Chapter Text
He was alone.
That was the first thing that registered in his mind.
He could hear the floor cracking under his own footsteps, and he immediately recognized it to be abnormal. This calmness—it didn't suit the place. Every time he had been here, it had always been noisy and chaotic. He would hear the men shouting at one another in another pointless argument, he would hear his Onii-chan going on about things he definitely had no clue about while his guardian reprimanded him. One-chan would then chase him through the halls, too, while he laughed. There was also the soft sound of wind chimes he could miraculously hear over other noise such as party poppers or firefox and shouts of excitements or...
Not complete silence.
Why? Where was everyone else?
His surrounding blurred. He had stopped registering what was happening around him. He ignored the crimson glow that leaked from the darkness as his heart urged him to look for them, for them, for any sign of them! He faintly felt his throat knotting but that was not important anymore as any sound died down before it could reach his throat.
After a while, his hesitant footsteps brought him in front of the place he was looking for. Slowly, he peeked through the door of his Onii-chan's room.
"Onii-chan?"
Silence greeted him back. He didn't give up, sliding open the door to reveal a messy room in the darkness. The customary odor of expired meat and empty dishes was weirdly welcoming. Despite the darkness, he could still see the piles of items lying around, the objects well-stacked together and yet so messy in as a pile. Somehow, despite the uneasy tug on his heart, the messiness was a comfort to him.
He walked towards the giant window in order to open the curtains and let in the light. There was nothing to worry about, it seemed, because everything was unchanged, because it was—
He stepped on something wet and warm.
And then, he made the mistake of looking down.
Unrelenting Fate
by Keimichi
Chapter 0: Normal
"Ara, you're up early today."
She made a simple statement because more often than not he was the type to oversleep. A whole half hour early, actually, she noticed as she glanced at the clock.
"Nightmare?"
He nodded.
His mother didn't question him about it.
He slowly ate breakfast, taking the time to enjoy each bite of the toast while his mother made more food while humming happily. Neither of them were actually talking, but it was amazing how much he took comfort in these kind of silence. It helped him smooth out his thoughts while he slowly finished breakfast.
Time went by pretty fast, and before he knew it, he had finished breakfast... and took longer than intended and was now late! He waved a quick goodbye to his mother, grabbed his stuff as he rushed out the door.
He ran as quickly as he could on the way to school to get inside the class before the evil bell. He bypassed the "security" without any problem and made it safely to the classroom. He was only a foot away that the bell rang, surprising him so much that he face planted on the floor. A bunch of snickers could be heard from the class, but he was more worried about the teacher than his classmates. Luckily for him, it seemed like the teacher was late. He panted while letting out a sigh of relief and scuffed towards his seat: he had evaded the clutch of death once again.
(Or in this case, the death's "fangs"—because his school's personal death god wears a disciplinary committee armband and "bite" people with a pair of tonfas).
He slid himself on his chair and took out and placed his text book. He though he heard a taunt or two directed at him, but brushed it off because Nezu-sensei came in and started his math class.
(Math class was about some algebra and other stuff, the boy didn't even bother to listen at all. Instead, he simply allowed himself to drift into the comforts of dreamland and ignored everything else.)
Like any other day of the past five years, it was just another ordinary day for a most ordinary boy named Sawada Tsunayoshi.
"Onee-chan, why do you hate Onii-chan?" Curious caramel eyes stared at two older figures, one male, one female, in front of him. The two stopped their one sided conversation to look at the little brown haired boy that spoke to them.
"Haha! What are you saying, Tsuna-chan? She doesn't hate-" The older male teen dodged a few flying dangerous objects. "-me at all! Am I right?" He turned to the girl who was sitting on the opposite side and flashed a wide grin. The girl's bangs made it hard to read her expression, but it wasn't hard to know what she was thinking when she held up all the array of sharp objects ready to be used on his Onii-chan.
Tsuna sweatdropped as he watched the daily scene replay in front of him. If it was his first time meeting them, he would have been scared to death. But by now he had long understood that they were sorely directed at his Onii-chan. In other words, Tsuna himself risked nothing. And even if one of them was to accidentally fly closer to him than usual, Guardian-san would make sure that nothing happened to the young boy.
Looking at this, Tsuna couldn't help but to smile. It made him feel warm inside. It was a different kind of warmth than that of his gentle mother. Somehow, it made him glad that he was, somehow, also part of their little group.
Lunch bell was his alarm clock. Faintly yawning while his dream—a sweet memory— replayed at the back of his head, he reached and pulled up his bento from inside his desk.
His gaze swept across the classroom; it seemed that none of his usual friends were in sight. Normally, his friends would approach him and kindly ask him to share part of the lunch, for the sake of friendship. It was just an ordinary interaction between guys his age, and it was the proof that he was just another faceless boy in the crowd of middle school students.
He was thankful for his relationship with his friends, at least. "Dame-Tsuna" was the nickname he had earned himself, and it was something his class would still endlessly tease him about. So being able to have friends despite of his reputation as a useless person was something he should be grateful for. It made him blend in much more, made him stand out less as the class clown and gave him the opportunity to live a normal life.
The brunet opened his lunch box and was just about to pop a piece of the deliciously made meal inside his mouth, when three voices cracked up from behind.
His mouth twitched. Today was a normal day after all.
He looked up and his eyes met purple ones. The one in front of him was a largely built boy with short black hair. The others were simply packing up and eager to go home. 'Inoue Chikage, the leader of his little gang of three,' Tsuna thought. 'Actually... Make that four, since I'm technically part of their gang.'
Three month— that was how long since they became 'friends'. (And Tsuna indeed counted. He kept track of each day they were friends. If anyone else had known, they might have thought Tsuna was weird... But for him, he enjoyed noting down everyday, to remember what happened everyday...)
Inoue's gang weren't the best choice of friends. There were rumors, more than just a few, about the nasty things they have done, but there were no definite proof about that. And like any other rumors, those were stiffed down quite quickly for people to care.
"Yo! Dame-Tsuna! Eating without us again? How rude. Are you ignoring us even though friends should eat together?"
"Haha… I'm sorry! It wasn't my intention! I just got a bit too hungry and-"
"No worries, right guys? Let's just have some fun eating lunch on the roof!" Inoue laughed while he passed an arm around Tsuna. The other two boys grinned at each other, enjoying the situation. Tsuna only gave them the same weak smile he normally did while he shifted under the uncomfortably friendly display.
He knew what came next of course.
It has already become a typical interaction between them.
As soon as Tsuna was dragged on to the roof, he was painfully pinned to the wall by one of the boys, Murase Noriyori, a skinny and tall guy with a weirdly stretched out face. Meanwhile, Inoue and the other guy named Suzuki Seiki was merrily enjoying Tsuna's lunch.
"Now, now, let's have some fun." Murase smirked, his face only a few inches away front the small brunet's.
"I didn't mean to! Really!" Tsuna panicked, his shaky voice pleading his friend, eyes widening in an absolute display of fear. However, far from hesitating, this only seemed to please Murase even more. Behind, Inoue and Suzuki laughed mockingly.
"Hey! Nori!" Inoue yelled at Murase. "That's lame! Try something new today!"
"Like what?"
"You know!"
"Oh! You mean like those times! " the tall and skinny guy laughed, finally understanding what they meant. "…But this is at school! What if..."
"Don't worry. We'll take of it after. It's not like we haven't done this before. No one comes here anyway. Besides, it's lunchtime so he's not here."
"Yeah, I guess you're right!"
The next thing Tsuna knew, Murase "Nori" was inning his wrists above his head with one hand, while fumbling open Tsuna's shirt with the other.
"HIIIIIIIEEEEE!!"
The piercingly loud shriek annoyed the attacker to no end. In response, "Nori" tried to muffle Tsuna's mouth, but was unfortunately bitten by a now clearly panicking Tsuna. With the bully clutching his hand in pain, the victim surprisingly took this opportunity to push the taller boy off. Tsuna's attempt to ended in a failure when he quickly caught and pinned down by the two other boys.
"Che, not even capable of doing that, huh, 'Nori?" Inoue sneered at his lackey. "Fine, let me do it then."
Murase grumbled in discontentment, but didn't voice his thoughts to their group leader. Approaching, Inoue grinned widely and punched Tsuna's face hard enough to draw blood.
"Let us have some fun together, dear friend."
Tsuna closed his eyes. He wasn't that stupid, he can guess what comes next. The smaller teen bowed his head, which the others took as submission. Tsuna stopped pleading, as if accepting his fate. After all, this was a normal occurrence between friends, right? The brunet's bangs were shadowing his face, making his expression unreadable.
The young teen felt hands roaming all on him, taking off his clothing. He could hear Murase telling Suzuki to take a picture. Humiliation. It was unclear if they wanted to blackmail him with the photo, or if they wanted to keep the photo as a sort of trophy. Probably both. He let it be. His hair was being pulled by a pair of hands, while another pair was pinning his legs so he won't move. He felt something being poured on him: water, spilled content of his lunch...
'Please don't…'
Hands moved to his neck. He could feel them tightening around. Death, his mind whispered, and he knew he was so close to— No, he could not! Not— Tsuna wanted to shrink away from it... It will pass, he told himself. But those- He could also smell that stinking breath getting closer and closer and closer and—
"For crowding and doing indecent acts in public, I'll bite you to death."
That one single sentence was enough to make Tsuna open his again. A split second later, the mass above him disappeared, only to reappear on the other side of the roof, sprawled on the floor. With a confused look, Tsuna sat up to see all three of his friends down, suffering from various degree of injuries. Almost unconsciously letting out a sigh of relief, Tsuna dusted himself and stood up, only to meet with the cold eyes of a certain prefect.
"Hi-Hibari-san…" the small teen shuttered in fear—the exact reaction any other student of Nami-middle had in front of the most feared teen in the whole town. Before Tsuna, with blood-stained tonfas in his hand, stood Hibari Kyoya, the head prefect of their school. His dark raven hair swayed in the wind, bangs sometimes shadowing his cold blue eyes. And fluttering in the wind was his black uniform jacket blaring the famous disciplinary committee's red and yellow arm band.
"Hn. It's illegal to crowd, herbivore," the older teen declared, eyes narrowing menacingly at the small herbivorous-like teen.
"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry for crowding! Please don't beat me!" the younger teen muttered, raising his hands to protect himself from the upcoming blow. But Tsuna wasn't hit.
"Don't crowd near those herbivores."
The brunet stopped trembling. His hands dropped to each side of his body. His bangs once again covered his face.
Hibari being Hibari, he picked up the change in behavior easily. The brunet from before had been what all herbivores do: plead for their pathetic lives. However, the one standing in front of him now emitted unreadable atmosphere akin to cold resignation, and something else.
Hibari watched as the herbivore picked up his empty lunch box and slowly walk towards the exit.
"Thank you for the concern, Hibari-san. I'm sure they'll appreciate it."
The smile the brunet sent Hibari was a genuine one.
And the door of the roof closed, leaving one musing prefect and three unconscious bodies.
As Tsuna descended towards his classroom, he noticed the happy chatters from around. One corner sat the school's baseball star, laughing with his friends. On the other, giggling with other girls was the school's idol. He couldn't help himself from envying them. He sat down and took out from the inner of his bag a brown small notebook. He flipped the pages and found the ones he had been looking for.
On each page, three of them, was one name of his friends. And right beside, there was a bunch of neatly aligned X's.
'Sigh, I guess I'm the only one who have true knowledge of how far their antics goes…'
The X's almost filled the whole page for each of them. He took out a pencil and added one more X to each of the names. 'That's one more X for what happened at lunch. I think I'll have to wait till I return home for some kind of food,' he pouted, as his stomach grumbled because he hasn't ate anything yet.
The X's were the symbols of their friendship.
Good friends keep track of each other after all.
"Don't forget the project is due next week. Class is dismissed."
The room was instantly been filled with chatters of the dozens of student merrily packing up. Most of them started grouping with friends and discussing clubs and whatever thing they were planning to do for the weekends. Not Tsuna, though. He was alone (as always), with not a single person glancing to see him. He silently closed his book, gathered his school work and everything he would need for the weekend.
Sawada Tsunayoshi sighed as another day was done. Nothing had been a surprise anymore, he would just follow everything and everything would be fine. He packed his things while lost in thoughts, ready to slip away unnoticed. He knew it was impossible, of course. Even if by some unknown luck he could escape-
"Yo! Dame Tsuna! You're up for cleaning again!"
Tsuna cringed from the sound and stopped. There was no escaping at the daily routine. He turned at the expected voice to see three of his friends grinning at him. The leader was holding an unwanted broom which he promptly shoved into Tsuna's hands.
"That's right, No-Good! For failing everything, you can at least do that one simple task right! Besides, we're feeling sick today because of what that bastard did."
"Yeah, that's right!"
"Ye-yes!" Tsuna answered hastily.
The three classmates just laughed.
"Don't worry, Dame Tsuna! We'll pay you back and replace you… someday! After all, that's what friends are for, right?" And like a signal all three of them burst into laughter as they disappeared from view, leaving him and the broom alone.
'At least they aren't blaming me anymore about what happened today... I hope. I don't want to be beaten up again if I could. I wish really Hibari-san hadn't interfered. Things would have been much more simple that way. Hibari-san, despite what other say about you, you are nicer than they think you are...'
He sighed as he stared at the cleaning utensil in his hand, which glared back, as if daring him to let go. The contest lasted for a few seconds, before it finally ended with the same old victor as it always did. Once again having lost the glaring contest, the brunet just resigned himself for the class cleaning duty. It was his job, cleaning had become a custom. It wasn't the teacher 's fault; while the teacher didn't like him all that much, he still got assigned to the task as often as everyone else does. It's just that he happens to be the one people like to push their task onto. For a second, there had been a wry smile that flashed on his face, that bitter one full of loath and hatred for life; but everything vanished as quickly as it came and Tsuna became Dame again. It was not like this was an unusual part of his life anyway.
His three classmates, his friends, were just a few of the whole bunch who would shove it in his face everyday. It wasn't bad at all, not really. He had long gotten used to it.
As custom, he temporarily put the broom away and plunged his hand in his messy school bag. He promptly took out the brown note book and flipped the pages, placing another X near the ones he had just scribbled a few hours ago. Then he tucked back to the bag where it belonged.
After a whole half an hour, he managed to finish his job, and was glad to finally be able to escape the dull place. He slipped his school bag on his shoulder and locked up the door. He fled quickly to prevent from running into any member of the Disciplinary Committee that would be just glad to show him the way out.
He was glad that another normal day was over.
He was standing in front of the door again, trembling and hesitating to open the door. This scene, it has repeated so many times. He could no longer tell which part of it was real and which part was from his imagination. Perhaps since the beginning, everything had been an illusion and he had only imagined everything. He couldn't tell which was the nightmare anymore: what was hidden behind the door or the world beyond the one he is now. He opened the door to find out.
To find a way to wake up from this nightmare.
The sun was setting in the background, dyeing the sky in a beautiful shade of crimson. A few strings of cloud roamed freely. The lights were casting long shadows on the ground.
Walking home after school, Sawada Tsunayoshi found himself near a very familiar park. In a distant past, this park place had been one filled with sound and laughter, but by now it was deserted. He had fond memories in this park; both with his parents ("go on," his mom encouraged as she pushed him towards the swing when he was too shy) and later with his Onii-chan ("Tsu-chan! Look at what I found!" his Onii-chan cheered with childish glee while he waved the prize). But those time never lasted long enough; this park was the perfect proof that time eventually destroyed everything.
Tsuna absentmindedly glanced towards the deserted park. That's when he noticed three familiar silhouettes—silhouettes that shouldn't normally have been here.
He knew it wasn't possible... but... But! What if! his heart still stopped for a split second. 'Onii-chan? Onee-chan? Guardian-san? Did you come back?' They were finally coming back to him! They were back! They-
The three shadows turned.
"Well, well, if it isn't Dame-Tsuna," Inoue said.
Tsuna's shoulder sagged. As quickly as he felt into his delusion, he was brought back to reality.
'That's right. Onii-chan and Onee-chan are gone. They are all gone and can never come back. Don't delude yourself, Sawada Tsunayoshi. You can't see them again.'
"Whatcha doing here, Dame-Tsuna? Isn't it too late for you to be out here?"
A few second later, Tsuna found himself pinned to the playground floor once again, a bruise slowly forming on his cheek.
Inoue Chikage, Murase Noriyori, Suzuki Seiki—his friends.
"So, what do we do, boss?"
"Well, he still hasn't paid us back for what that bastard Hibari did to us, right?"
"No, boss."
They grinned.
"Then, let us teach a lesson to our dear friend."
Tsuna didn't say anything as they punched him. He didn't say anything as they destroyed his books, his homework. He didn't say anything as he encased their humiliations and name-calling.
'Please don't do it.' That one sentence echoed through his mind, pleading, pleading, pleading so much, so much that Tsuna almost couldn't believe it was his own thought.
But Tsuna stayed silent in front of the bullies, and resigned himself to it. After all, it was normal, right?
"Hey, what's this?"
"It's weird! Look at all these X's! And what are these names?"
"Let me see!"
Murase flipped through the small brown notebook he found inside Tsuna's belongings. The way his face twisted in am expression akin to bewilderment and disgust easily attracted his leader's attention. Inoue tore the book away from his subordinate's hand. Scowling, he flipped through the pages, then stopping when his gaze landed on three familiar names.
"Well, well, well. Is this what I think it is? A check list? Looks like someone was bearing a grudge against us."
His scowl slowly morphine into a twisted smile—one filled with anger and promised pain. He walked to Tsuna, grabbed him by the hair and shoved the book into Tsuna's face, painfully rubbing Tsuna on it.
On the page that Inoue 'showed' to Tsuna, there was the name Inoue Chikage, followed by hundreds and hundreds... no, perhaps thousands of little X's, each marked in red, literally almost completely filling up the page.
"I see you bear a grudge with us... That's not nice, Dame-Tsuna. I thought we were friends."
His smiled dropped and he banged Tsuna's head on the floor. "BUT I GUESS WE ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR DAME-TSUNA, HUH? YOU PIECE OF TRASH! LEARN YOUR PLACE! "
Blood was now dripping on the floor, tainting the concrete of the playground floor.
Inoue let Tsuna go. The smaller student stayed face down on the ground, unmoving. The bully stared at the book for a while, before he ripped out the pages that had the names of his and his gang and tossed the notebook aside without care. He dropped the pages on the ground and stepped on it.
"You're like all those other trash we played with before. Losers like you only waste space. Just like those old geezers we took care of yesterday. Why are you all even alive? The world will be a much better place without people like you. At least that one won't be wasting anything ever again anymore."
"…"
"What?"
Unnoticed by the group of three, the pages Inoue tore started to glow. Under his glowing crimson name, one final X appeared in a string of fire, finally completing the page.
"Hi…-san…"
"What's that? Speak fucking louder Dame-Tsuna."
Something like this shouldn't normally happen. The trio had a hunch that something wasn't right. What was this feeling? Since they entered the park and saw the small brunet, they were on the edge because of some unknown reason. Especially for Inoue, the way he had no idea why he had a bad feeling irritated him to no end. He hated abnormality. He hated this abnormality. He despised this ab-
"You should thank Hibari-san."
That despicable Dame-Tsuna replied to them for the first time in a calm and steady voice. There was not even an ounce of the usual hesitation. This time, it was both cold and warm, and it sent chill down Inoue's spine. He instinctively backed up when that Dame-Tsuna slowly stood up. (He faintly noticed his lackeys do the same, but he could care less at this moment.
"He," that Dame repeated, (Stop. Stop! Why doesn't he shut up?) "gave you more time. More chances. You should be grateful to Hibari-san for that. But in the end... What is meant to happen will happen regardless."
The small brunet finally raised his head, revealing two serene sunset eyes. And Inoue could get lost, just gazing into those eyes, as if his soul would get sucked into it at anytime. Perhaps they already did; at this point neither him nor his other two friends had already lost their ability to speak.
"These are the proof. All these sins that I took note... Bullying was just one small thing. You ruined so many other lives, stole so many people's happiness for your own selfish desires."
Before they knew, Sawada Tsunayoshi had shortened the distance between them, and had picked up the three sheets of paper he now held front of their faces. And endless number of Glowing X's burned into Inoue's vision— each of them a representation of every single wrong doing he had committed.
"I originally only wanted you to repent. I wanted to be forgiving…"
Sawada Tsunayoshi flashed a genuine and innocent smile.
"…But I guess, this is the end."
The sky was a beautiful shade of crimson, the sun slowly fading into the line of horizon. Slowly, the beautiful orange were swallowed by the darkness of the night, leaving only a faint light behind.
'This was the park we once played in, Onii-chan.'
A small brown haired teen stood in the middle of the deserted park. His orange eyes stared into the fire before him, where once three other human beings stood.
He knew that once the fire died down, nothing would remain of it, not even dust. Even the smell of burnt flesh will dissipate into the wind.
(After one, fire was the one who purified everything.)
He stood there, simply gazing at the flying sparks in a daze. It was only after a while brought up the three ripped pages of his notebook, with the fading X's and looked at the three crossed down names.
Inoue Chikage
Murase Noriyori
Suzuki Seiki
Tsuna's gaze followed the pages as they landed into the fire and was embraced by the flames. Tsuna threw one last glance at the dancing flames, knowing it will burn out soon with nothing to fuel it, before walking away. As his footsteps faded, the flames licked the faded X's, before forever erasing their existence, erasing the names.
Yes, Sawada Tsunayoshi was normal.
The next day, three people were missing from class I-A. Hushed rumors ran through the school: they were spirited away, they got into trouble and ran away from home. Some said they got punished for displeasing a certain prefect...
(Said-prefect only narrowed his eyes and bit everyone who spread rumors to death)
Eventually, like many of these rumors in Namimori, things were forgotten.
But was it surprising? Was there anyone who truly truly missed them? Was there anyone who cared about them? It did not even take long before the three 'friends' of Dame-Tsuna faded from I-A class's memory.
(The atmosphere in the classroom did feel strange for a while, especially around Tsuna.)
Later when other classmates mocked Tsuna, he just laughed it off uneasily.
He just smiled his normal smile; as if there had been nothing wrong, as if the disappearance of three people hasn't bothered him. As expected of Dame-Tsuna. After all, what else can go wrong when everything is so normal?
But they were wrong.
Sawada Tsunayoshi wasn't normal.