Crossing Times [KHR Fanfic]

Omake - The past that shapes the future

<This discussion occurred sometime after the whole war with the Corvino...>

Everyone has gathered at Tsuna's bedroom, squeezing into the small cube. Everyone found a place to sit down comfortably (or lie down in Lambo's case). The Corvino no longer stood mightily on the Mafia grounds, peace ensued in the humble Namimori. Hibari is there as well, drinking Sawada Nana's well brewed green tea accompanied with vanilla cookies. They sat there awkwardly, until Lambo brought up a topic to talk about. He skipped onto Chrome's lap and gently touched her eye patch.

"Ne, Elena-nee, why do you have this eye patch? Previously, you don't have it." He asked curiously. Chrome, Mukuro and Tsuna froze for a moment. The boy had just asked a very sensitive topic. Tsuna carefully pried Lambo away from the girl as she loosened up slightly at Mukuro's squeeze. "Don't force yourself, I'll understand." Lambo said maturely. Chrome shook her head and opened her mouth. "That's fine. I'll answer your question." Mukuro lowered his bangs as his fingers moved over his red eye, a power given to him as a reminder of their horrible past. He broke into a nervous laughter. Sensing the distraught, Tsuna kindly offered to bring him out of the room as Chrome describes her past; after all, he knew what happened. He closes the door quietly, listening to the first few sentences of Chrome's story before bringing the older mist guardian to the kitchen.

"When I was young, I was hated by my parents. The favourite one was always Mukuro-niisama. He was always showered with praises while I suffered. I was treated like a slave back at the place where I dubbed as a hellhole. Even Mukuro-niisama was able to tell that I was being mistreated and slowly distanced himself from his parents. Sometimes, he even ignored them but he was never beaten up like me.

One day, our mother asked me to buy her a mountain of supplies of items and tossed me a list of items so expensive I wonder whether my savings would be enough. Technically, it's not. I decided to ask her for money but she didn't, she asked me to sell myself. Mukuro-niisama heard it but only watched. I continued to argue with her so she whipped, lashed, slapped and tortured me in every way to keep me quiet. She kept doing it for an hour, treating me like an animal. She called me a slut, a monster, a misfortune when I did nothing. I covered my ears and held my knees close to my chest, bracing another impact of her so-called punishment. Mukuro-niisama could not take it anymore and came out of hiding.

He tried to defend me but our mother threatened for him to move. He did not even budge. I asked him to go away so that he would not watch his own sister getting abused by his mother. However, he refused just like what he'll do in the past when he wants to protect someone. He did not change at all. ("Didn't change huh?" Gokudera chipped and Lambo whacked him on the head. A violent change ensued between the two. Yamamoto made no effort to stop them and he didn't want to try.) Then again, our mother lifted her hand to scare him away and swings down, only to have her wrist grabbed by him. For the first time, I saw his eyes glow a beautiful shade of indigo. He continued to ask her to back off, materializing a trident in his hand in the meantime. Mother was unfazed and tried to use her authority, which still rendered her useless. He started to laugh maniacally, but what I call charming ("Her eyes are glittering! Pretty!" Lambo commented), when I saw the woman back away (She's reduced to a woman instead of a mother. Kyoko and Haru thought). Her eyes flashed nervously as she screamed at us, which I don't know why. She called us monsters and demons, banishing us from the house. We left immediately, taking Mukuro-niisama's savings as well.

We wandered the streets for a few months, barely surviving on the amount of money that he has. Then, we were kidnapped and brought to the Estraneo Famiglia HQ. We were labelled with numbers. One by one, children were called and tossed back into the cage, receiving many wounds. Some even died but the people acted like they don't know. We had to accept the horrible food. One day, it was our turn. We were both pushed into a laboratory. Then it clicked. The kids die as they were used as experiments. A tube was forced over our right eye. I heard a click before my eye started to burn as we screamed in pain. After the whole ordeal, I looked at Mukuro-niisama's eye. He looked at me and still smiled, like nothing happened. I looked at my reflection from a puddle of water. My eyes were still purple. I have no idea what they did to me. However, his is red with a kanji inside. They declared that I'm a failed experiment and decided to ignore me, which I'm grateful for but he was called over again. Each time he came back, his eye carried a new number and he was barely breathing. When he stopped breathing, he would miraculously come back to life. It's scary.