Goodbye Hibird

[Toru]

Hi~bari! Save Me~!

"Oi! Shut up, stupid bird!" Toru barked, kicking the birdcage in which Hibird was in. The birdcage toppled sideways and rolled a couple feet away.

Toru sat patiently on top of Namimori Middle, his hands clutched under his chin. The little bird brought back horrible memories of his old alma mater and of Hibari Kyouya. The humiliation he felt from his broken arrow back in the day also broke his pride.

This is the day Hibari... I will get rid of you and this annoying bird!

Unknown to Toru, Hibari was Cloud Guardian to the Vongola, one of targets set out by the Millefiore. Toru wasn't much of a reader and didn't take much notice of the target list. This was the day that Toru exacted his revenge, not a day of work.

[megh... lazy post.]

[Hibari Kyouya]

"Don't follow me or I'll kill you."

Those were the last words he told Kusakabe before leaving the Vongola hideout. A minute ago, he had tracked down where one of his precious pet avians was being kept, and a minute later the rest would be notified and attempt to stop him, so he would not waste anymore time.

Not only that, he was furious. Furious at the person who tried to provoke him like that. Some gut that person had to do this to him, just when he had just arrived back in Namimori. He was quite aware that it was a Millefiore member though, so he kept his cool as he looked up at the school he had once treasured, and still treasured.

"Ah ah...this actually seems kind of nostalgic," he commented once he reached the rooftop and let himself in. Once he did that, he immediately spotted his bird that was in a cage, fluttering helplessly. The next thing he spotted was the bird-napper. He stopped to observe him with an expression of only the slightest surprise.

"Wow...so you're the one who is provoking me. And leading me to this place...what do you have in mind, Millefiore?"

He was speaking as if the other was a stranger, which to him he currently was. He had no instant memory of those who mattered enough then.

[Toru]

Did he just say... "Millefiore"? Toru hesitated. He stood silently for a moment. His silence was later broken with a deep and sinister laugh.

"Hahaha! What a day this is! I get to kill both an old schoolmate and one of the Vongola!" Toru's eyes widened with madness, a large smile on his face. "Isn't it obvious to why I captured your aggravating bird and led you out here? I simply want to fight with the famous Hibari Kyouya!" His voice was riddled with sarcasm and arrogance.

Toru slipped on his ring and threw two metal boxes into the air. Instantly, he charged his fist into the boxes, emerging a metal bow with a bundle of arrows. The arrows hovered behind him, charged with thunder flames.

"Don't disappoint me, Hibari! Lets end this bloody and bruised!" Toru no longer had patience for discussion and with this perfect opportunity of revenge, he could no longer control himself.

The angered man fired an arrow at Hibari with unparalleled speed. The arrow fired was no longer that of an arrow Toru fired 10 years ago; it was much faster and much more deadly.

[Hibari Kyouya]

A schoolmate. That explained why they were here. He saw the bow and arrows that were released from their boxes, and immediately remembered who he was, and at the same time figured out why he had not been able to recognize him at first glance.

"Nishio Torubi...of the Archery Club. Once a weakling..."

Just as the arrow was pulled, he calmly took out a box and put on his ring. Flame emitted from the ring, and he inserted it into the hole. Almost just when the short burst of the releasing box came, his hand shot up at the arrow which by then would have been too close for him to avoid. The arrow was beaten upwards, whether breaking or not he did not notice, but he was out of harm's way now. After that movement, only then his metal tonfas showed, having saved him from getting pierced by the deadly weapon.

"Wow, you have indeed raised your ranking of a herbivore," he commented with an impressed smile. Purple flames burst from his tonfas, illuminating his menacing face. "It is surprising though, that you with such petty weapons can actually be accepted into the Millefiore. Did you have to be on your knees and beg them until they let you in?"

[Toru]

Toru analyzed his opponent's movements. They mimicked the one from years ago and it aggravated him. To think, after all these years, he'd do the same move just to piss me off.

"Heh, that arrogant attitude of yours hasn't changed one bit, Hibari..." Toru cracked his neck, preparing for the growing battle. "Let me change that for you!"

Crackling flames burst around Toru's bow and two arrows were fired horizontally at the Cloud Guardian. The speed of the arrows increased slightly, but slow enough so that he knew Hibari could stop the attack.

"And let me assure you, there was no begging involved. I was simply the best. And the best always come out victorious, that is why you, along with the Vongola will come to an end."

As the arrows grew ever closer, he quickly strafed left, keeping his distance from the close-ranged Hibari, but encircling at the same time. He fired single arrows, a total of 3, during the movement to keep him on his toes.

[Hibari Kyouya]

Still too slow, and he wondered whether that was done on purpose. Over the years, he had grown to be more attentive, even though there was still only instinct he trusted, but that only meant that he had improved even more in battle situations, as if there was always room for improvement in him.

Instead of striking them away like he would, he dodged those two arrows with ease. He saw another one on the right, and avoided that as well. By then, he had analyzed the enemy's movement and drawn up a conclusion. It was obvious that Toru's weapons was useless at close range.

"Hm...you may have become more annoying than you were, and you do now have the guts to come to me."

The moment the third arrow passed him, he put force in his foot and charged towards the other man. "Yet, you are still the same coward like you always use to."

He aimed to strike at Toru's hand that held the bow, while his other tonfa was ready to defend himself.

[Toru]

Naive... thought Toru.

"I guess you noticed I'm not much of a close range fighter... but since you noticed, it must be obvious to me! I'm not stupid enough to reveal that kind of weakness!" Nishio threw an arrow into the ground and hopped backwards. Instantly, an electrical circuit crossed paths between Hibari and himself.

One of his previously dodged arrows was embedded in the ground which completed the circuit with the arrow Toru threw into the ground. His face was expressionless. Toru revealed one of his cards, and Hibari wasn't dumb enough to fall for the same move twice, assuming that he fell for the first move.

There is no way I can take on Hibari from close range. My only option is to corner him and weaken him slowly.

He retreated backwards again to a distance far enough to use his weapon effectively, firing two more arrows into the ground on his way back. Toru's plan was to riddle the field with arrows, making it impossible to evade the circuits he would put up.

[never played a long range fighter before, so I'm testing it out. So sorry for anything I do or may do.]

[Hibari Kyouya]

He was closing in, until he saw Toru's action with the arrow. He stopped himself in time to avoid the electrical circuit that was emitted from it, though it scraped the hand which had been in front of him as a shield. He quickly pulled back. Blood was loose from a cut across his knuckles, and his fingers were shaking slightly from the shock, but they gripped the tonfa firmly still. He raised his eyebrows a little, and then let out a sigh.

"Looks like I had underestimated you. Well, I didn't want to waste my energy on this, but..."

He took out another box, and charged it. It opened, and he aimed it to project what seemed like a ball of spikes at Toru, cloud swirling around it and treating the electrical barrier as nothing. While he did that, he swept his bleeding knuckles across his black suit nonchalantly, watching the opponent's every movement. His face did not bear any expression, but his eyes almost showed his boredom, as if he knew exactly what he was doing.

[Toru]

Chee... Unavoidable. thought Toru. As fast as he could he raised his bow up to eye level. The bow tipped the spiked ball throwing it upward into the air, but it still managing to collide with Toru's head. A few spikes cut the left of his brow cleanly, a large gash and inevitable scar now visible, slowly vanishing in blood. He winced with pain and closed his left eye to keep the blood out.

"To think you could emit such a powerful flame with your crappy ring... Your strength is definitely undeniable, but mine is unparalleled."

His wound was deep and excessively bleeding and a wound over his eye didn't help much. There was no time to cover it nor remove it with his hand; any sign of hesitance would be an instant loss against Hibari. There is no breathing room against him... Time to go all out.

Toru's ring engulfed into flames and was inserted into another arrow box. More arrows emerged and were covered with sparks. He fired two arrows horizontally, two arrows vertically, and two arrows diagonally and circuited them all together. A virtual net of electricity was flying towards his opponent. Difficult to avoid and dangerous to get hit by, Toru took this small window of opportunity to begin ripping his shirt to tie on his head and over his eye; the attack would only give him a few seconds, if that. This window would keep him from attacking, but without being able to see, Toru wouldn't be able to continue this battle.

[Hibari Kyouya]

He watched his tool being tossed up, but a few spikes scraping the other man. There was still no satisfaction in this though.

He lowered himself as soon as his enemy's flaming ring entered the box, and darted aside as the deadly net was formed and heading towards him. At the same time, he headed for the cage where Hibird was, chirping madly. A tonfa was lowered, and struck the cage up. As soon as it fell to the level of his head, he struck it, and some bars broke like twigs from the impact. He caught it so that the yellow bird could flutter out freely, though a little dazed from its master's actions. Then he threw the cage towards the net, while jumping further towards the fence, the barrier between him and a long way down to the ground below. Hopefully that was the furthest he would need to go to avoid the attack.

Hibird flew upward, chirping happily. Thank you, Hibari. Ganbatte, Hibari.

And then it proceeded to singing the Namimori anthem.

"Well then...how to beat down the hammer of thunder?" It was a theoretical question as he licked off a little blood that was trailing from his wound to his tonfa. "You shouldn't be as good as that Gamma person...by the way, do you know the characteristic of a cloud-type box?"

Meanwhile, the content of his second box, the hedgehog, fell silently behind the enemy near the hovering arrows. It found food.

[Toru]

He effectively tied the ripped shirt to his head, stopping the bleeding. There was little to worry about the blood in his eye now, his full attention was on the battle.

"Hmph, Gamma... That fool? He is nothing compared to me." Toru scoffed at the idea. "And thus far, you're much weaker than expected. Maybe being part of the Vongola has made you soft?" He didn't take much notice of the topic of the cloud attribute, nor did he care.

His attention turned again towards the annoying chirping bird. It sang the anthem of the school again and again, the tune was maddening. "I don't think I'll be able to sleep at night if I don't get rid of that bird..."

Immediately, a burst of electricity in the shape of an arrow sped towards the yellow avian. The annoyance was going to end finally, but not without Hibari to follow. The arrow heading towards the bird also shot out 3 electric circuits toward Hibari, one above and one on each side.

[left the hedgehog to you. Let it grow or whatever. ]

[Hibari Kyouya]

He did not respond to his question, which was fine with him. The hedgehog was already feeding on the flames from the arrows, slowly growing in size. It would be a matter of time before one of the spikes got to Toru.

His eyes narrowed at Toru's statement. He did not like what he heard. Kusakabe said it once before, and then ceased to say it again after he was threatened. But there was no reason to merely speak about killing to this man---he just had to kill him. Besides... "Even if I am part of the Vongola, I stand on my own."

The next move alerted him. He was first distracted by the arrow that headed for Hibird, and then the ones that were aimed at him. "Stupid bird, take care of yourself," he growled, before dodging two and striking the other arrow down. His word seemed to have affected the expressionless avian, as it immediately flew aside and let the arrow pass it without scraping it the least. He let out a breath.

"So you're actually holding a grudge on a bird? How pathetic. Do you seriously think it is the only one though?"

[Toru]

"I hold no grudge against the bird; it's the school anthem that bothers me." Toru sighed, he did not feel like getting into it. "But you cannot be a part of a group and be on your own... Face it, you rely on the Vongola." He scoffed, knowing that, no longer how much time has past, the words spoken would bother Hibari.

The constant evading was beginning to frustrate the already angry man. The distance was beginning to work in favor of his opponent, the shots and circuits were predictable and avoidable - the only way to stop that was to get closer. Once again, Toru shot a virtual net of electricity at Hibari, but this time the man followed behind it. Shocks flew from his ring as it charged into another box, a large chain emerging.

However Hibari planned to take the attack, Toru was ready for a follow-up. Close-combat isn't my strong point, but in this situation, there's about a 50% chance I'll get a good hit on him

[Pfft... tired and lazy. Long range sucks.]

[Hibari Kyouya]

The song which he treasured much was being despised of, and that irritated him. Though not as much as the next statement about him being weak. He began to wonder why he was in that situation in the first place, what had made him decide to be part of this. Because he wanted to find someone strong to beat? No, that did not sound right.

An attack was heading for him. Hibari sprang quickly to the side to evade, and saw that his enemy was coming in for a closer shot, but most likely still not close enough for him to land his own attack. That was only his thought until he took notice of the chain that emerged from the box.

By now, he would be mocking him with something, but he no longer felt like doing that. He was in the mood to break something, and he wanted to do it now. His hedgehog was as large as a man by then, and was trying to catch up with Toru from behind in order to consume the flames. There might be a hint of a smile there, but Hibari kept his poker face.

"If I rely on Vongola, then I wouldn't be here on my own," he said, lifting his tonfas. Purple flames of greater intensity burst from them. He was getting into it now. "Don't compare me to your petty being."

He charged towards Toru, regardless of what would happen. He would be either that stubborn, or that stupid to do that, but in his case, it was stubbornness.

[Sawada Tsunayoshi]

"Tsuna, Hibari has been captured by one of the Millefiore. Go save him."

"Heeee?! H-Hibari-san?! Captured?! And you think I can save him?!" Tsuna yelled out against the Arcobaleno incredulously.

"Stupid Tsuna, you need all of your family in order to challenge the Millefiore."

And that was exactly how Tsuna arrived at the school after a quick dash from the base. He still held his doubts as to how he could help exactly. After all, Tsuna himself still had a lot to learn about the unique box weapons and his newly acquired gloves.

I have the feeling that this isn't going to end well, Tsuna cried mentally as he charged into the school and up the stairs.

"Hibari-san!" Tsuna cried as he shoved past the door leading onto the roof, where he froze immediately in his spot.

It took a couple blinks for him to understand the situation. Hibari was fighting another guy, who Tsuna assumed to be a member of the Millefiore, and Hibird was trapped in a cage.

A bell seemed to sound in Tsuna's head, and as he tilted his head to the side, his eyebrow twitched a little in disbelief and shock.

(Ooc: Ohohoho, I have barged in from no where *scampers off*)