Tsuna appeared in front of him and just when he was going to grab his shoulders, the hooded person pulled Irie back and grabbed Tsuna's wrists, their hood falling back from the sudden movement to reveal a woman with dyed red hair in a bob cut and glaring hazel eyes.
"Back off," Hikaru sneered.
"You-!" Tsuna decided to ignore her, instead snapping his head towards the taken aback man. "How could you...! What kind of reason is that?!" He struggled against Hikari's grasp, wanting to reach Irie. "What if something had happened to Kyoko-chan or the others?! And it's not just them! Even before training started, Yamamoto, Gokudera-kun, and even Lal... We could have all died in a fight!!"
"...If that was the case... it couldn't be helped anyway," Irie said and Tomoe winced (it was a poor choice of words). "Besides... Tomoe-san was in a more dangerous position with Byakuran-san- if someone died then-"
"What the fuck!?" Gokudera cursed out.
"...How could you..." Chrome muttered.
"Uuuuu~" Irie's body began to shake and Tomoe hesitantly approached him.
"Sho-chan...?" the moment she placed her hand on his shoulder, he snapped.
"I've tried my best to plan it all!! If something unexpected had happened, I'd be in trouble too!!! All of this is a lot more serious than you thinK! Besides, this entire plan was part of your future counterpart's idea too Tsunayoshi-kun!"
"Oh damn," the tallest of the hooded figures whispered. "He snapped."
The one beside her nodded. "He snapped."
Then, the one beside him also nodded. "Yes, he snapped."
The last one sighed, shaking his head. "He was stressed out this entire time with such a heavy burden. I'd snap out like that too eventually."
"My idea...?!" Tsuna was repeatedly confused and shocked.
"This plan was the utmost secrecy held between myself, your future counterpart, and the future Hibari Kyoya. Under no circumstances was the plan to be revealed to anyone else. That's also why the future Hibari-kun knew about the ambush from us."
"What..."
"Furthermore, your future counterpart resisted the idea of getting the others involved till the very end. Finally, he acknowledged that this was something his past self needed in order to grow. Additionally, Tomoe-san and her allies were involved as well in this plan, unknown to both future Hibari-kun and Tsunayoshi-kun. She married Byakuran-san to be by his side from the beginning to weaken his forces from the inside and help the Vongola. In the end, she had to work behind the scenes and vanish from your sights, making your future selves believe that she was dead or had betrayed you. Your future self had ordered if Kocho was seen in battle on Millefoire's side, to kill her on sight."
Tomoe's eyes widened at the new information. Eyes snapping to the fearful boy. "What?" 'To kill me on sight... If they succeeded then they would have lost a huge ally they didn't know about...' "Ai-chan... did you...?"
"Yes," Aiko whispered. "Your future self knew the order as well..."
"Yet she still decided to help them...?" Tomoe shakily whispered under her breath, gaze never leaving the brunette sky.
Tsuna broke out of Hikari's hold, shaking. "Is-Is that true... I... I did this...?"
"That's impossible! I know Sawada's personality!" Lal Mirch shouted.
"Yeah! The boss would never allow the kids to get involved in this!" Gokudera continued.
"Aaaaah~ Geez!!!" Irie ruffled his hair erratically. "Don't you see that's exactly why this situation is that bad?! Let me finish talking first!!"
Spanner let out a sigh, a hand covering his mouth. "Shoichi... bad temper."
"If we didn't take this gambit to deal with this situation, all of you and all your friends would be annihilated! In fact! More people... or worse, all humanity will be in crisis!"
"Humanity... in crisis?"
"Is that related to the battle that's to come you mentioned earlier?" Reborn remarked.
"Eh? Ahh... yeah..." "Reborn?!"
"I think we can believe him," the hitman said. "Because he answered most of the questions I'd been wondering about. And all the facts have been consistent so far."
"Mr. Reborn..." Irie looked relieved and pinched the bridge of his nose. Hikari rubbed his back reassuringly. "Th-Thank you... That's right... your true enemy is... Byakuran-san."
At his name, Tomoe, Ao, Hikari, Aiko, Momo, and Juno all frowned, the atmosphere around them becoming tense.
"I knew it..." Tsuna whispered. "Ah." 'Why did I just say "I knew it"...?'
"Byakuran will stop at nothing to collect the Tri-Ni-Sette and take control of the world. He called this plan his "Tri-Ni-Sette Policy"... If he succeeds in getting what he wants, you're going to see a hell much worse than what you've experienced so far... Any man, organization, or country who doesn't do as he says will be wiped out..." His words brought fear to the Vongola.
"I agree with him wholeheartedly," Ao spoke up, clenching his spear tight, veins popping up in his hands. "Byakuran is man full of madness. He will stop at nothing to get what he wants and to accomplish his goals. He is a monster, a man who does not see wrong in what he does for his ideals."
"If that's the case, there's one thing I don't get," Reborn spoke up. "Why have you been helping Byakuran up till now?"
"Hm?"
"If you hadn't used the Ten Year Bazooka to send the Vongola rings to this era, he would never be able to complete his plan, right? At the very least, you could have reduced the casualties in the long run."
"...Yeah... for a while anyway," Irie admitted. "But, even without my help, he would have found some way to send you guys to the future... Plus, there's another reason why I had to use this method. The only way to stop him is to do it in this era. The only way to seal Byakuran's power and defeat him is in this era!"
"Power?!"
"It'll take long to explain but... hm? AHH!" He suddenly shouted, making everyone jump. "I totally forgot about them!! Have you received any contact from the Vongola HQ?"
"No...?"
"Not yet then...? Right. It's not time yet. Uuu... I'm getting nervous again..." Irie slumped against Hikari and Tomoe shook her head.
"What's happened?" Tsuna asked.
Ao spoke up, answering the question, "This entire gambit to bring you guys through all that hardship in order to defeat Byakuran... that was the first stage. But there's also a second stage we have to clear too."
"Eh? We have to fight some more?"
"Ah, no... it's not that. I wanted to let you guys rest and heal your injuries for a while. But, whether or not we get that luxury depends entirely on stage 2."
"What is it? What's this stage 2 thing?"
"You've heard about it, right? The Vongola are launching a large-scale international operation against the Millefiore today."
"Ah... now that you mention it..."
Momo gulped, leaning closer to Juno. "Is he talking about..."
Juno nodded. "Yep... those guys..."
Irie continued to answer Tsuna's thoughts. "If their operation fails, everything is going to get much more difficult... the most important key is... the battle of the main force in Italy."
Tomoe smirked. "The Varia."
"The messy squad, physically and mentally," Aiko muttered. "I wonder how they're doing?"
A/N: it's been so long... like omg. Sorry for such a long awaited update y'all. I've been busy irl with college and everything. Like classes be kicking my ass rn I need it to be summer. sorry again for a short and not so action packed chapter... future arc is taking foreverrrrr I want to hurry up and finish it so I can do other arcs