Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Are you afraid?

Do you shiver?

Are you alone?

Do you mourn?

Are you scared?

Do you seek revenge?

Are you sick?

Do you fear?

Are you alive?

Do you despair?

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

He picked up the speed of his feet as he turned the corner, waving back to the woman and the three kids in the car leaving him behind.  He wouldn’t see them again for another four years.   Deep down inside, that scared him.  But he was also overjoyed.  The exhilaration flowing through his bones was euphoric and therapeutic.  Here he was, the butt of everyone’s joke since elementary school, going to a prestigious school only for the best and most skilled students in the area: Umarekawatta High.  He wasn’t sure how he’d been accepted but he wasn’t going to question it.  The moment he got his acceptance letter in the mail he almost fainted from the shock.  Him, no-good useless Tsuna, got accepted to Umarekawatta?  The thrill was still with him as he ran towards his new home with his backpack and a suitcase by his side.

He stopped near the front of the school in awe.  Umarekawatta was enormous! It was more like a mansion or a full-sized university made of old terra cotta colored stone than a high school.  The brick-laden gilded walls around it gave off the appearance of some top-of-the-mill private boarding academy.  The gate at the front was probably what the pearly gates of heaven looked like, he imagined: curled, golden designs creating a pattern of enchanting shapes.  The clock tower near the spire of Umarekawatta was large and sleek, its fancy hands pointing to embossed roman numerals.  He pinched himself again, just for good measure.  Yep, he was still awake.

I-I can’t believe it. I actually made it somewhere in life.  He gave the school a big goofy grin.  Me, dame Tsuna, did something good for once.  I can’t wait!  He gave the glittery gates a small push, listening to them creak as they swung open.  Standing in front of two large mahogany doors was probably one of the counselors waiting to welcome him in.  But he never really got to confirm that.  A few steps down the cobblestone path to the door, he began to feel faint.  His vision blurred rapidly and he felt his knees wobble.  He stumbled forward, his suitcase falling loose from his fingers and sliding across the grass.  W-what’s going on? He felt himself slump to his knees at that moment. Maybe he cried out for the counselor to help him; he wasn’t sure.  All he was sure about was the world was quickly turning fuzzy and black.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Ugh . . .” Tsuna rubbed his head as the world came back to him.  He no longer felt like everything around him was fuzzy but he sure had a headache.  He lifted his eyes to the room around him, a classroom.  Apparently, instead of taking him to the nurse’s office or something, they’d sat him down in a classroom with the lights dimmed and no one in it but him.  He turned to look out the window only to see a giant steel plate where windows usually were.  What the --? Tsuna got up out of his desk, still a bit wobbly from whatever that had been, and wandered to the plate.  Large steel bolts, some as large as his head, kept the plate from going anywhere.  He pulled and tugged on the giant nuts but nothing even budged an inch.  Okay so there were giant sheets of metal over the windows.  That wasn’t too odd for a large school . . . right?  He shook his head.  Of course not what was he thinking? That was ridiculous!  He began to feel something deep in his heart but he wasn’t sure what or why he was feeling.  He rushed towards the empty teacher desk and found himself rummaging in the drawers, looking for, well, something.  He wasn’t sure what.  He just let his heart take control of his hands.  Something was horribly wrong. 

Just as he finished searching the desk, a loud buzz scared him.  He jumped back, feeling a vibration in his pocket.  He pulled out a touch-screen phone from his pocket.  What the heck?  I don’t have a phone . . . The thought soon vanished as he saw the message displayed boldly on the screen

Opening Assembly 9:00 in the gymnasium

Tsuna quickly glanced at the clock at the top of the room and screamed.  8:56. He glanced around the room quickly looking for his backpack and suitcase before giving up and sprinting out of the room.  He was going to be late!  And on his first day at the most important assembly of the entire year!  It only occurred to him that he didn’t know where the gymnasium was after he’d run down one hall completely.  Tsuna turned to his right and let out a sigh of relief.  For someone so stupid and no-good, his intuition was amazing.  The gym was only a few yards to his right.  He ran right into the room, expecting everyone to be sitting down waiting for the principal to come up on the gymnasium stage and welcome everyone. 

Boy was he wrong.

Standing on the wooden planks of the gym floor were the other students, about thirty or so.  All of them looked at him like he was interrupting something important, their eyes carving their gazes into his soul.  He took a step back, nervously.  “A-ah . . . Um s-sorry I’m late.”

“I told you we were missing someone.”  A distinct male voice said from the left side of the room.  Tsuna could see him clearly from where he was standing.  He had his arms folded crossly and his head of silver hair turned to the side with a smoldering cigarette in his mouth.  Even from this angle, Tsuna swore he looked . . .  familiar.  It wasn’t until he looked at him head-on that he realized exactly who he was.  “Obviously if we’re all here, Judaime has to be here too!”

“G-Gokudera-kun?”

Hayato Gokudera, a friend of his since junior high, gave Tsuna a smirk.  “Hey. Long time no see.”

Tsuna pushed his way towards his friend, more questions flooding his brain. “G-gokudera-kun? You got accepted too?”

“Hey Tsuna!” A hand shot up through the crowd and waved at him rapidly.  Tsuna turned around to see another of his good friends, Takeshi Yamamoto, waving idiotically at him.  Like usual, Yamamoto looked carefree and calm as ever not even fazed by the small group of people or the fact that his two best friends had also made it into the school. 

“Y-you too, Yamamoto-kun?”

“Yep! Got accepted with honors in baseball! Cool, huh?”

“Feh. Baseball.” This time, a girl spoke up.  She looked as old as the three of them and had sleek black hair that ran down her back except for a few of her bangs that stuck up in the air like cowlicks.  “Talking about baseball again.”  Yamamoto seemed a bit uncomfortable as the girl spoke like he was trying to find something out about her without being rude.  Tsuna took a step forward and bowed to the rest of the crowd. 

“H-hi! I’m Sawada Tsunayoshi! P-pleased to meet all of you!”

“Why is the shrimp introducing himself?  Isn’t that what you told us not to do, sir?”

“Well he was late and wasn’t here for that. That was his loss.” Two rather gruff looking students started talking among one another.  Both had black hair and looked more like grown men than teenagers.  One had a lip ring with a chain that connected to his right ear and the other looked like he had killed a pheasant and stuck its tail feathers into a hair ornament.

“We should introduce ourselves, however!” Protested someone else.  The voice was high pitched but was coming from a young boy with pale hair.  He quickly placed his hands across his waist and bowed.  “Basilcum is what I am called. You may call me Basil.”

“H-hey! Are we really outing ourselves right here? I don’t even know the lot of you!”

“If you all knew my name, I’d be in so much trouble.”

“Shishishi, you’ll all know my name soon I’m sure.  Why waste time now?”

“Isn’t this goddamned assembly supposed to start?”

“Stop talking everyone.” From the mist of conflicting voices came one.  The man pushed his way through the crowd, parting it like water.  A dark fedora shadowed most of his face giving off more of a mysterious air then anyone who spoke prior to him.  He had his hands in his suit pants pockets.  Tsuna instantly felt some sort of fear leap up in his heart as the man lifted up his head and looked down at him.  “Now that we’re all here, we should all introduce ourselves properly.”

“You joking?” The man with the lip ring snarled.  “There is no way we’re going to take that risk and –“

“Risk? What risk?” The man in the hat took out something from his pocket and tossed it to him.  As he caught it, his eyes lit up in surprise at what was written on the display.  “Our names are already in the school database.  We’re not going to be hiding anything.”

“C-crap he’s right!”

“Now give that back to me.” The man in the hat snatched his phone back rather rudely and turned around to face the bulk of the group.  “We’ll keep doing this until the assembly starts.  Maybe we’ll figure out what’s going on here when that happens.”  With a smirk, he lifted up his hat.  “My name is Reborn.  Chaos.”

Tsuna felt like a bullet had hit him right in the chest.  Reborn?  Was it really Reborn? The Reborn he knew?  No it couldn’t be.  The Reborn he knew was way younger and definitely not as cool.  But a name like Reborn wasn’t common.  He rubbed his temples furiously as his head began to hurt from his still lingering headache and even more questions filling his head. 

“Jeeez! You and your chaos crap.”

“Oh, if you feel the need to tease me like, how about you go next?”

The next one who had spoken up was another young man with a rather striking purple shade of hair.  Silver studs decorated his ears and one of them connected a gleaming silver chain from a lip piercing to his earlobe, much like the other loud man.  He sneered a bit and folded his arms.  “Fine then! I’m the great Skull-sama, the immortal stuntman!  That’s why I’m here as a Super High School Level Stuntman, you bastards!”

“Super High School Level . . . ?”

“He means our titles.” Gokudera whispered to Tsuna from over his shoulder. “We were all brought here because of a special skill we have, I guess.  You got an acceptance letter, right?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Well it should have said your reason for being enrolled there.  Like I’m a Super High School Level Pyrotechnician and you-know-who over there is a Super High School Level Baseball Idiot.”

“Gokudera, its baseball star.”

“I know that it was a joke, gosh!”

Tsuna glanced down at the floor, remembering the contents of his letter.  He never remembered a skill being told of in there . . . not one at all.  Was he really not supposed to be here after all?

While there were protests and a lot of skepticism, Reborn (who turned out to be a Super High School Level Hitman) was able to pry everyone into introducing themselves.  The one man with the dark hair and lip piercing was named Levi A Than and said he was a Super High School Level Assassin.  The man he’d been conversing with and calling ‘sir’ introduced himself as Xanxus, the Super High School Level Boss.  What he was a boss of, Tsuna had no idea.  The girl Yamamoto had stared at so strangely quickly stepped forward to introduce herself as Nakamura Ranraku. One by one, all of them came out with their name and skill.  Each time they all stepped forward to introduce themselves, Tsuna felt a strange sensation in his head and the distinct thought that he’d met them before even though he swore he’d never seen any of them before.  He watched at Gokudera made faces at some of the students like a girl by the name of Bianchi and a strange boy who claimed to be a prince named Belphegor.  Finally, it was down to him.  As he opened his mouth to speak, a blast of feedback filled the room.  He held his ears in pain as the feedback continued at such a high pitch it would have broken any windows made of glass. 

“T-The hell?”

The feedback subsided and a voice took its place. “Testing, one, two. Testing, one, two. Is this thing on, ho?”

“Fuck you almost blew my eardrums out! Thanks a lot!” Gokudera snarled, his teeth clenched.

“Ho ho sorry! I didn’t know it would be that loud, hee.” Tsuna turned to look at the red curtains of the makeshift gym stage as they opened to reveal the one speaking into the microphone.  It was a lean, lanky man with a top hat and almond eyes squinted so tight he looked like his eyes were completely shut.  He wore a suit decorated with a checkered tie and checkered cuffs.  He bowed low, taking off his hat to reveal his slick gelled hair.  “Welcome new students of Umarekawatta High!  I am your assistant principal, Wonomichi-chan!” He straightened back up with a ‘hee-hoo’ laugh.  “I sure hope you told your parents and friends back home bye-bye because you’re never leaving this place, hee.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Information File #1: Students

All students and their skills are listed here for your disposal.  If no last name, no last name is written.  You’ll need this, students

Basilcum: Super High School Level Apprentice

Belphegor: Super High School Level Prince

Bianchi: Super High School Level Chef

Byakuran: Super High School Level Leader

Colonello: Super High School Level Soldier

Dino Callvarone: Super High School Level Klutz

Dokuro Chrome: Super High School Level Illusionist

Fon: Super High School Level Martial Artist

Fran: Super High School Level Magician

Fuuta De La Stella: Super High School Level Ranker

Gokudera Hayato: Super High School Level Pyrotechnic

Hibari Kyoya: Super High School Level Disciplinarian

I-pin: Super High School Level Delivery Girl

Irie Shoichi: Super High School Level Inventor

Joshima Ken: Super High School Level Mutant

Kakimoto Chikusa: Super High School Level Yo-Yo Trickster

Kaotu Julie: Super High School Level Playboy

Kozato Enma: Super High School Level Useless

Lal Mirch: Super High School Level Fighter

Lambo Bovino: Super High School Level Heartthrob

Levi A Than: Super High School Level Assassin

Lussuria: Super High School Level Mortician

Mammon: Super High School Level Esper

Nakamura Ranraku: Super High School Level Prankster

Reborn: Super High School Level Hitman

Rokudo Mukuro: Super High School Level Gang Leader

Sasagawa Ryohei: Super High School Level Boxer

Sawada Tsunayoshi: Super High School Level Dame

Serafina Argenta Lilla Solare: Super High School Level Musician

Skull: Super High School Level Stuntman

Spanner: Super High School Level Robotechnic

Supebi Squalo: Super High School Level Swordsman

Suzuki Adelheid: Super High School Level Liquidator

Uni: Super High School Level Seer

Verde: Super High School Level Genius

Xanxus: Super High School Level Boss

Yamamoto Takeshi: Super High School Level Baseball Star

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“W-what did you just say?”

“I said you better have said bye-bye because you’re going to be living here for the rest of your lives, ho-ho!” Wonomichi spun around on his heel, his grin widening. 

“For the rest of our lives?” Gokudera pushed Tsuna away from him and snarled towards the strange little man.  “What the hell are you talking about?  It’s only four damn years!”

“For most schooly-schools it is.  But not Umarekawatta!  Here at Umarekawatta High, once you’re inside the school grounds, you can never leave them.  So it’s good you guys started to get all buddy-buddy with each other because they’re you’re new roommates forever!”

“Okay what kind of sick joke is that?” One of the students, Dino Callvione, folded his arms and gave the assistant principal a smug glare with his green eyes.  “I think we all appreciate your humor but –“

“It’s not a joke, hee!  Aren’t you guys listening?  Or all you all blind? You’re stuck here!” He gestured towards the gym windows which were bolted shut just like the ones in the room Tsuna had woken up in.  Things began to click for the less observant people in the room.  Many of them got noticeably pale and one little girl by the name if I-Pin began to make distressed noises.  One of the students who went by Enma turned to the vice principal, yelling. “W-why? Isn’t this supposed to be a school?”

“It feels like a prison.” The woman standing next to Enma, Suzuki Adelheid, boomed.  Tsuna wasn’t sure if the woman speaking was related to Enma or not but she had such a protective air around her it made his skin crawl. “What exactly is going on? I demand to know at once.”

“Oooh we have some feisty students!” Wonomichi took off his top hat and pulled out a two-tone cane from it.  “Not to worry, not to worry! Things will be explained.  Because I’m not telling the whole truthy-truth here.  You don’t have to stay here forever.”

“Why rile us up then?” Spanner, who had seemingly gotten bored and was leaning against the nearby wall, mused. 

“Because you only got one way to leave.” He took his cane and swiped it playfully across his neck, laughing as he did.  “You got to get away with murder!”

“M-M-M-Murder?” Tsuna’s heart began to race.  He glanced around at everyone else, a sudden burden of fear on his shoulders. 

“yep!  Thems the rules!  If you want to leave, it’s simple.  Just kill one of your classmates and have no one find out about it.”

Someone began to yell from the back of the group: a man with long silver hair and fierce eyes.  “VOI. There has to be another way! You bastard!  This place is huge! You can’t contain us!”

“Well we’ve sealed off all the exits, entrances and windows and when you finally open your squinty little eyes maybe you’ll realize I’m saying the truth, hee.” 

“Why you—“ The man, Squalo, ran through the crowd of people, pushing them all out of the way and pulling his right arm up into the air.  A short but sharp blade rested on his fingers.  The crowd let out a gasp and watched as he ran straight at Wonomichi.  It was his cane that saved the blade from falling down onto his chest and cutting up his soft organs.  Tsuna watched as Wonomichi’s grin widened.  He took a step back, still trying to push Squalo off of him. 

“Ah ah ah, you didn’t let me finish.  I didn’t tell you yet about attacking the staff.” He took one hand off his cane and slipped a thin cylindrical object out of his pocket.  With a tap on the top, he threw the object at Squalo.  Squalo must had realized what it was right away because he let go of his dueling pose with the man as soon as it became airborne.  It only took two seconds for Wonomichi to throw the object, Squalo to retreat and for the thing to go off in mid-air, creating a fireball where Squalo was once standing.

 Squalo took a few more steps back before yelling again.  “V-voi! W-what was—“

“Second rule: no attacking the school’s staff, especially me.” He whipped out another pocket bomb.  “If you do, you’ll get blown up!  So that means you kids will have to wait, hoo, patiently like you should have in the first place.”

Tsuna felt his brow clam up with sweat and a lump form in his throat.  This was a nightmare.  This had to be a nightmare.  But no matter how many times he pinched himself, bit his lip or even checked to see if he was still intact, he didn’t wake up.  He was very much awake.  He could smell the leftover gunpowder in the stale air and taste it in his throat.  This wasn’t any dream; this was real.

Everyone listened in hushed silence as the strange, eccentric man explained more about their new home.  Each student had a phone he politely referred to as ‘notebook’.  In the notebook was basic information about themselves and each student, what their skills were and school they were in, a map of the school and various files of rules.  Rules ranged from guidelines about how to use some of the devices they’d find around the school to things like ‘no switching notebooks with another person’.  He then explained schools.  They were all to be separated into different groups according to their skills and interests much like a large university had different colleges.  “Some of you will be in more than one school, though.” He said.  “Because you’re so skilled you have waaaay to much to offer and you need to share!” There were six schools: The Vongola, The Varia, Kokyou, Milliefiore, The Arcobaleno and The Shimon.  The members of each school shared a small section of the school where they all would sleep and share baths.  The students who were in more than one school could go to each school base at will but going to another school’s base uninvited was against the rules and was another thing that would kill you.  There were still plenty of public places.  The cafeteria was used for all three meals of the day and everyone had to commune there.  Same with the laundry room, gymnasium, kitchen, and other places.  Wonomichi mentioned the possibility of new places opening up once people did their tasks.  The only restrictions were on rooms he called ‘locked doors’ and other school bases.

“Also, don’t go doing naughty things!” he chirped. “IF you do, I might have to make a rule so you don’t!  Of course if that naughty thing is killing someone so you can get out of here, be my guest!”  He gave a large bow to the students.  “That concludes this opening assembly! Now, please check your notebooks and go to your school bases!  I suggest you guys get to know each other even better.  You’ll be staying with your new chums for a long loooong time.”  As quickly as they’d opened, the red curtains closed, leaving all the new students in the middle of the gym floor, baffled.  

Chapter Text

Information File #2: Schools (Rules and Members)

• All of the students are split up into separate groups called ‘Schools’.  Schools are determined on the basis of talents, skills and compatibility.  Each school has one area of the high school known as a ‘base’.  Each base has enough rooms for all the students in the school along with two bath houses.  Each bedroom has a bed, a few drawers for belongings, a closet and a personal bathroom.   Due to different skillsets and compatibility, some students are part of two schools and will have two bedrooms, one in each base.  They can chose where to sleep each night.
• You may notice your stuff is already in your room.  We’ve matched the objects and furnishings in your room to match those you are comfortable with.  Do not complain about your room’s appearance or you will be quickly disposed of.  Also, do not ask how all of your belongings got there as a similar punishment will happen.
• Ignore the cameras around the rooms.  They are for your safety.
• Below are a list of students and what school or schools they belong to.  Stars (*) indicate that student is in more than one school.

SCHOOL OF VONGOLA

• Basilcum
• Bianchi
• Dino Callvione
• Dokuro Chrome*
• Fuuta De La Stella
• Hayato Gokudera
• I-Pin
• Kyoya Hibari
• Lambo Bovino
• Nakamura Ran
• Rokudo Mukuro*
• Sasagawa Ryohei
• Sawada Tsunayoshi
• Yamamoto Takeshi

SCHOOL OF VARIA

• Belphegor
• Fran*
• Levi a Than
• Lussuria
• Mammon*
• Serafina Argenta Lilla Solare
• Superbi  Squalo
• Xanxus

SCHOOL OF KOKUYO

• Dokuro Chrome *
• Fran*
• Joshima Ken
• Kakimoto Chickusa
• Rokudo Mukuro *

SCHOOL OF MILLIEFIORE

• Byakuran
• Irie Shoichi
• Spanner
• Uni *

SCHOOL OF ARCOBALENO

• Fon
• Uni *
• Reborn
• Skull*
• Verde
• Colonnello
• Mammon
• Lal Mirch

SCHOOL OF SHIMON

• Kaotu Julie
• Kozato Enma
• Skull*
• Suzuki Adelheid

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Vongola . . . Vongola . . . what the hell is a Vongola?”

“It’s probably Italian for something.” Yamamoto stared at the map on his phone, watching the red dot that represented him move along with the blue lines of the hallways.  “Senpai, I thought you knew Italian?”

“Just because I’m one-quarter Italian doesn’t mean I know Italian! God, how many times do I got to tell you that?” Gokudera stuck his hand into his back pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, angrily sticking one in his mouth.

“Um . . . do you know if you’re allowed to smoke here?”

“I don’t care right now!” He lit up the end, almost fumbling the lighter onto the ground.  Tsuna let out a sigh as he remembered Gokudera’s smoking habits.  He tended to smoke a lot more when he was angry or stressed.  Chances are, he was both right now.  Still, no one was coming out with a bomb and alarms weren’t going off so Tsuna assumed it was fine. 

Because of the map system on each of their notebooks, finding the base for their school was simple.  A large wooden door welcomed them with a nameplate etched with the name ‘Vongola’.  There was an electronic reader next to the door shining green and blue.  Tsuna looked down at his notebook for instructions on how these locks worked.

“You will find a door lock near each door to ever school base.  To enter, take your notebook and scan the back over the interface.  There is a special chip in each of your notebooks that the interface will read.  It has your name, age, talent and school.  It will then ask you for a password.  On the numbered keyboard at the bottom, type in your password as shown on your main info screen.”

“Password . . .” Tsuna switched to his info screen and tilted his head.  “Why do we need a password?”

“Probably security purposes.”

Tsuna jumped back as he heard an unfamiliar voice.  It seemed that two other people had come in front of the ominous door while Tsuna was reading.  One of them was a small girl.  She had her silky black hair twisted up into two thin, long braids that looped around her head.  Her skin looked delicate and pale and her large black eyes were in a perfect almond shape almost like a little doll.  She wore a long red Chinese tunic with yellow trimming.  Tsuna remembered her from earlier: the Super High School Level delivery girl I-pin.  Nothing about her looked delivery girl-like at all.  The other person who’d joined them stood about one head taller than I-Pin even though he was slouching with his hands in his jean pockets.  His wildly curly hair hid most of his face and neck.  He wore a small black vest over a dress shirt blotched with black spots kind of like the pattern on a dairy cow.  Hanging around his neck was a leather thong with what looked like a bull horn strapped onto it.  No doubt this was the Super High School Level Heartthrob, Lambo Bovnio.  Though Tsuna wasn’t sure that title fit at all.  He just looked lazy and bored.

“A-A-Ah! Sorry did I scare you?” I-pin took a step back and bowed. “Sorry!  I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I-It’s fine.  I just wasn’t expecting you.  W-what were you saying about security?”

“This.” Yamamoto spoke up, flashing his screen at the small crowd.  “I looked it up!  See? There are more rules.”

“Your notebook will only let you enter your school base.  If you are in two school bases, it will let you in those two.  This is to ensure the safety of all of our students.”

“Heh. Saftey.  What a joke.” Gokudera let out a strained puff of smoke. 

“You may still enter other school bases though.  To enter another school base that isn’t yours, you will need someone’s permission.  One person from that school base must scan their notebook and then you will scan yours.  The person whose school you are going into must then type their password and then accept the visitor.  It’s impossible to use a notebook that has been stolen from someone else.  Don’t do it because we will know.”

Lambo nodded as he finished reading Yamamoto’s notebook.  “Seems fair.  Odd but fair.”

“All right! Let’s try this!” I-pin bounded over to the interface and scanned her notebook.  As she typed in her password, the green part of the interface lit up to a glowing yellow.  There was an audible click right before the door swung open.  I-Pin skipped inside and stopped near the entrance.  “You guys can come in now! Oh, but according to the rules, you got to scan and type your pass or you’ll get punished.” A shiver climbed up her back. “I-I don’t want to know what happens when you get punished.”

In turn, the four boys scanned and typed in before entering after I-Pin.  The door led to another hallway that then diverged into their rooms.  Since Vongola was the biggest school, there were fourteen different doors that opened to a bedroom.  Each door had a pixelated photo of the tenant and their full name under it.  The rules for entering the bedrooms were different than the main base door, however.  One could enter anyone’s room as they please.  There were physical locks on each bedroom door but that was the only limitation.  At the end of the hallway were two doors to the bath houses; a bath house for girls and a bath house for boys.  Tsuna blushed just at the thought of girls in a bath house.  There were no limitations on who could go into the bath houses, however.  Which made Tsuna just a bit nervous. 

“This is so weird.” Lambo scratched his head as he stared at the nameplate to his own room.  “All these rules, these school bases, everything.  Ugh, I didn’t think this school would be so strict.”

“I think ‘weird’ is an understatement.  This is madness!” Gokudera squashed the butt of his cigarette into the wall near his room, grinding the ashes into the grout of the tile.  “What the hell is with this school?”

“G-Gokudera-kun, no need to get angry about it.”

“I’m not angry.  I’m just not buying it.”

Tsuna shrugged.  He walked over to his bedroom door and peeked inside.  Just as the notebook said, his room here looked eerily like his room at home all the way down to where his desk and closet were.  His closet was full of familiar clothing.  Even his bed had his favorite bed sheet, pillow and blanket spread across the mattress neatly.  A door on the top right of the room led to his personal bathroom, complete with toilet, sink and shower. 

By the time they finished exploring the hallway and their own rooms, the rest of their school had found their way into the base.  Sasagawa Ryohei, a boy with white buzz-cut hair and muscles to spare, Bianchi, a young woman with pale pink hair and a graceful figure, and Fuuta De La Stella, a teenage boy with a boyish face, blond hair and a large book under his arm were the first to enter after them.  Bianchi gave Gokudera a sly smile and a wink before gliding into her room.  Next, the boy named Basil found his way.  He waved at Tsuna and happily bowed.  “I’m so glad thou art in the same school as I! I have a feeling we’ll be fine friends!”  The use of ‘thou’ threw Tsuna for a bit of a loop.  Did this guy always talk like this? 

Following them was Rokudo Mukuro and Dokuro Chrome.  Tsuna had wondered when they were in the gym if these two were somehow related.  Both had the same shade of dark purple hair with similar lengths and styles; the way their hair spiked up reminded him of a pineapple.  Mukuro was certainly taller than Chrome and taller than anyone Mukuro had seen come into the base so far.  He was poised straight and tall like he always had something to be proud of.  Chrome was hunched over a bit and her eyes spoke of shyness and fear.  A black eye patch covered her right eye.  Mukuro smiled at Tsuna and bowed a bit at the waist.  “Good day, Tsuna.” The timbre in his voice and the way he looked at him sent chills up Tsuna’s spine.  He felt like he was being greeted by a ghost.  A small pain shot through his head again.  Tsuna nervously bowed back and thanked Mukuro, also wishing him a good day as Chrome wandered to her room.  Kyoya Hibari, apparently a disciplinarian, waltzed right into the base like he owned it.  His beady black eyes gave off a cold air, one that Tsuna swore he’d felt before.  Dino was the last to enter along with two girls.  One of the girls was part of the Vongola school; Nakamura Ran.  But the other one wasn’t.   A pair of red earphones cradled her golden blond scalp and he could hear the low beat of her music booming even through the devices.  She wore a black coat over her normal casual tee-shirt and jeans.  Serafina Argenta Lilla Solare -- the girl from the Varia school with the really long name.  She seemed content just waltzing into the Vongola base next to Ranraku even though she looked eternally distracted. 

“U-Um R-Ranraku, was it?”

Ranraku snickered and laughed. “Yeah but that’s way too formal.  Just call me Ran.”

“O-Okay.  Ran . . . w-what is she doing here?” 

Serafina seemed to be alert enough to realize that Tsuna was pointing at her.  Her fingers found their way to the pause button on her similarly-colored MP3 player.  Tsuna felt himself freeze up as her eyes pierced into his soul as if she was judging his entire character on just that one statement.  “Is there a problem, Vongola?”

“N-N-no! No problem! I-I was just curious.  Y-you aren’t in this school, right?”

“Nope.  But I didn’t want to go to my school so Ran let me in.” She slipped her headphones off onto her neck.  “I remember the weirdos from other places so I know them well enough to know I’m not missing much.” 

He stared at her blankly. “Wait . . . you knew them from other places?”

“Yeah.  In fact, one of them is my brother.”

“Y-your brother?”

“Okay not blood-brother.” Serafina let out a distressed sigh.  “Can we not talk about him? I came here to get away from him.”

“B-but who’s your—“

“I said drop it.”

He pursed his lips together instantly and nodded.  He watched the two girls walk towards Ranraku’s bedroom and felt like a cold front had just moved away from him.  Man . . . this is going to be a weird next few days . . . He felt his stomach lurch just thinking about it.  Having to kill people to get out of here?  Every single thing about that was wrong.  But why would someone even think that?  And why him and his friends? 

“Hey! Tsuna!” Yamamoto’s voice echoed through the corridor.  “We’re gonna see if we can find a way out!”

“W-what?”

“The silver-haired weirdo was right.  This place is huge. There has to be a way to escape.  So we’re going to find one.” Gokudera chimed in. 

Tsuna nodded and followed his friends out the door.  Next agenda; find a way out so that no one had to die.

*~*~*~*~*~**~

Information File #3: Rooms

Other than the Schools, there are many rooms that are open range for any of the students.  Those rooms are listed below.  You will find some doors that lead to a room that are locked.  You may not go in.  Breaking down a door or tampering with the knob and/or knock to enter the room will result in immediate punishment.  They will be unlocked gradually.  Here is a list of the rooms that are currently open:

• Cafeteria
• Gymnasium/Auditorium
• Kitchen
• Laundry Room
• Lobby
• Study Hall

Rooms will be added to the list as they are opened

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Again, the strange little man was right.  Despite all the efforts of everyone, there was no escape to be found.

All the windows were boarded up with steel plates and impossible-to-move nuts and bolts.  Every single ray of light came from a fixture of some sort.  There were many doors that were locked and there were no keys in sight.  A teal-haired boy by the name of Fran, a member of the Varia school, had found the true entrance to Umarekawatta High.  It was locked up tighter than a drum by a large, round steel door.  It looked like it belonged on the door to a bank safe and was strong enough to not even dent when bombarded at with certain people’s swords and weaponry.  It was pretty obvious soon that they really were trapped.

The exploration of the school did uncover some other strange things.  Fuuta had discovered that the kitchen was stocked full of food (including his favorite; strawberries) and that, according to his notebook, it would never run out of food.  There was a laundry room with plenty of soap and other cleaning aides.  A supply closet with mops, mop buckets, brooms, dustpans and cleaning spray was also located right next to the kitchen and cafeteria.  There was everything here that would give someone a comfortable life except for certain looming reminders of their plight.  In every single room, even the bedrooms, there was some sort of object that could be used as a weapon.  Axes, knives, lighters and lighter fluid, rope, duct tape, plastic bags, swords, clubs, and even a gun.  Lal Mirch, a tall woman with a serious demeanor about her, showed everyone the gun and then placed it very carefully in one of the drawers in the lobby.  They all know where it was so no one would use it for ill. 

After figuring out their search for an exit (at least on this floor by the doors that were free reign) was in vain, everyone gathered in the cafeteria to discuss the rules.  It was Verde of the Arcobaleno school  who suggested an unwritten rule among them all.  At 10:00 pm, night time started.  They were supposed to stop all activities and return to their rooms.  “So that we do not sleep in fear of someone being stupid and murdering us, let us also have a rule of our own that no one is to visit other people’s rooms at nighttime or go anywhere else in the building”.  The only bend to that rule was at the expense of Lambo who insisted the kitchen should be free so that they could have snacks if they were hungry.  The first day at Umarekawatta was more than Tsuna ever wanted or expected.  The clencher was that, during the cafeteria meeting, he’d been reminded that he was the only one who hadn’t revealed his special skill yet.  Just a glimpse at his notebook sent his heart sinking down to his feet like a piece of lead.  Super High School Level Dame.  So nothing really had changed at all . . . he was just pulled into this mess.

For the next few days, life went on.  Wonomichi would announce the beginning of the day, lunch, dinner and then nighttime throughout the day throwing in a reminder about murdering others but that was it.  Tsuna found things to do with Yamamoto and Gokudera and formed bonds with some of the other students, mostly the ones in the Vongola school.  He found out that I-pin worked a part-time job as a delivery girl for a ramen shop mostly from her being all worried that she was missing out on work and that a man named Kawahira was probably getting soggy ramen.  He learned to stay far away from Hibari unless he wanted to get beaten up since he was always ticked off.  He felt like he had formed a close relationship with Ryohei in just a few days, not like that was hard.  Ryohei greeted everyone with a firm smack on the back and a loud, cheerful voice. 

However, the one person Tsuna wanted to know more about was never around.  Whenever he tried to go visit the strange man in the black fedora he wasn’t in his respective school base and he couldn’t find him anywhere else.  The nagging feeling this Reborn was the same Reborn he knew was eating away at him.  He had to somehow figure out if he was.  Maybe Reborn knew the reason he was sent here.  He wouldn’t be surprised at this point if it was one of Reborn’s crazy things he would always pull to help him be less useless. 

About four days passed without anyone dying or being injured horribly.  The last four days of Tsuna’s days at this strange place.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Information File #4 - 1: Weaponry-Flames

You can use your dying will flames here. In fact, it’s strongly encouraged. There are no box animals or box weapons, however.  For quick reference, here is a list of everyone sorted by flame type.  For those rare ones who do not have a flame, you are to be listed under the unknown category until you find your flames. You got plenty of time to do so!

STORM

• Belphegor
• Bianchi
• Fon
• Hayato Gokudera

SKY:

• Byakuran
• Dino Callvione
• Sawada Tsuna
• Uni
• Xanxus

SUN

• Irie Shoichi
• Joshima Ken
• Lussuria
• Reborn
• Sasagawa Ryohei

LIGHTNING

• Lambo Bovino
• Levi A than
• Serafina  Argenta Lilla Solare
• Verde

RAIN

• Basilcum
• Colonnello
•  Kakimoto Chikusa
• Nakamura Ran
• Superbi Squalo
• Takeshi Yamamoto

MIST

• Dokuro Chrome
• Fran
• Mammon
• Rokudo Mukuro

CLOUD

• Hibari Kyoya
• Lal Mirch
• Skull

EARTH

• Kozato Enma

GLACIER

• Suzuki Adelheid

DESERT

• Katou Julie

UNKNOWN

• Fuuta De La Stella
• I-pin
• Spanner

Please go on to the next page for more about weapon rules

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I see . . . nothing.  Enveloped in darkness, Tsuna blinked his eyes a few times.  He couldn’t see anything, not even his own fingers.  He felt like he was floating.  He felt suspended in the dark space for a few minutes before something began to change.  In the distance there was a small light.  It came towards him growing brighter and brighter.  W-what?  What is that?  A . . . light . . . ?

The sound of banging on his door snapped him back into reality.  He jolted up out of his bed with a cry.  “W-What the—“

“JUDAIME! JUUUDAIIMEE!”

“Gokudera, what are you doing?  I-I’m trying to sleep.”

“F-forget sleep!  Y-you got to come see this!”

He dragged himself out of his bed, moaning at the sudden headache he’d just gotten.  When he opened the door, Gokudera stretched out his hands and began shaking him by the shoulders.  “T-this is bad! Judaime! This is really really bad!”

“Stop shaking meeee. What’s bad?”

Gokudera let go and took a step back.  “I-It actually happened.  Someone . . . someone got murdered!”

“M-Mur . . . “ Tsuna felt his gut turn in on itself.  He leaned against the doorframe, his feet starting to shake.  “W-wh-who . . .”  Gokudera grabbed Tsuna by the hand and dragged him out of the Vongola school base.  Tsuna soon realized they were going towards the kitchen and that Yamamoto and Ranraku were already there.  Lying in the middle of the hallway were two bodies, both of them strewn across the floor.  There wasn’t any blood but the sight was horrifying enough.  Both bodies were pale and there were dark bruises and burns on their arms, face and legs.  Their faces had frozen in a twisted look of pain and seemed to be silently screaming for help.  Both weren’t breathing.

“O-Oh . . . oh my . . .” Tsuna wobbled as he walked over to the bodies.  These people had once been alive.  He’d know them.  He’d seen them. And now . . . they were dead. 

“L-Lambo.  I-Ipin!”