[IC] As One | Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

[TwilightDragon]

Well, this sucked. The crowd was nowhere to be found, even after searching for hours. So, Sonya decided to punish them. When Cyril heard that she was going to punish them, he knew that she was up to no good. And so, she decided to hang them upside down from makeshift monkey bars. The red haired woman said that if someone fell, that she would restart the time. So far, they had to hang like this for an hour. Ten or fifteen minutes had passed and Cyril could hear the rush of blood in his ears. His head ached and his legs were screaming for him to stop. He had already begun to sweat and he was pretty sure that he had a very uncomfortable expression on his face. But he was determined. He wouldn't fall and let everyone down. That, and he would not hang like this for another hour. He wouldn't be able to.

Abby spoke up, and his brown eyes flicked over to her. Unlike Ben, Cyril was rather close to the Sun Guardian candidate, and he didn't have to raise his voice much. "My head hurts, my legs are killing me, and it's all because we couldn't find a bunch of stupid people." he grumbled. "Something tells me that Sonya actually wanted us to fail just so she could punish us. And Ben is right. This can't be good for our health." It was obvious that the dark haired, brown haired boy was not happy. He swore, if someone fell... he would beat them over the head with a stick.

A whine caught his attention, and Cyril looked over to the other side of Abby. The other Sun Guardian candidate, Fionn, looked like he was going to drop at any moment. The blond haired boy's face was flushed and his legs were trembling. Cyril watched him for a moment before growling. "You better not fucking fall. You better not." he spat at him. It was obvious that the poor kid was trying his hardest to stay on, but it was also easy to see that he wouldn't stay on for much longer.

Fionn trembled more, squeezing his eyes shut. "I'm t-trying-" he told him. "But... but it feels like my legs are going to fall off!"

Cyril watched him for a moment before turning his eyes to Sonya. The mere sight of her made his blood boil. This was harsh and unfair. The only one She should punish was Naoto! He should have led them better! "Hey, this is all Naoto's fault!" he snapped at Sonya. "He should have led his group better. But they showed up empty handed! This is idiotic and unfair!"

Fionn glanced over at him, a deep frown on his face. "Cyril, m-maybe we shouldn't start arguing when we're all hanging upside down?" his voice was soft and weak as he spoke. "Naoto tried his b-best..."

[Vongola_Hasayo]

Naoto hung relatively comfortably. Besides the blood rising to his head his legs were just fine thanks to soccer. He still was just as annoyed as the others though as he hung with his arms folded and a frown on his face. "She tricked us. It was a wild goose chase...and we were all dumb enough to chase people who must likely separated and went home." Naoto let out a sigh which turned into wobbly groan add his arms dropped and his head started to feel like a water balloon. "Tell Daisuke it's okay, I see the pineapples too now..." He said in a blood induced daze.

Naoto snapped out of it due to Cyril again telling at Fionn. That guy really knew how to be the biggest jerk in any situation. Without saying a word to Cyril, Naoto shimmied closer to Fionn and wrapped a keep over his to help him stay up. "Hey, remember how you were wondering if you could be useful? Well, we could really use us right now so, hang in there~" Naoto gave the Sun candidate a warm grin. That quickly faded as Cyril started to shove all the blame on him. "Speaking of idiotic do you ever stop being an ass!? She said the group who didn't find the audience would do the punishment so even if my group did find them you'd still be hanging here!"

Naoto half-hoped Cyril would fall on his head butt at the same time he didn't want to hang here any longer than he had to. As he started to cool off he had to admit that Cyril had a point. He was far from being a good leader. He had been saying that all this time but deep down he kind of hoped he wasn't right. I'm gonna get them all killed like this. The thought brought a look of fear to his face that he quickly tried to hide, gripping his arm firmly. Why did I think I could lead back then? Why did you think I could? Why did you smile at the end? I never knew what you were thinking... Naoto stared up at the sky, something he always did when he thought, like the answers would be there. The sky encompasses everything but you seemed to only understand me. Is that why you made me leader...you always in me what I couldn't. Right, Atticus?

Naoto looked over at Sonya. "Oi, what's the Tenth like?" He asked hoping for some insight into what he had to do to become a better boss.

[RainDash]

Artemis, not to be ungrateful, jogged around Michael. "Sorry... I'm not good at asking for help... or running.... apparently..." it was there and then that Artemis regretted not doing more in her Physical Education periods. Also the fact that she had to follow behind a giant already walking at a decent clip. At least this Jak -Artemis was fairly certain that was her name now, as the girl had been introduced to her multiple times- knew where she was going, juding by how confident she was in her directions. She was probably a local. Mental note, look them all up later. Whenever I manage to steal some WiFi again, that is.

"It can't... possibly be that far off anyway... just... a few more blocks or something..."

---

-The Next Day-
To say that Jak wasn't in a good mood would be an understatement. Her day had started by almost sleeping through the time she went to go practice, and continued to be horrible by reminding her that she'd failed to find the audience and thus started... the punishment game. It was hanging upside down for a complete thirty minutes. One fall and you extended your time. Jak had decent training, but it still wouldn't stop her from eventually getting too tired, and Fionn and the others weren't nearly as strong as Naoto and herself. Even now, she could still feel herself getting tired.

"If there's anyone to blame," Jak snapped at Cyril, "it would be Prospero for vanishing the audience in the first place. If he'd thought this through a little more, then he would have probably dispelled it after all was said and done." even though she'd been training and could run for a while, it appeared that hanging upside down was not her forte. Her legs were starting to burn after the hour of hanging there, and she was almost to the point where she'd be grumpy like Cyril if someone fell. What kind of sane person decided this as a punishment anyway? "Besides, you had a group too and you didn't find anyone!"

She was through with being nice to Cyril if he was going to be like this for the rest of the day. It had been bad enough going home and hearing Mother yell at her about the curfew. She even locked Jak's bedroom door and ordered her to sleep on the couch, since, quote, 'she couldn't be bothered to arrive home so she might as well sleep like she didn't have one.' Jak had to sneak some reheated food out of the fridge in the middle of the night to not starve. Hopefully, I won't be late going home today. I do this any more and I think she'll really do it this time...

Artemis, meanwhile, was fussing with a small gadget while sitting near Sonya. She'd been trying to get the screen to help her translate for the brief time she'd have to figure out how to learn Italian on the fly, which would pretty much equal watching the world with subtitles. Not much different than most shows she watched anyway, and if she was a decent enough study -Artemis didn't know if she had an ear for languages or not, she'd never paid enough attention to her classes- she might even start to communicate with them. That, though, would be years down the line if not centuries.

Plus, the fact that she was sitting next to a woman who could very well snap her neck if she stepped out of line or said something wrong motivated her not to start shouting assassin again. She needed something to think about other than how carefully she had to tread in order to not die. At least she'd found out that most of the mafia group weren't out for blood or aiming to kill her on the spot like she'd thought. Also, I don't have to do whatever it is that they're doing. That just looks painful at this point. Although... if they had pneumatic operated exoskeletons that helped the muscles...

[Solace]

It was not long before Daisuke found himself suspended ten feet from the ground, whirling about in a frenzy.

"Waahhh!" the boy cried as he swung from side to side, tapping against the shoulders of Fionn and Naoto. He ran his hands through his hair as he continued to flail about, his head pounding as it seemed to bloat. "I can't feel my legs! It's like... it's like..." he whined, his arms hanging downward as he balled a fist and shook it towards Sonya's direction.. "Curse you, scary woman! You might have thwarted our defense, but without us, you'll be defenseless when they come to invade!"

Daisuke was unable to think properly, the ache in his legs and a searing headache prevented his attempts. He recalled that the scary woman ordered them to, for their failure in locating the missing crowd, stay hanging for half an hour, and if any of them fell before the half hour mark, she would restart the time. But, if I get down... I can make a run for it!

"This is child abuse! This... this isn't fair!" Daisuke started to actually cry a little, his eyes beginning to water up. He had already taken off his shirt after being bothered by how it entrapped his head in a prison of darkness. He was initially embarrassed without his shirt, though after ten minutes had passed and he began sweating as his body temperature rose, he pretended that he was at the beach.

"Hey, you! Uh... Girl who speaks English!" Daisuke called out to Artemis, a desperate smile on his face. "I'll take you out to eat! I'll take you to a movie! Please! Help!"

---

Vincente Cleto was more than happy that he had finally been left on his own. After having to shower himself twice after interacting with that Artemis and the Vongola Guardian candidates, he had received the signal to initiate the plan. Though, he was careful to be wary of his surroundings; this could have easily been a trap set by the Vongola in an effort to subdue him, or worse; eliminate him. He knew the truth that those dogs would not have hesitated to carry out such a task, but if they were actually going through with this plot, then they were even worse than he was.

"Hmm..." Vincente squinted down at his cell phone as he carefully watched his positioning on his tracker. "The house.. it should be right..." he trotted down the sidewalk rather hastily until he came upon the destination, his phone blaring an alert to notify him of his arrival. "... here." He threw the device into his pocket and, out of view from any peasants, lifted his hand out with a cigarette between his fingers. He flicked his opposite hand across the end of the lung cancer stick, releasing too many Storm Flames as he ended up lighting the entire cigarette. "Fuckin' hell," he cursed, taking a huff from the flaming stick anyway and walking up to the front door.

Vincente exhaled deeply into the hallway as the unsurprising fact of the door swinging open willingly allowed a smirk to curl at his lips. He slowly walked all throughout the house, passing by a number of portraits containing a woman and a young Cyril Leggieri while continuing to smoke all throughout. "I guess I'll just help myself for a little," he yawned, his trek leading into the kitchen as he began to raid their fridge. He was disappointed to find nothing of interest. "Jeez, no booze or nothin'. This kid really lives a sheltered life with his auntie."

Oh well. No time to slack, 'neways. Time to get to business.

Vincente cracked his knuckles together, strolling through the hall and up the stairs to the second floor. His head peered into the first room that he saw, seeing that it belonged to Mister Cyril Leggieri himself. Nope, not here. Probably hanging out with those other Vongola kids. He retracted and pulled back towards the next room, casually opening the door to see a sleeping figure in the bed. "Bingo," he muttered upon identifying the figure as his target, seeing that the plan was a go.

The woman, otherwise known as Velia Leggieri or Cyril's aunt, was knocked out. Her clothes were sprawled across the otherwise-tidy room, the window of the room allowing a slight breeze to enter as Vincente drew his gun. At that moment, he saw Velia begin to move in her sleep, showing signs of awakening. His smirk grew wider as he exhaled, tossing the cigarette to his feet and crushing it.

"Wakey, wakey, sleeping beauty."

---

"I believe this is ten years into the future..."

A twenty-six year old Hajime curiously wandered throughout Trespiano, one hand pocketed and another wrapped around his chin in observation of his surroundings. He had been prepared to leave for an emergency meeting with Tsuna and the Guardians, and had been about to leave his 'home' in New York until his four-year old son got his hands on one of his equipment-- the Ten Year Bazooka-- and he ended up at the end of its barrel. "Daisuke needs to be disciplined," he spoke to himself as he sighed, unsure of where he was even going. He was familiar with Trespiano, but... the Trespiano from ten years into the future? The town certainly got bigger, is all I have to say.

(since the specific location was not disclosed, I will come up with a placeholder location as to where the punishment is taking place)

It wasn't long before Hajime found himself standing before the home of Naoto Alato; he remembered the address well from the last emergency meeting. Apparently, there was a descendant of one of the Vongola bosses who was to be considered as the eleventh boss candidate of the Vongola Famiglia. He himself couldn't believe it, and he had sighed in relief when Tsuna admitted that it was not his doing. As much as he would grace him if he had a child, he just couldn't imagine Tsuna being a father after all that they had gone through.

Hajime looked around to make sure that the coast was clear, activating his Dying Will Flame Boots. He quickly leaped into the air and planted his feet firmly onto the roof of the house, walking towards the backyard as the top outline of... monkey bars came into view? "What," he scratched his head as he looked down at the scene, seeing a bunch of kids hanging upside down from the monkey bars. He saw a girl intently focused on her electronics, and beside the girl... "Sonya Dmitriev!"

Hajime gritted his teeth as he shouted out the red-haired criminal, jumping down from the roof and landing a few feet to her right. His expression hardened as he stood upright, reaching his Box and slamming his ring into the socket under a second as he summoned his rapier, propelling himself forward with a single step as he raised it to Sonya's neck, the electronics girl sitting just underneath the rapier between the two of them. "Mikhail Rusakova. Where is he?!"

[Dblade26]

"Why am I the one being blamed?! It's not like I knew there'd be a crazy punishment game right afterwards or anything! I'm pretty sure I said they probably went home too..." For reasons beyond his comprehension, Prospero was now dangling upside down and trying not to get his cape tangled up in his face. It probably would have been better to release the clasp on it, but he'd already suffered the indignity of losing his hat to this exercise and he wasn't about to give in so easily. Luckily being suspended for extended periods had been standard practice for several different tricks and acts growing up, or he'd have fainted almost immediately. As things stood now the most pain he'd had was to his ego although he had a distinct feeling that his face was turning slightly red behind today's half-mask in a way that had nothing to do with his the lack of justice in this punishment.

"Shouldn't I be rewarded instead of punished since I hid the audience so well?" He already knew the protest was pointless and sighed in resignation halfway through it, but at least he made the effort. The delirious Japanese boy did have a point that this was probably child abuse, but that probably wouldn't make any difference. He decided to make the best of things and take a different tactic for the time being.

"Hoy, Sonya Dmitriev! Does me getting punished with the rest at least mean you're ready to accept me as Naoto's Mist Guardian yet?"

[AgniSpirit]

"I guess I'm okay." Abby replied to Benjamin's question, "I would be a lot better if we didn't have to do this." She turned her attention to the red-head sitting casually across the back yard, sipping a cup of tea. Sonya noticed the Sun Candidate glaring at her direction but shrugged off her meager attempt. The tutor was well aware of her students complaints and how impossible the task was yesterday. In fact, she was certain that neither group would find the audience. Prospero had hid them well and it only took a matter of minutes for everyone to wake up. By the time Naoto and Prospero started their fight, the giant crowd had already dispersed. Contrary to popular belief, Sonya didn't do all of this because she was a sadistic psychopath. No, she wanted her students to get a taste of what could happen if they were to fail in her real training. This was child's play compared to the stuff she had to go through when she was their age training to be a mercenary. And as much as she found a small thrill in torturing these brats, she didn't want it to become a habit. Sonya wanted to brand into their brains the pain they were going through right now so that when she did give them a real mission, they would give it all they've got so as to not fail again.

The red-head continued to sip her tea, ignoring the fighting going on at the monkey bars. Her attention was rather on the girl sitting next to her. Artemis Whitmore; a teenager from the U.K. who had interesting tech skills. Sonya decided to keep quiet about all the information she had gathered on the brunette over the last 12 hours, especially since she looked like she was going to explode from anxiety at any second. She was about to ask what the heck she was doing when Naoto's sudden question cut through all the arguments.

"What's the Tenth like?" Sonya looked up and gave the pink-haired boy a once over. He seemed legitimately interested on this topic. The red-head took a moment to figure out the best way to answer. How to describe the man who had given her the chance at a better life?

"He is... compassionate." She finally stated calmly, setting her cup down and standing up, "even to his enemies. He is also humble, unwavering in his decisions, and cares deeply for his subordinates. Honestly, his empathetic personality isn't fit for the bloody mafia world but he works through it with his head held high. I would follow that man anywhere." Sonya stated this last part with a passion in her violet eyes she rarely showed anyone. A moment later, the fire was gone and she turned to Prospero who also asked her a question.

"You're a Mist Guardian candidate Prospero. We haven't gotten that far in the selection process. And you're here because punishment games are a team effort." The red-head then glanced at Daisuke pleading to Artemis.

"She can't help you idiot." She barked in English, "The moment one of you touches the ground before time's up, I'm restarting the clock. So keep your legs locked." Sonya spun on her heel and started back for her seat when she suddenly heard someone shout her name from above. A moment later, Sonya had the tip of a sword pointed at her neck and an angry-looking Hajime glaring at her. Her eyes widened in shock as her head itched to reach her own weapon, but she noticed a few things off. Hajime was shouting where Mikhail Rusakova was, but she knew for a fact that he knew where her adoptive father was. In Russia, doing god knows what and killing god knows who. Hajime's hair was also a lot longer than she remembered and it had only been a few days since she last saw him. And his face looked... younger.

"Mikhail's in Russia." She responded, trying to piece together what the hell was going on, "Aren't you supposed to be at the Vongola Headquarters? Or are you wasting time till you have to be back somewhere?"

[TwilightDragon]

It seemed like everyone was ganging up on him, like he expected. Cyril sighed, but didn't say anything else. They were right, anyway. Sonya had devised this plan just so they could fail in their mission and be punished. And the punishment was not fun to go through. He had begun to have a splitting headache, and he felt like his head was going to fall off. His legs began to tremble a little more than before, making him panic slightly. If he fell... he wouldn't forgive himself. The Italian boy was tired and hungry, and he wanted to go home. He was going to ask Aunt Velia to make him an espresso... and a few more, because some of the others were bound to come over.

It was then that Naoto asks Sonya what was the Tenth like. Cyril listened intently to Sonya's short description. What he wouldn't give to have someone like that lead them instead of Naoto.

Fionn offered Naoto a shaky grin, his eyes bright. "He sounds a bit like Naoto." he said, his voice a bit firmer now that Naoto seemed to be supporting him. He seemed like he was going to be a good friend, along with Daisuke... and Jak, too! "You'll be like this Tenth person... I pro-" Before he finished his sentence, something bumped into him, almost making him fall to the ground. Fionn raised his amber eyes in alarm to see that it was no other than Daisuke. The boy was swinging to and fro, bumping into him and Naoto. "M-maybe you should calm down a bit. You're going to knock me down." he told him, glancing down at the floor. That was quite a drop. He was pretty sure that he'll hurt himself rather badly if he fell. "Naoto will try and keep you up. Right, Naoto?" Fionn glanced over at the boss, offering him another smile even if it was smaller than before.

Time seemed to be ticking by at an excruciatingly close pace. Cyril had fallen silent, at least, and there was no sign of any upcoming arguments. At least, until that man came from nowhere and pointed a thin blade at Sonya's throat. Fionn blinked a bit and tipped his head. Who was that? He looked familiar... but Fionn wasn't going to ask who he was. Sonya and him seemed to know each other, but they didn't look like they were on good terms. All Fionn knew was that his head felt like it was going to fall off. When is this going to be over and done with?

[RainDash]

Artemis had been not paying attention to the mafia kids until Daisuke yelled for her to help him. She just kind of looked at him for a moment, surprised that he was even among their ranks. He was like a large child, yelling and bouncing off the walls. "Sorry, food or a movie isn't worth it if Ms. Dmitriev decides to lop off my head..." Artemis gave him a nervous smile and rubbed her neck, her hand placing her small gadget into her lap. She laughed for a moment, watching Daisuke be a spaz and the other's faces turning red as they hung upside down -until she felt something move above her head and someone started yelling about something and she looked up to see a rapier not even a centimeter from her nose.

Apparently this guy was a surprise to everyone, not just Artemis, as Sonya was questioning him. Of course, she'd prefer it if those two didn't have a conversation at swordpoint above her head, but she didn't know what to expect from this group. From what the translator said, one of them asked about the 10th generation Vongola boss and he was... compassionate? No, no, it must be mistaken. There's no way that a mafia boss would be that caring.

Jak listened to Sonya as she spoke about the last leader of the Vongola. It was strange to hear that the Vongola wasn't interested in destroying homes or families randomly, like in the American movies she'd heard about. She would also prefer to see it right side up and not upside down, but didn't care either way. Jak was mostly focused on not failing again. True, this caused no real issues in the end, but she still counted it as a failure. She didn't do what was asked of her and she was getting off light. If she failed at home, Mother would never let Jak forget it until the older woman died.

Not to mention, Sonya's description of the tenth generation boss of the Vongola sounded a little like... Naoto. Which was surprising because Naoto was so far from the hardened criminal that she'd actually had to stifle a giggle at imagining him running around with a tommy gun. Not to mention, the mafia was surprisingly well equipped. She'd thought organized crime like the mafia had died out years ago. Instead here they were talking about how Sonya could have granted any wish on the planet. Well, almost any wish...

[Solace]

"Is that so?"

The rapier retracted from Sonya Dmitriev's neck as Hajime recalled the weapon back to its box, dusting off his suit and readjusting his tie. "Fair enough. My name is Hajime Honda, External Advisor of the Vongola Famiglia and Eleventh Leader of CEDEF," he spoke of his status flat with disinterest, his glare remaining dismissive. While it was true that one of the orders of business that Tsuna requested was to locate Sonya Dmitriev, he personally detested those Russian mafioso associated with Mikhail Rusakova.

"I have been entrusted with the task of locating you, Sonya Dmitriev, by the Tsunayoshi Sawada of ten years in the past." Hajime reached into his pocket and pulled out a photograph, his eyes running back and forth between the picture and Sonya herself. "I'm unsure as to why I have been instructed to search for you, but I've no intention in cooperating with a criminal." He squinted as he pieced the differences from the similarities before concluding, "Though, you certainly did mature over the course of ten years."

Twenty years ago, that Russian had been a key factor that lead to the casualties of numerous Vongola and Vongola-affiliated men during the Scouring. Hajime would never forget the long year of international conflict between major criminal syndicates, and when the Vongola Famiglia had stepped in to quell the violence, they had only been forced to retaliate with force as means of suppression and self-defense when their demands for peace had not been heeded. It had been among the first enactments that Tsuna had made as Vongola Decimo, but the same decision to involve the family in such an event had come at the cost of his father's life. It was soon that, after the grandest of the conflict came to an end with no true victor, he was initiated as the eleventh leader of CEDEF at seventeen years old.

Hajime frowned slightly as he sighed, frustrated with how much he ended up failing the Vongola with his 'betrayal' during the Yakuza operation. He turned to where the children hung from their feet along the makeshift monkey bars, watching with curiosity as he quietly mumbled random facts about the human body being suspended upside down. He did not question why they were... however they were, but... if this were truly the home of Naoto Alato, the supposed eleventh boss candidate of the Vongola... did this mean that all of those children were candidates as well? Did that mean that Sonya Dmitriev was their... tutor? Was this the reason why he had to find her?

"Dad!"

Hajime's face ran expressionless as his eyes laid upon his shirtless son. He hadn't paid much, if any, attention to the children handing from the monkey bars, but once he did, he saw that he could recognize two of their faces. If it was true that these were all of the eleventh generation candidates, then that meant that Cyril Leggieri and Fionn Breckenridge were also present among those children. "Daisuke," he whispered as he shook his head, looking down at the ground. This was not been how he wanted to meet his son from ten years in the future for the first time.

"Interesting torture method," Hajime proceeded to change the thought flow within his mind; everything about his objective in the past had been made clear, now, and he was certain that his premonitions were accurate to some degree.

"Dad!!" Daisuke shouted for a second time, louder than the previous attempt to gain his attention. "Hurry! Seduce the scary woman and make her stop all of this blasphemy!"

Every compliment draws a criticism. "May I suggest another more effective approach of this method?"

[AgniSpirit]

Just like she thought, the Hajime Honda standing in front of her was from 10 years ago. He even had that look of disdain in his eyes from when Sonya first met him. She knew she shouldn't let it get to her, but the red-head couldn't help but twitch when he called her a criminal. The girl she was then and the woman she was now where two completely different people, at least when it came to where her loyalties lied. In the end though, she could not blame him. The old mafia she and her father had a contract with back in Russia were one of the key groups that killed off many Vongola members. Although Sonya did not have any jobs that involved directly killing any Vongola mafioso, it was guilt by association.

"I remember you looking for me. You won't be able to find me for another few years. Wait till I've left the Russian mafia before locating me." She advised calmly, trying to keep her temper in check in front of her future supervisor, "I don't think I am the best person to inform you as to why you were initially looking for the past me but, as you can see, in a few years I will be assigned as the tutor for the Undecimo Vongola Boss." She gestured to the teens hanging from her makeshift jungle gym.

Her calm exterior was cracked by the irritating shout by one Daisuke Honda, calling out for his father to seduce Sonya into stopping the punishment game. The red-head's fist shook with rage as she held herself back from punching the teen in the face. How long was he going to pair his father up with her?!

Hajime's suggestion perked Sonya's ears as she turned back to the younger man. She thought about it briefly before giving him a nod. "Go ahead."

---

Abby watched the interaction between Sonya and the black-haired man that came out of nowhere. She thought he looked a lot like Vector but was too young to be him. Maybe it was his younger brother? He had a sword pointed to her neck and Abby briefly hoped that a fight would distract the crazy woman from this terrible punishment game of hers. But a second later, he retracted the sword and the two became conversing. She couldn't quite hear what they were talking about since the blood pounding behind her ears was deafening. However, once the young black-haired guy turned his sights on them, Abby felt a shiver go down her spine. Whatever they were discussing was probably bad news for them...

[Vongola_Hasayo]

Naoto listened as Sonya spoke highly of the Tenth and with emotion he didn't think she was capable of. Naoto believed every word she said, as if he'd met the man already. He was someone Naoto never would have thought would be running a mafia group and he was grateful to know such a person was. If the Tenth could make Sonya appear...vulnerable just for a moment, he had to meet him. I could really use his advice. I'm still not gungho about it but...I need to try and be better. Even though they've seen that I'm not fit to do this they're still standing by me. They deserve a boss who can pull through for them. Looking around at the others Naoto smiled weakly at Fionn's attempt to reassure him.

Before for he could say thanks Naoto felt that now familiar kind of annoyance he feels when Daisuke does something stupid. The spaz was at it again as he freaked out and started bumping him and Fionn. As Fionn tried to calm Daisuke down, Naoto heard someone shout at Sonya. Then, in a moment someone was holding a sword to Sonya's throat. "Naoto will try and keep you up. Right, Naoto?" Before Fionn finished Naoto had already unhooked his leg from the Sun candidate and was dropping to the ground. "Sorry!" As soon as his feet touched the floor he darted towards the scene and grabbed Artemis by the shoulders pulling her away from the Sonya and the oddly familiar new arrival. Knowing Sonya could take care of herself he wanted to get the girl out of range of a fight between hitmen.

Not to his surprise, Sonya knew the man holding her at sword point. Being a mafia hitman, Sonya probably had to know about a lot of other hitmen, he assumed. What was surprising was who the man revealed himself to be. "Honda?" Naoto wasn't quite sure about who he was until Daisuke started calling to him. "Dad!?" Naoto looked at Daisuke and then at the man with a glare realizing who he is. "Vector!" As he glared at him Naoto started to see the similarities but something was clearly different. Then, as Daisuke told his father to seduce Sonya and he saw the red heads fist shake Naoto broke into a sweat. "Now he's done it..." Things only worsened as Vector decided to make a suggestion for their punishment. "We're so screwed!" He panicked thinking about how merciless Vector was to his own son during their last encounter.

[TwilightDragon]

So the man’s name was Hajime Honda. Fionn knew that he looked familiar. But what exactly was he talking about? The younger looking man stated that he was the External Advisor of the Vongola and the leader of CEDEF. While he might have been important to Sonya or any other person who was part of the mafia, Fionn wasn’t impressed. How could he be impressed if he didn’t even know what Hajime was talking about? Before Fionn could ask, Hajime explained that he was tasked with finding Sonya and called her a criminal. At this point, he was rather confused. Weren’t Hajime and Sonya working together? If so, why did he have to point a sword at her and call her a criminal? This is making my head hurt more than it already is… the Welsh boy thought, raising a hand to wipe some of the sweat from his face. Why is this mafia business so complicated?

Daisuke began to shout, begging for Hajime to save them. The younger version of his father, however, did not seem amused. In fact, he outright ignored his son and continued to speak to Sonya. ”I didn’t expect him to help, anyway…” Fionn muttered. Hajime was the type of person to support the torture that they were going though, not to help them get out of it. What are they talking about? he wondered as Hajime turned to look at them again. Even though he didn’t exactly know what their conversation was about, the look that Hajime had on his face was… unnerving. Fionn swallowed roughly and closed his eyes. Maybe he could keep calm if he couldn’t see anything.

Naoto suddenly released his grip on him, making Fionn yelp and cling to the monkeybars with all of the strength that he could muster. His legs were screaming with pain, and he was pretty sure that this “punishment game” wasn’t going to end any time soon. That, and he was sure that it was only to get worse. A low whine escaped him, and he felt like letting go of the bars and just running away from Sonya and the rest of the mafia. But he was pretty sure that he wouldn’t get far. The mafia was pretty persistent.

Cyril remained silent. He didn’t ask any questions or interrupt the black haired man and Sonya’s conversation, even if he was interested in what they were talking about. Daisuke yelled at the man, calling him dad and asking him to seduce Sonya and help them get out of the punishment game. When Hajime turned to face them and Naoto said that they were screwed, he couldn’t help but agree. Why did Daisuke have to open up his stupid mouth?

[Dusset]

Benjamin was doing fine. He was ignoring the pain in his legs to a degree of success, but not entirely. He was avoiding the throbbing in his head by doing crunches every few minutes to right his torso and let the blood flow normally for a few seconds. He was actually surprised he was the only one trying to negate one of the two effects of hanging like this. Nothing could be done for your legs, really. But he was tiring himself. Every crunch took a little more effort, but as long as he could he would try to continue. At least he had it better than Naoto and Fionn. Daisuke was between them and he was spazzing out just like normal except this time it was detrimental. The boy is a menace. I comprehend that he's been chosen, and I'm fairly positive as to why -he survived being thrown through a wall without a scratch- ...but does he constantly need to act like that?

But that was shortly overridden in Benjamin's head by the sudden arrival of a man who looked much like a young Vector. He was not, however, surprised to find that it was Vector seeing as the Ten-Year Bazooka had already been explained to the group. Naoto, though, probably made the right choice, grabbing the civilian. The candidates had chosen to come and put themselves at risk, but Artemis hadn't. Not to his knowledge, anyways. But seeing as Naoto reset the time, Ben himself grabbed the bar with his hands and swung down. He had to lean against a wall for a moment to gain his senses once more. Untucking his tie from betwixt his shirt buttons, where it had been to stop it from falling in his face, he simply waited. Stared. Listened. All quietly. Vector had something for them to do and needless to say that put him, and likely the rest, on edge. Only two days affiliated with the mafia and already he was learning exactly who to fear and to what degree. He couldn't even begin to anticipate what the two were going to do to them all.

[Dblade26]

Prospero listened with rapt attention as Sonya described the Tenth and current Vongola Boss. A man like that...could he possibly support Prospero's goal of revenge? It seemed unlikely at the moment, but he wasn't about to be disheartened by that. If anything it meant he would just have to work harder to become the only choice for Naoto's Mist Guardian and ensure that if and when Naoto came to power, Prospero had the means to carry out his own plans.

Things got much more interesting when a man appeared and put a sword to Sonya's throat. The attack certainly came quicker than Prospero could detect, and the fact that this seemed to be a past version of the current head of the Vongola's CEDEF. He tried to seem disinterested as he watched the two of them though.

"Man.. today keeps getting worse and worse and worse doesn't it? First we have to hang upside down for forever and a half, then some crazy guy from another time shows up and now he's suggesting our punishment? Next it'll be people from other dimensions popping up." Prospero didn't bother to stop hanging upside down yet, partly because neither Sonya nor Hajime Honda had ordered him to and he didn't want to give anyone an excuse to punish him further.

For now he simply hung there watching Sonya and the CEDEF head. Getting a glimpse into both his and Sonya's past was invaluable. If he was going to make full use of the Vongola for his plans in the future he would have to know as much as he could about its' members, and insight into Sonya's past might help him survive through training. A slim hope, but still a possibility. In any case, more information was always useful for him. He had no idea if Sonya would oppose his being one of Naoto's Guardians if she figured out his motivations, and trying to figure her out as well as the past-self of this man could be a key to getting what he needed.

[RainDash]

Artemis, slightly distracted by the conversation Sonya and Hajime Honda, was thinking of what their words could mean. Was it... time travel? Then... then it was possible, to travel from one time to another. The thought made her wonder about the power of the mafia and just what they had on their hands. Maybe... it was for the best that she was joining the Vongola after all. Especially considering the possibility of meeting herself ten years in the future. She had completely forgotten about the danger until Naoto -when had he managed to get down?- pulled her away by the shoulders. She gave him a confused expression, was she honestly worth this much trust so quickly? She pulled herself away from his grasp. She wasn't a child needing protection!

"Why'd you do that? I was fine! Their conversation was calming down, if anything you should be worried about yourself." Artemis said, standing up and dusting herself off. "From the sounds of it, they're planning something worse than hanging upside down for an hour or two. I don't like the look on that guy from the past's face..."

[Solace]

Hajime blinked as he watched one of the children free themselves from the monkey bars, and in an instant, seize the girl that had been sitting quietly in between him and Sonya. His mind drew a blank as the boy addressed him by his old alias, his eyebrows furrowing as he read the slight aggression in the boy's tone. He reached into his pocket and pulled out yet another photograph, nodding upon viewing its contents.

"Eleventh boss candidate," Hajime inquired, returning the photograph to its resting place with many others. "Naoto Alato, selected by Tsunayoshi Sawada because of apparent traces of Vongola Blood," he squinted towards the boy as he continued to speak, his attention now focused solely on Naoto. "Enlighten me; which boss do you claim to possess family relations with?"

There was no clear speculation as to the origins of Naoto Alato; no database within the Vongola contained any information regarding the boy save for the confirmation of his existence. The boy's immediate family, too, was strange in the lack of data; there was no information to be found on his father, or mother. Tsuna never had any children, neither, and all of the previous Vongola Bosses were deceased. This Naoto Alato... a difficult case to crack, indeed.

"Or are you... an impostor?" Hajime implored with a deadpan tone, his four-fingered right hand raising to eye level. Sparks of dark neon spikes began to flail around his ring as he stretched his arm up to the sky completely, his entire hand down midway to his elbow now engulfed in Lightning Flames. "I may have grown a bit clumsy with a sword because I lost a finger," he stated rather grimly, his eyes fixed on Naoto. "But what better way of testing your worthiness than a little duel, correct?"

"Go, go, go, Boss!" Daisuke cheered from the monkey bars as he resumed swinging back and forth, pointing towards Hajime. "You can beat him! You can do it!"

The flames surrounding Hajime's right arm soon extended beyond his fist, solidifying as it shaped into a blade of pure electricity. His green eyes reflected the lightning of the same color, slowly lowering the blade to his side as it pierced deep into the earth. "Well then, Naoto Alato. If you won't answer me in words, will you answer me in-"

POOF!

---

"Man, this stuff smells funny!"

Sheer amounts of pink smoke erupted from the spot where his father had been standing, and a grunt followed by the sound of a person crumbling to their knees came shortly after. The smoke smelled like bubblegum, surprisingly, and it was enough to make Daisuke's stomach growl loudly out of hunger. His arms wrapped around his half-naked body as it writhed in suffering, beginning to daydream about mountains of pineapples for dinner as the smoke cleared out.

"Why am I here?" a familiar yet slightly deeper voice cackled from the smoke as exhausted breathing followed. After the pink smoke cleared completely, Hajime Honda of the present timeline had fallen to his knees, his right hand forcefully holding onto his left elbow as his body bled from multiple locations. His rapier fell out of his left hand's grip and laid just before his knees, breathing rapidly as his head slowly scanned around him. "Damn Canadians," he cursed as he spat a column of blood to the side, slowly rising back to his feet as the rapier recalled itself back to its box.

Daisuke's eyes widened as he saw his father in the condition that he was in, gasping. "Dad?" he questioned, frowning as his demeanor quickly changed from how it had been previously with his father's past self. "Are you okay?"

"Yes," Hajime tersely replied to his son, his suit tattered with numerous cuts. "I was summoned from the Ten Year Bazooka in the past during a fight between my past self, and some Canadian hitmen," he explained, his mouth opening as he saw the children hanging from the monkey bars. He turned to Sonya, who was right beside him, and turned his back to Naoto, unaware of the boy's existence. "I haven't seen this one for years," he scoffed, a hand readjusting his tie and hair. He looked down to a slight fissure in the ground by his feet, looking back up to Sonya. "I take it that my past self found you here, and tried to attack you?"

[TwilightDragon]

Fionn’s apprehension was almost killing him. Tears were welling up in his eyes, but he held back from crying. There was no way that he could embarrass himself like that. He was pretty sure that the Guardians would tease him for crying like a baby, and if that happened, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to actually meet up with them again. The Welsh boy was extremely shy and would rather keep to himself than go out and interact with people who probably disliked him and thought that he was weak. But Fionn was beginning to like the little ragtag group of teenagers who were supposedly part of the mafia. He would be disappointed if they only thought of him as a wailing and useless child.

Naoto and the past Hajime seemed like they were about to get into a fight. Hajime was much more experienced than the pink haired “Eleventh Generation Boss of the Vongola”. He would probably beat Naoto into the ground before he could say anything else. He’s going to get seriously hurt if he doesn’t back down. he thought, thinking about talking Naoto into shutting up and getting back on the monkey bars. Thankfully, past Hajime was suddenly shrouded in mist of sweet smelling pink smoke. The smell made his stomach growl in protest, reminding Fionn of his empty stomach. Why couldn’t Sonya have let us eat first?

The cloud of smoke dispersed and revealed a bloodied Hajime who crumpled to the ground. Fionn paled as he looked over the poor man, growing nauseous at the sight of the crimson streaking over Hajime’s body. I’ve never seen so much blood… and yet, he’s almost unfazed by his wounds. At the very least, he was impressed. If he had received only one of those wounds, Fionn was sure that he would surrender on the spot. They looked incredibly painful… I guess I have to get used to seeing this kind of stuff if I’m part of the mafia. he told himself. But I don’t want to see any of the Guardians in that sort of situation… which is why I have to do my best at training if I want to defend them.

However, his body didn’t exactly agree with him at the moment. His legs slipped from the monkeybars, making Fionn plummet to the ground with a loud yelp. Luckily, he avoided falling on his head and landed on his back with a loud thud. Pain spread all over his body like wildfire, making Fionn groan loudly. It even hurt to breathe… ”Owww…” he whined, the tears returning to his eyes. This time, he actually allowed him to cry. Tears streamed down his face as he forced himself to sit up. He raised a hand to wipe the tears away, hoping that no one noticed that he was crying. ”That hurt…”

[Dusset]

Benjamin was just getting interested in what Vector had been saying when the man vanished into a cloud of pink, bubblegum scented smoke. That was the same smell from the other day as it had surrounded Daisuke. Pleasant to say the least but sort of gimmicky. When the cloud dissipated Vector had re-appeared but bloodied and battered. Something about Canadians, too. So that implies the mafia have figured mastered time travel, just not for very long. He thought. That would certainly be a fascinating concept, so travel into the future and then just return? Think of the exploitation... No, why would he think like that? That was his father's terrible business and work ethics rubbing off on him. Not a legitimate way to use time travel.

But shortly thereafter he heard a light thump to his right and saw that Fionn had indeed fallen. Why he bothered to stay up there was a question all on it's own but to each their own. He could see the tears begin to stream and felt a pang of compassion in his heart. Ben pushed away from the wall and strolled over to Fionn. Crouching, he pulled a folded handkerchief from his breast pocket and offered it to the boy, and with his other hand offered his assistance to stand up. "You know, seeing as Naoto dropped from the bars already, you could have dropped down by your own volition without affecting the group. I did." He smiled gently and added, "Come on. You never know what those two may be scheming but you can't listen from the ground."

[RainDash]

Jak, who hadn't been bothered as much to get down -or rather, the space between the ground and her was so small that it would be more painful to get down than to remain up. 'Pick the one that looks off from the others', I thought, 'it'll be fine and it'll save the others some trouble.' Jak thought as she started to slowly climb out of her hanging spot. She landed hard on her butt at the end, but overall, she'd managed to remove herself from the bars fairly well. She managed to get down just in time to see Hajime -or Past Hajime- cover his arm in that weird electricity from before.

Jak was up on her feet seconds before the pink smoke cloud enveloped Hajime. After it passed, Jak relaxed somewhat. It didn't seem that, despite his wounds bleeding, he was worried about being injured. It was more like he was annoyed. Jak carefully watched as Hajime's rapier disappeared into some kind of box. A quick thump alerted her to something else, Fionn had fallen off the bars. Jak moved to help, but it looked like Benjamin had it in hand. Jak still went over to offer a hand, mostly to not look at Hajime's wounds. She should get used to it, being in the mafia now, but... she didn't really like seeing someone hurt like that. It stirred up bad memories.

[AgniSpirit]

Sonya was surprised to see Naoto jump down from the monkey bars with blatant disregard to her earlier statement, all to just save the British girl sitting between her and the young Vector. It was reckless but a move Sonya could not fully look down upon. For a moment, she saw the Decimo in Naoto's movements. However, Sonya pushed those thoughts away when she saw the young Hajime readying an attack aimed for the pink-haired boy. Briefly, she wondered if she should intervene but a second later half the back yard was filled with pink smoke. The young Hajime surrounded by Thunder flames was replaced with the present-day Hajime, wounded and kneeling on the ground. Immediately she rushed over to him to check his wounds. They didn't look too serious but to see Vector even remotely injured was troubling enough. He had muttered something about Canadians and things finally clicked in her head. Canada had surprisingly one of the toughest hitmen in the world so it made sense for even someone like Hajime to have a hard time fighting them, especially if he was outnumbered.

"Your younger self did point his rapier at me." Sonya mentioned in reply to Hajime's question, "But he was more concerned in 'testing' the 11th Vongola Boss Candidate." She motioned to the said teen. "Now, do you need medical attention or may I go back to overseeing the punishment game?"

---

It seemed as though everyone had decided to jump down from the monkey bars now that Naoto leaped off to nobly rescue Arty. After seeing Fionn fall and Jak following after, Abby decided that it was okay to get off the torture device and grabbed the wooden bars. She unhooked her numb legs and pushed them over her head, letting go once her legs were far enough. She did a simple half flip in the air and landed gracefully on the ground, her feet together and her arms up in a standard cheerleader pose. She brought her hands down a second later, a bit embarrassed by her showy landing. It wasn't her fault; cheerleading had become second nature to her. She really hoped no one noticed...

Fionn's cry distracted Abby from her embarrassment and she rushed over to the fellow blond's side. "You okay?" She asked, checking his head and shoulders to see if there were any bumps and bruises on him. Obviously Vector needed more medical attention than Fionn but there was no way Abby was going to approach the terrifying man, especially when his past self had summoned a blade of lightning. If his younger self could do that, what could the 10 years older Vector do now? It was better to stay away and let Sonya handle his wounds.