#but she's full of suppressed rage from her awareness of the limitations of soft power

[cedefaci]

Foundations of the World: Gathering

So, I’m finally writing the DF-KHR Crossover that I swore I would write. Gathering is the part that deals with Tsuna and company meeting up with the DF crew.

Soon after breaking the Arcobaleno Curse, Tsuna and his Guardians are on a class trip to Chicago just as the events of Peace Talks go down.

A few central conceits: the Inheritance Arc never happened since Earth Flames don’t fit into the fused cosmology of this fic, which means that the Vongola Tenth Generation are still wearing Rings, not Vongola Gear; Haru is acting as Lambo’s proxy both to avoid conflict with Marcone and to reduce suspension of disbelief regarding how a five year old got on a class trip; Kyoko is an Active Sky and very willing to choose violence. The latter two divergences are the result of the CEDEF 10th Generation excelling in their chosen field. (thank you, Oregano)

The lights went out.

His Guardians immediately sprang into motion, leaping up from where they had been whiling away the time to project shields of Flame overlapping like a three-sided pyramid—Hayato’s Storm, Takeshi’s Rain, and Haru’s Lightning, to disintegrate or stop or block any attack. Even niisan was more serious than usual, taking his place in the bodyguard formation that Reborn had drilled them in every day since Tsuna’s future assassination.

“Is this what we’re waiting for, Tsuna?” Takeshi asked, as casually as if they were just watching tv, if not for the hand resting on the hilt of his sword. Tsuna had been jittery and on edge all day, and it had only gotten worse after the sun had set, to the point that Reborn had outright told them to stay together in a single room with the curtains drawn, a few illusions from Chrome settling the chaperoning teachers’ objections before Tsuna could protest.

The sense of impending doom he had been feeling since the plane touched down in Chicago (scratch that, he’d had a bad feeling about everything since the teacher had announced that they were going on a class trip to America that had Vongola’s fingerprints all over it) had grown until his Intuition was screaming at him about imminent danger. And it was still screaming.

“No.” Tsuna shook his head, “It’s not over yet.”

“Boss…” Chrome said from beside him, ready to fake their deaths the moment an attack came, “It’s dark outside.”

It was. Tsuna looked out into the night.

Chicago was a big city, much bigger than Namimori, so big that it never slept. Tsuna hadn’t noticed the difference, but there weren’t any lights shining in through the uncovered windows of the bedrooms. There was no light at all, anywhere, save from the glow of his Guardians’ Flames.

Even ten years in the future, when the world was on the brink of collapse, there had been light.

“This is bigger than just us, isn’t it?”

“Are you saying or asking, Tsuna?” Reborn said up from behind him. Tsuna hadn’t noticed when Reborn had stopped pretending to sleep.

Tsuna drew a breath deep into his lungs. When he let it out again, his eyes were beginning to burn orange. “It is.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“Hayato?” Tsuna asked, trusting that the genius had a better grasp of strategy than he did.

“Tenth?” Hayato turned his head towards him, then nodded. “Alright, Sasagawa, I need you check how far the outage extends, Chrome, hide us with a simple illusion, save your strength—and Kyouko, Jyuudaime, could you maybe check the phones? Sky Flames are about connection, so if there’s any chance that we can get communications up and running, it’ll be thanks to you.”

Tsuna nodded as Kyouko did, just as niisan made a noise of confusion. “Check how far the outage extends?”

Hayato made a face, stress making his temper even shorter than normal. “Go out, climb as high as you can with the stairs if the elevators aren’t running, and see if there’re lights anywhere, then come back! Be fast about it so we don’t end up assuming that you’ve been attacked.”

“Wait.” Kyouko interjected from where she had crouched down on the carpet and was trying to turn on a phone, “If Sky Flames boost connections, then Chrome, can you make communicators for us?”

Chrome frowned in concentration, but slowly nodded, “Yes, I think I can.”

“Good.” Kyouko abandoned the stubbornly black screen and stood up, “If you can manage it quickly, then niisan can wait for you to make him something so that he can keep in contact.”

“I’ll try.” Chrome turned to Tsuna, “Boss, can I see your earpiece?”

“En.” Tsuna unhooked Spanner’s earpiece and gave it to her, realizing that the mechanic’s technology, at least, wasn’t dead the way everything else was.

Chrome narrowed her eyes, the original in one hand and Mist condensing into a solid shape in the other. “Mukuro-sama…” She murmured under her breath, but he didn’t make an appearance.

Whatever help Mukuro was giving her, it wasn’t as major as possession.

“I need your Flames now.”

Kyouko offered Chrome her hand, warm orange fire flowing from her fingertips into Chrome’s palm, until the fuzzy edges of the Real Illusion turned sharp and substantial.

“This should work.” Chrome said, handing Tsuna his earpiece back and giving the new one to Ryohei, “But… um, I think you should test them first—just talk into one, you should receive the signal in the other.”

“Alright.” Tsuna cupped his hand over his mouth and whispered, “Niisan, can you hear me?”

“YES! I CAN EXTREMELY HEAR YOU, SAWADA!”

“Be quiet, Lawn-Head!” Hayato snapped in a furious hiss, attention darting frantically from the windows to the vents to the door and even to the walls, as if expecting a fully armed squad to burst out of the panelling, “And say something that Jyuudaime won’t be able to hear without his earpiece instead of shouting!”

“Can you hear me, Sawada?”

“Yes.” Tsuna answered.

“EX—treme!” Niisan remembered to be quiet halfway through his first word, “Don’t worry, I’ll be right back!”

Niisan pumped his fist in the air, all grimness forgotten, and dashed out the door.

“Alright—,” Tsuna jarringly realized that the Flame shields were still up, “—uh, Hayato, Takeshi, Haru-chan, could you drop the barriers now? I don’t think we’re going to be attacked right now, and you need to save your strength.”

“Are you sure, Tsuna-kun?” Haru kept her hands up, Lightning crackling from the ring she had taken from Lambo, “The movies always have the bad guys come in just when you think you’re safe.”

Which seemed to be the same conclusion Hayato had arrived at, even if he clearly disagreed with Haru’s reasoning.

The all-encompassing darkness, the equally omnidirectional dread, and, now that Tsuna was listening, there were sounds of human distress at the edge of his hearing. He swallowed, “Yes. Whatever’s happening, it’s bigger than just us, we don’t need to worry about being targets yet…right?”

He tried to look to Reborn for guidance, but the now preschool-aged hitman only crossed his arms and smirked at him, “You’re the Boss now, Tsunayoshi. A Boss has to judge the risks and make the decisions himself.”

Aren’t you supposed to still be tutoring me? Tsuna complained in his head, but nodded. “Alright. Then we’ll wait for niisan to come back, then we’ll head down and see if we can help our classmates.”