From Another World

24. A Bright Smile Within the Dark

The separate base automatically travelled near to where Shoichi fell and we all poured out, running to the group. I followed from the back with Hibari, my sword clenched in my hand.

"Everyone!" Tsuna shouted in relief.

"You have to tend to Shou-chan's wounds," I tell Ryohei.

He nodded and immediately kneels down, his ring lighting up in a yellow flame. Reborn started to explain the theory surrounding parallel worlds, I stayed on high-alert just in case something decided to change and Byakuran would attack.

"He can make the impossible possible," noted Reborn, looking at me. I return his stare with a blank look.

"That's right..." Shoichi continued, his breathing ragged but steady. "Byakuran-san uses the knowledge that he gained from other parallel worlds."

"Which means that Byakuran realized his ability. It's impossible to achieve so much in this short period of time otherwise." Reborn frowned, reaching into his first aid box and smoothing a plaster over Shoichi's wound.

"It's... it's my fault. I accidentally let the Byakuran from the past realize his ability while I was traveling through time." Shoichi coughed. "When I went back to the past, I got a dispatch device from Byakuran-san's subordinate and it sent a message to Byakuran-san in the past."

Everyone shouted in surprise, telling the obvious fact that Byakuran had basically been using his abilities for ten years.

"Irie!" Ryohei shouted in sudden anger. "What have you been doing?! You knew of Byakuran's evil-doings and you let him do as he pleased!"

"Ryo-nii," I place a hand on his shoulder. "Let Shou-chan explain."

Shoichi smiled at me in thanks. "I lost my memory. It happened on my eighth trip to the future. The part of my memory that involved time travel and Byakuran-san was deleted from the future me... myself. It was about five years worth."

"Five years? Why would the future you do that to you?"

"To defeat Byakuran-san, of course. My future self was using my past self to pretend that I was Byakuran-san's subordinate while I planned a counterattack. He erased my memory to hide my hostility against Byakuran-san and then tried to put me close to him so he wouldn't suspect me.

"I found a letter that my future self left for me when I went back to the past. There were orders for me to follow... he wrote some stuff that I wanted to hide, so I had no choice but to follow. I was following his orders when I used the ten year bazooka on you guys."

"Even though you didn't know us?" Gokudera asked, his eyes wide.

I grimace and try to imagine the experience. For some reason, my memory has started to escape me sometimes and I seem to forget bits and pieces. But the memory of Shoichi's explanation resurfaced and I feel my heart squeeze when he starts to explain his friendship with Byakuran.

"Ironically, being Byakuran-san's friend was one of the best times of my life." Shoichi smiled sadly. "However, after five years passed, I remembered everything. That terrible time travel and many ravaged futures... I was frightened by the fact that Byakuran-san was the root of all the evil and suddenly my mission was to stop him.

"I decided to become a spy and assembled my memory and knowledge of all the happenings of this world. In every possible parallel world, this is the only world that hasn't been destroyed by Byakuran-san."

"So all of the other parallel worlds have been conquered by Byakuran..." I mutter, crossing my arms. "Well, that's not creepy at all. But there's a hope in this world, right Shou-chan?"