"Waaah… Stupid Tsuna, this is scary…"
Whether it was the fall from earlier or not, Lambo seemed thoroughly frightened. Tears and snot smeared all over Tsuna as he cried.
"It's okay. Trust Gokudera."
Tsuna comforted him while running toward the staircase at the end of the corridor. It was the only path forward, so he took the stairs up to the second floor.
The moment he reached it, a classroom door opened.
Tsuna immediately tensed, staring toward it in full alert—
and a tall black-haired young man stepped out, yawning.
"What's with all that noise?"
Then the man noticed Tsuna and brightened.
"Tsuna?"
"Yamamoto Takeshi?"
By now, Tsuna was almost numb. At this point, even if more unexpected people appeared, he didn't think he'd be surprised anymore.
"When did you start acting so distant?" Yamamoto said with a laugh.
"Um, Yamamoto… downstairs…"
Before Tsuna could finish, Yamamoto's expression sharpened.
He drew a shinai from the sports bag on his back. The moment it left the bag, it transformed into a sharp katana, the blade sweeping upward from below.
Shigure Sōen-ryū, Defensive Form Second Style: Sakamaku Ame!
A curtain of blue rain spread across the corridor.
Immediately after, three impacts struck the rain screen in rapid succession.
Yamamoto calmly cut down the foreign objects caught in the rain barrier. Rolling into the corner were three tiny nautilus-shaped creatures.
Yamamoto's expression turned grave as he looked down the other side of the corridor.
Floating there barefoot was a blue-haired girl, cheeks puffed with irritation, clearly upset that her sneak attack had failed.
Thanks to what had happened earlier, Tsuna recognized her at a glance.
Suzuran—the Rain member of the True Six Funeral Wreaths.
"Tsuna, go on ahead," Yamamoto said, giving him a cool flick of the blade and showing him only his back. "I've got something to deal with here."
"Understood. Be careful."
"Go get her, Yamamoto!!!" Lambo had apparently recovered already and was loudly cheering him on.
Tsuna kept climbing with Lambo in his arms, reaching the third floor.
It was eerily quiet there, as if nothing at all was wrong.
Even so, Tsuna moved carefully, afraid that some enemy might leap out from anywhere.
After cautiously checking most of the floor, he relaxed a little.
No one was there.
That gave him a bit of time to sort through his situation.
Just what in the world was going on with this chaotic inner world of his?
As he reached the far stairwell corner, a ghostlike voice suddenly sounded right beside him.
"I've been waiting for you… Vongola…"
Tsuna turned his head and nearly had his soul jump out of him.
He'd stopped being afraid of ghosts a long time ago—but the figure before him was another matter entirely.
Messy dark green hair. A gloomy, exhausted aura. A huge scar on his face. A ragged rabbit doll clutched in his arms. The whole man looked like a walking corpse.
He was deeply unsettling.
Even Lambo shrank behind Tsuna's neck, crying loudly while hurling insults.
The Sun member of the True Six Funeral Wreaths—
Deisy.
Sun Flames ignited in Daisy's chest as he walked slowly toward Tsuna.
Tsuna could only retreat step by step.
He had no combat ability right now. Was he supposed to just hope someone else would appear to block another Funeral Wreath for him?
"EXTREME!!!"
The windows beside them exploded inward.
A fist wrapped in bandages smashed squarely into Deisy's face, sending him flying in a tumble.
The one who appeared was a gray-haired young man with a flat-topped haircut and a blazing spirit.
Ryohei Sasagawa.
"Big Brother Ryohei!"
Tsuna was overjoyed.
As long as someone held Deisy off, that was enough. Otherwise, there was no way he knew how to survive close combat with Lambo still in his arms.
"Run to the extreme!"
Tsuna understood immediately.
After calling out encouragement to Ryohei, he hurried on to the next floor.
Truthfully, he really wanted to stay and watch this battle.
If not for Lambo, and if not for the fact that he currently had no power, he absolutely would have.
A clash between a fighter built for explosive instantaneous bursts and one built for relentless endurance—
that really was exciting to imagine.
Reluctantly, Tsuna cast one last look at Ryohei's back before continuing upward.
The moment he stepped onto the next floor, the entire world began to distort.
The straight corridor twisted and warped unnaturally.
Illusions.
Tsuna reacted at once.
Fortunately, because of his experience with Fullbring, he already had some resistance to illusions, so the bizarre, distorted world around him didn't put much pressure on his mind.
Lambo, meanwhile, was already seeing spirals in his eyes and looked one step away from foaming at the mouth.
Then—
Clang.
The sound echoed through the space, and the distortion abruptly faded.
Tsuna looked toward the center of the hall.
Standing there with a trident in hand was a one-eyed girl in a dark green uniform.
"Boss…" she called timidly.
"Chrome?"
Tsuna quickly ran toward her.
Having someone familiar nearby was a relief, at least.
From the looks of it, Chrome had used her own illusion powers to stop the enemy illusionist.
If nothing unexpected happened, then the enemy on this floor had to be the Mist member of the True Six Funeral Wreaths—
Torikabuto.
And against an illusionist, the best answer was another illusionist.
That was why Tsuna wanted to get to Chrome's side as fast as possible.
He ran up to her and had just opened his mouth to say something—
when her face suddenly turned indistinct.
Her delicate features transformed into a horrifying vertical eye.
And in the next instant, the trident in her hands pierced straight through Tsuna's chest.
Even Lambo, who had been noisy nonstop until now, fell completely silent in that instant.
Blood dripped from Tsuna's chest one drop at a time.
The "Chrome" before him changed into a deep brown oni-like mask, and the trident became Torikabuto's arm.
Torikabuto twisted his arm and pulled it out of Tsuna's chest—
along with a still-beating heart.
He tilted his head with disdain.
So this was Vongola? He didn't look all that impressive.
But the instant he tilted his head—
his mask shattered.
A trident had suddenly been driven straight into it.
At the same time, the Tsuna who had been pierced also changed.
He now wore the same dark green uniform, with dark blue pineapple-shaped hair.
He had become a completely different man.
Mukuro Rokudo—
like Chrome, one of Vongola's Mist Guardians.
"Interesting. It seems you're not entirely worthless after all," Mukuro said.
The Torikabuto before him changed again, reappearing farther down the corridor.
Mukuro's strike had not fully destroyed the mask, however. It had only cracked and partially broken it apart.
The mask was Torikabuto's true body.
Even so, that much was enough to affect him.
Tsuna had watched the entire exchange happen right in front of him.
Originally, he really had intended to run to Chrome.
But after taking only two steps, he suddenly saw another "himself" running ahead instead.
So he stopped and watched.
Then he saw Torikabuto set a trap for him—
only for Mukuro to have already set one for Torikabuto in turn.
And then Torikabuto barely avoided Mukuro's fatal blow through sheer emergency instinct.
"Sawada Tsunayoshi, now is not the time to deal with you," Mukuro said. "I have other matters to handle first."
Tsuna nodded. He couldn't be bothered to argue with Mukuro anyway.
Mukuro clearly meant that Tsuna should get off this floor.
So Tsuna kept going, Lambo in his arms, rushing upward again.
The moment he reached the next floor, he ran into the Cloud member of the True Six Funeral Wreaths—
Kikyo, a man with blue-green hair.
Unlike the others, Kikyo wasted no time playing games with Tsuna.
The instant he saw him, he activated his ability.
His green hair elongated wildly under the Cloud Flame's power of propagation, spreading across the entire floor in an instant.
Then that mass of hair transformed into countless tiny raptors, which rushed at Tsuna all at once.
Relying on the battle experience he had accumulated, Tsuna managed to dodge two waves of attacks in succession—
but even then the pressure was overwhelming.
The only one still enjoying himself was Lambo, who thought this was some kind of game and kept laughing and cheering Tsuna on.
Tsuna alone understood how bad things really were.
At most, he could survive another couple rounds.
According to how this seemed to be progressing, Vongola's Cloud Guardian should be the one to stop the enemy Cloud Funeral Wreath…
So where was Hibari Kyoya?
Another near miss—the raptors almost bit him.
Tsuna had reached his limit.
He could only shout at the top of his lungs—
"Hibari-senpai!!!"
Boom!
The wall beside him exploded open.
Hibari stepped out, sleepy-eyed and yawning.
He glanced at Tsuna.
"You look pretty pathetic, little herbivore."
Then he actually looked around and saw what the floor had become.
Forget the whole school—even this one hallway had already been turned into a complete mess by the raptors.
For a man who considered Namimori's order and discipline his pride, Hibari Kyoya's expression changed immediately.
His tonfa clenched in his hands, he moved in a blur and smashed apart two incoming raptors.
"Don't get in my way, little herbivore!"
He looked thoroughly irritated.
Right now, all he wanted was to bite to death the bastard who had turned Namimori into such a mess.
Spikes extended from Hibari's tonfa, wrapped in Cloud Flames, and he swung to the side.
Another opening appeared in the warped corridor, revealing the staircase beyond.
Tsuna couldn't help twitching at the sight.
Hibari kept talking about others ruining Namimori's order, yet when it came to smashing up Namimori Middle School's walls, he sure didn't hold back either.
Still, Tsuna knew Hibari was helping him.
After hurriedly shouting his thanks, he ran upstairs.
This time, the staircase that had seemed endless finally came to an end.
A single door stood before him.
Without hesitation, Tsuna pushed it open.
On the other side was the school rooftop.
As he stepped outside, he was greeted by a vast blue sky.
Everything looked peaceful.
It was completely different from the fierce fighting inside the school building.
Tsuna looked around.
There was only one thing on the rooftop—
a reclining chair.
And on it lay a white-haired man dressed all in white.
The man turned his head.
Beneath his left eye was an inverted blue crown mark.
"I've been waiting for you for a long time, young Vongola."
The leader of the True Six Funeral Wreaths.
One of the representatives of the Sky Attribute.
Byakuran Gesso.
=====================
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