‘I’m not letting you touch the thing that Tsuna fought to the death for.’ Zen dives to the weapons and as he touches it a loud roar echoes and the knuckles float and fly onto Zen’s hands.
Zen then suddenly passes out.
Zen opens his eyes and looks around to see nothing but white for miles and miles.
He looks down to see he is not wearing his usual equipment; in fact, he is wearing nothing at all.
Completely naked.
‘Am I dead?’ he walks around looking for any sign of another person or even his clothes
‘Hello Zen or should I call you something else.’
Zen turns around to see a tall lady with short blue hair with jagged ends. She has black sunglasses resting on her head and wears a suit with a bright blue tie that matches her hair and a red pendant on her collar. Her eyes are a pure blue even more than Zen’s eyes.
The lady speaks again, ‘I would like to introduce myself, but I don’t have a name you would probably understand so please call me Ice.’
Zen smiles nervously, ‘Nice to meet you. Can you uh explain where I am?’
Ice looks confused, ‘You grab our sacred weapon, but you don’t know about soul-bonding? I think it’ll make more sense if Fire was here.’
A red dragon flies above Zen and Ice circling them, as the word ‘Fire’ is uttered the dragon does a nosedive towards the two.
A few feet above the ground the dragon slows down and lands right next to Ice and is the size of a building compared to her.
The dragon’s body starts bubbling as it shrinks down to the size and looks of a normal person.
This person is shorter than Ice wearing shorts and a shirt that doesn’t fit all the way exposing her stomach. She has red hair held in two ponytails and a blue pendant on her shirt.
‘This is the kid?’ The red-haired girl asks in a rough manner completely different from Ice
Ice nods, ‘He doesn’t even know what soul-bonding is. Did you find anything in your search Fire?’
‘Yea that he’s super boring.’ Fire yawns, ‘He cries over killing a rabbit and cries over being in a weird new place like he’s never been outside before.’
Zen butts in, ‘I can hear you and I think that given my circumstances I deserve to act like that. Also how do you know any of that?’
Fire shoots Zen a mean glare, ‘Sure that’s fine… for 5 minutes. What good does moping over it do for you or your situation? Being a whiny bitch doesn’t help anyone.’
‘Now, now.’, Ice steps in, ‘To answer your question, we are soul-bonding, and we can see all your memories. We are the Dragons of Fire and Ice and we used to live in that cave you are in now. We have died long ago but with strong magic combing with our souls we were able to form into the weapons you’ve seen.’
Fire loudly intervenes, ‘When idiots like you try to use us, we decide whether or not you’re worth the power we provide.’
‘So, if we bond you guys are going to be in my head giving me directions and yelling in my ear?’ Zen looks at Fire
Ice shakes her head, ‘We are dead and cannot interfere with your choice. We only decide if you are worthy of this power or not.’
Zen sighs in relief, ‘Well I don’t care about the weapon I just wanted to keep that weird guy from getting it.’
‘That’s fine, let’s go Ice he is no way worthy we’ll just let him die.’
Ice nods, ‘It seems that the potential I saw was wrong.’
Both turn and start walking away.
Zen tries to catch up only managing to get out the word, ‘Die?’
Turning her head Ice says, ‘But of course in the initial soul-bonding our souls go out and merge. If it fails the more powerful soul will destroy the other, and I don’t believe you’re able to defeat ours.’
‘AHHHHHHHHH!’
Fire screams and marches over to Zen and smacks him right in the face.
‘How can you be so stupid but have so much potential? You can’t even see it with your crying and selfishness, I don’t care what happened to you before you are here now, and you have to deal with it.’
Zen looks stunned.
Ice smiles as Fire continues to talk,
‘You’re annoying but I see how you think and how smart and quick you can be when you put effort in it. If you want to show your worthiness prove to us and yourself that it isn’t just a fluke. You don’t even have a goal; how can you push yourself when times get bad like they have already?’
Zen steps in, ‘That’s Kurama, Kurama is the smart one and the one able to do all those crazy things. I’m Zen Hamamoto I cry, and I complain, because all of this was behind a computer screen. I never needed to be brave or strong or fight monsters.’
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‘Don’t you want to go back home?’
Zen freezes in his place, ‘I am able to go back? How?’
Ice puts her hand on Fire’s shoulder, ‘It’s possible with the power of magic in this world. But we don’t know how.’
Fire points at Zen, ‘It’s possible for Kurama but not for Zen. It is a long journey; I don’t think you can do it without the determination. So, what will you do?’
Zen stays silent for a few moments.
Finally, he speaks up, ‘I will go back home. I will give Tsuna a proper funeral.’
‘Who will?’ Fire asks
He raises his head with determination in his eyes, ‘Kurama will.’
‘Good. Also remember to keep people close and don’t try to do this all on your own.’
(Editor’s Note: Zen will now be referred to as Kurama. So, whenever Kurama is speaking or anything it is the same Zen character.)
Kurama shoots up and coughs up water.
He looks around and sees that he’s outside the cave with a glowing ball over him as well as Red on the ground passed out.
Kurama looks over at his body and sees his, now clothed, body is drenched with water.
Checking around his surroundings Kurama sees no sign of the masked figure.
He looks down at his hands and flexes seeing how the brass knuckles look, there is something written on the left brass knuckle and something different on the right, but he can’t read what it says.
Kurama looks down at Red and smiles, ‘I don’t know what happened, but this guy really helped me out.’
Kurama grabs Red and puts him on his back carefully, to make sure he doesn’t wake up
Kurama walks back into the city and spends about an hour looking for Paan’s place with no luck. He then starts asking people around him for directions, but most ignored him as he was dripping wet and looked like a dangerous person.
Finally, an elderly man with messy black hair and a long brown tail pointed Kurama in the right direction. Kurama thanks him and makes his way there but looks back as he can tell that that is no ordinary old man.
The sun starts peeking through the morning sky as Kurama swings open the door to the gym he hasn’t seen in what feels like days.
He is met with a loud snoring Paan spread out on the ground and Kasumi is sleeping on a blanket with a pillow and an eye mask.
While he placed Red on the ground Kasumi speaks without moving, ‘Where were you all this time?’
He laughs, ‘Oh do you care about me now? Kidding, but I got a new teammate for us.’
Kasumi lifts her eye mask to reveal only her white eye is showing and looks over Red, ‘Not bad, but you’re going to have to convince the big guy.’ She points to the snoring Paan.
‘He will be cool with it, it’s another person to help.’
With Kurama saying that, Paan groans and stretches as he sits up to see everyone up and talking.
His eyes meet the sleeping Red and he jumps up enraged, ‘Why is this tiny child in my gym!!!’
Kurama jumps in front of Red and puts a hand up to stop Paan who is stomping his way to the kid, ‘I can explain.’
Kurama starts explaining all the events that happened since he left in the middle of the night.
Everyone gathers in a somewhat circle to listen, Kasumi yawns and doses off throughout the story.
Red wipes away all the tears that start pouring out his eyes.
Paan sits there staring off into space, but it is obvious that he is listening to every word being said. His face looks pensive and emotionless.
‘….and I brought him back here.’ Kurama finishes, ‘The part with the dragons and soul-bonding probably make no sense to them but it’s better not to keep secrets with the people I need to work with.’
The air was still for a minute with no one saying anything.
Paan gets riled up, ‘So you brought this kid here for what? So, he can join our group and go in the Gauntlet together? Did you even ask him what he wanted? People die and you think bringing a sad kid to a group like ours is going to make him feel better?’
Paan’s questions hit Kurama hard as he didn’t even think about all the answers,
‘I did want him to join us, he can fight and having an additional member can help watch our backs. I wanted to make him feel like he wasn’t alone.’
‘Well?’ Paan looks over to Red.
Red’s voice shakes, ‘I do appreciate everything you said and done Kurama, but I don’t think I’m right for this group. I want to be able to help people in need like I did with my brothers. The minotaur guy is right, people die, and I don’t know if being here will help me get over everything that has happened.’
Kurama puts his hand on Red’s shoulder, ‘I don’t want you to get over their deaths it’s a very important process of living. But you don’t have to do any of it alone I am here for you and these idiots are also there… physically at least.’
Kasumi yawns, ‘Is he joining or not? We have to start talking about plans and I don’t want a potential liability listening in on us.’
With conviction in his eyes Red stands up, ‘Something tells me that being with you guys I’ll be able to find more people to help. I don’t know how long I’ll be here but please let me join.’
He gets on his knees and bows his head.
Paan snickers, ‘Great another idiot joining, we can use the extra body to absorb the damage though. Kasumi welcome him.’
Without a second of hesitation Kasumi dashes towards Red with both of her daggers drawn and slashes at him.
‘Wait are you serious? This isn’t very welcoming.’ Red narrowly dodges the attack and stumbles back.
Kasumi continues her onslaught with her two weapons as he dodges some of the attacks with others cutting him.
Kurama looks concerned and takes a step toward the fight, but Paan shakes his head and says, ‘Watch.’
Red watches as the daggers come at him and catches her hand to stop the attack however the second blade stabs him in his shoulder.
He winces in pain as he kicks Kasumi a few feet away, ‘My brother used that move a lot, he says it hurts like hell, but it leaves the opponent open for an attack.’
He pulls out the dagger and throws it behind him and regains his composure and puts his hands together in a praying motion, ‘Sun Style Spell: Healing.’
A ball of orange light resembling the sun floats to the ceiling and shines brightly giving off a nice feeling of warmth over everyone. Red’s wound starts to slowly close up.
Red charges at Kasumi, who only has one dagger, with a fighting stance. He strikes quickly and precisely as she gets hit by each punch in rapid fire.
‘Assassin Skill: Personal Prison’ Kasumi yells.
Red’s shadow turns inky and pitch black as chains with the same look as the shadow shoot from it chaining him down.
She grips her blade and swings straight down at Red.
‘Sun Style Spell: Sanctuary.’, a golden dome appears around him as the attack was blocked.
The dome breaks after stopping the attack as the black chains fade away. Both of them stood there silently as if taking a moment to rest with each looking to see if the other would make a move.
Kurama watches the whole battle in shock, ‘I didn’t know he could fight like that it’s impressive.’
He looks over to the dagger that Red threw earlier in the battle that was across the room, ‘Kasumi seems to be a dual-wielder so why hasn’t she gotten the dagger back? She hasn’t even tried to get it. There has to be a reason why she’s leaving it.’
Kasumi laughs and pulls down her eye mask to cover one eye with only the white eye showing, ‘Your healing spell is helping me too, you were never going to seriously fight me, were you?’
‘My brothers always say that the sun is hot and burns but it also gives light and warmth to everyone. So, if I’m going to hurt a teammate I might as well heal them too.’
She laughs even harder, ‘Are we going to win the Gauntlet with this gang of misfits?’
She dashes toward Red again holding her dagger by her side, she jumps and lunges towards him.
Red prepares himself, getting into a fighting stance readying for a straight punch.
‘Shadow Technique: Moving Shadow.’
Kasumi suddenly disappears from Red’s sight as her dagger falls to the ground in the exact same place she was. Behind him Kasumi has a dagger to his neck only saying four words:
‘Welcome to the team.’