Ryuuichi's back hit the wall as he backed up, a hand over the bleeding wound. The knife was still impaled on his shoulder, rather deep. It hurt, apparently more painful than the time Vindice stabbed him. Franco did twisted the knife after all. Ryuuichi panted, trying to push back the urge to cry. He didn't want to cry in front of this man, no. He rather die than cry in front of him.

He out for a second, Franco's laugh and Dino's voice drowned out as he concentrated on not fainting. 

"How does that feels, kitten." Franco taunted as he held onto the knife, not allowing the teen to pull it out. He was ignoring Dino's yells, taking in how the teen was in pain with great pleasure. The teen was the one who taunted him after all. He wasn't to let him off with just that. No, he will torture Ryuuichi as much as he like. He llicked his lips, excited.

He twisted the knife again, grinning at how Ryuuichi screamed, back arching against the wall. What a wonderful expression.

Ryuuichi gritted his teeth. His eyes flashed in anger as he took out the other gun from his back pocket and pointed at the man's chest with his left hand.

"Oh? You do know that there's no bullet in it, no?" Of course he knew. He was the one who took the bullets out from this gun. He wanted to try something with it. He mentally cursed the fact that he had to use his left hand instead. He wasn't really good with using his left hand yet, but this is his only choice.

"Did you take me for an idiot?" He said, watching Franco's expression that morphed into annoyance. He didn't mind that, as he charged up the gun. Franco's eyes widen at how the gun glowed in orange. He jumped back, only to meet a blast of flames against his chest. 

But that was that, merely a blast that threw him back a few meter. There was no bullet holes, nor was there any damage. Just an impact. Franco laughed. "Is that all?" 

Ryuuichi smirked, with great difficulties however. The gun in his hand shattered into unfixable pieces. "Look again." Franco scowled. Suddenly, orange flames flared off his chest, burning his clothes. It was hot, the heat from the flame. He could feel it burning his skin. He panicked and tried to pat down the flames, to no avail.

"It's not use." Ryuuichi said, grabbing the handle of the knife, pulling it out. He couldn't stop the small howl of pain slipping out from his mouuth, throwing the knife far away. "The flame will never be put out." He hovered his left hand over the wound and tried to heal it. It would be quite impossible, but he needed to stop the bleeding. If it was a clean stab, he could probably do it, but that damn psycho just had to twist the goddamn knife.

Franco growled, the fire got more intense. He took out his gun and pointed at Dino's head, grabbing the blonde hair and tilted it up. "Put it out, or he dies." He snarled.

Dino couldn't care less about the gun even though it was pointing at his head. He could tell that Ryuuichi's going to lose it soon. He was bleeding so much from just one wound. His dark brown eyes were hazy as it is. Dino gritted his teeth. 'This is bad..' His eyes widen when Ryuuichi looked into his eyes and frowned. 'Bad idea. Bad, but it's the only way... Damn it!' 

"Put it out now!"

Ryuuichi almost snarled at himself. His head was throbbing, and his blood lost wasn't helping much. In fact, it just made everything worst. 'Thank you so much.' He sarcastically spite at himself internally. "I will, if you put down the gun." He wobbly walked forward, almost falling down at some point. 

"Ryuuichi, don't put it out!"

"You-!" Just as Franco turned to Dino, a loud gun shot was heard through the room. Dino's eyes were slammed shut as something warm splattered across his face. Franco's eyes were wide, crazy as he stared at his hand, or rather, where his hand should be. He screamed out loud, letting go of Dino's hair as he stumbled back. 

Ryuuichi grimaced at both the blood and the detached hand on the floor, limp. He had to will himself not to vomit at that sight, finding it absolutely disgusting. "You pushed your luck, Don Stolto." He peered back to see Reborn with his gun out, the tip was smoking. The hitman had his fedora tilted down, shadowing his eyes from their view. 

Ryuuichi laughed weakly at how furious the hitman was. It was quite a sight. Reborn didn't even say his signature 'Chaos Shot' before shooting. Ryuuichi shook his head, or at least, he attempted to with his condition. He felt so light headed, as though he was drunk. Then again, he might not be drunk. He never even drank alcohol before. 

He slowly made a beeline to Dino, standing behind the blonde. "Ryuuichi? Hey-!" He ignored Dino's protest when he pressed a hand over the chains that held Dino's hands back, melting it as quickly as he could. It took a while and a lot of effort, but when he was done and was moving to the chain on the blonde's torso, three consultative shots were heard. The chains around Dino's torso and legs shattered, Reborn leaping towards the younger.

"We need to get you to the hospital now." Ryuuichi grunted, not even trying to protest. He felt like dying, but he didn't want to die. Just as he was about to give in to his body's need by fainting, a handless arm circled around his neck and pulled him back. He felt the cold metal of a gun against his head as Tsuna, his guardians and Amemori ran into the room.

All of them had their Vongola Gears out, minus Amemori who only held a handgun. (The teen was shaking, only slightly.) Their eyes widen as they took in both his and Dino's condition, and how Ryuuichi was held at gun point.

They growled.

"Stay back!" Ryuuichi tried to ignore the lack of hand on the arm around his neck, focusing on his friends' faces. Franco wasn't burning anymore, Ryuuichi had long released his focus on the flame, but he could tell that the man was suffering from second degree burn. "Come any closer and he'll die!"

Dino, who stood up from the chair, limply backed away. Yamamoto managed to catch him and held him up when he almost fell. "Don Stolto, you don't have to do this. Stop now. There will be a second chance." Dino coaxed, trying to get Franco to let Ryuuichi go as Reborn pointed his gun at Franco.

"There won't be a second chance! I know it!" The mad man shouted, wringing his arm tighter around Ryuuichi's neck. Ryuuichi choked, slightly pulled upwards as he was shorter than Franco by a head. He almost wanted to sigh at how things was, but couldn't.

"Don Stolto, I'm serious. Stop all this. We will let you live."

The said Don scoffed. "Yeah right! You would probably hand me to Vindice if he didn't kill me first!" He snarled at the hitman. Ryuuichi somehow managed to tuned out the argument. He noticed Amemori trying to sneak over with the gun while Dino distracted Franco. He unintentionally hissed when Franco's elbow slightly dug into his wound, taking his eyes off Amemori.

His hiss managed to alert Franco of Amemori's movements.

"You son of a-"

A loud gun shot was heard throughout the room, voice caught in everyone's throat for a second. Amemori jerked as the bullet buried itself into his beating heart. A lucky shot from Franco with how shaky his hand was. Ryuuichi's eyes widen as the light in Amemori's dark blue eyes slowly disappeared, the teen fell lifelessly onto the ground. Thick, red blood flowed onto the ground profusely.

Ryuuichi screamed-

"NO!"

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Ryuuichi blinked awake. He shot up into sitting position, eyes wide and breathing heavily. His hair was tussled, messy from all the tossing and turning, a thin layer of sweat coating his skin. He rubbed his temple, willing the headache to ebb away. It was a bad dream honestly, but he had expected that he would be having nightmare after what he did. The man sighed.

"What's wrong?" A soft, sleepy voice broke his train of thoughts as he looked to the other beside him, who shifted slightly before sitting up. Hibari looked at him in concern.

Ryuuichi merely frowned and sighed. He pointed at his right shoulder, where a permanent scar is and rubbed it. "Bad memories.." He grasped his shoulder tightly, almost breaking the skin. Hibari noticed, of course. He gently grabbed the hand and pulled it away from the shoulder, rubbing it gently. He intertwined their fingers together, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

He snaaked an arm around Ryuuichi's waist and pulled him closer to his chest. 

"What did you do?" He asked. Ryuuichi bit his lips slightly. ".. I asked Caelum to show my younger self that particular part of memory." 

"Are you trying to change the future?" Hibari placed his chin on Ryuuichi's shoulder, nuzzling into his neck slightly. "No. I'm merely opening another parallel world. Or.." Ryuuichi leaned back, suddenly feeling weak. "Trying to. If Amemori was meant to die on that day, then I couldn't do anything about it.."

Hibari absentmindedly drew small circles at the back of Ryuuichi's palm. "Ryuuichi.."

"I know, I know. The past stays in the past, but I can't help it.." He planted a small peck on the collarbone, as though able to ease the tension on the man. Surprisingly, it did. Some. "I never got to tell him.." 

Hibari hummed. Regret and grief towards Amemori never left fully left Ryuuichi even after ten years, lingering deep down in him. Hibari wondered when will it leave Ryuuichi, not liking how Ryuuichi was always dwelling about it whenever memories decided to hit him. 

He nipped the skin. "You did. You know that you did." He shifted the both of them until he was above Ryuuichi, pinning the man down. (Concern aside, Hibari was jealous. He didn't like that Ryuuichi kept thinking about Amemori, or anyone other than him as the matter of fact.) "Ryuuichi, let go of it already."

Ryuuichi was surprised when his back landed on the soft mattress, but he kept frowning. "Kyouya.." Hibari didn't back down at how disapproving he sounded. Ryuuichi never liked to talk about letting go of things and all. In fact, he never liked talking about his problem. 

"If you don't, I'll personally make you." He leaned down and kissed Ryuuichi on the lips, swallowing the protests and let his hands stray. 

Let go, and let me catch you.

--------------------------------------------------------

The bright light blinded them as a loud bang silent all of them. Their shield their eyes as they anxiously waited for the light to dim down. When it did, they saw Amemori on the ground, stunned frozen.Their eyes narrowed down their gaze at Ryuuichi, who was still held back by Franco, except, his eyes were wide, and tears were flowing down his cheeks. 

Ryuuichi didn't know what happened, but what he saw shook him to his core. What he saw, Amemori dying, he didn't want that. He couldn't stand it. While he knew death is inevitable, he hated it. He hated it so much. He hated how human's life are so short, hated how time passes so fast. He had always hated it, and he will never stop hating it. 

His tears never stopped flowing. 

"You bastard- What did you do?!" The loud shouts from the man never registered into Ryuuichi's mind, as Kei ran in to the room. 

"Ryuuichi!" 

Kei was about to run to where his son was, when Franco tensed up and pointed the gun back onto Ryuuichi's head. "Back off!" He complied, not liking it, rooting his legs on his spot.

Reborn gritted his teeth and pulled the trigger, aiming at Franco's hand. He had expected that the hand to be blown into pieces, like how his other hand did. But the bullet was deflected, a transparent shield vibrated. "Ryuuichi, take it down." Soon, Tsuna, Yamamoto and Gokudera said as well, Mukuro and Ryohei attempting to break it from where they were. The shield took up three quarter of the room, blocking everyone from the perimeter. It was useless, the shield stood strong even with the amount of impact. 

Ryuuichi shook his head frantically. "Nononono-" He didn't want to take it down. If he take it down, there might be a chance anyone getting shoot. "Shiroki Ryuuichi!" 

A low voice boomed across the room, the said teen snapping his head up to a furious Hibari. He was taken aback by the fact that Hibari had shouted, that his tears stopped, all his attention on the prefect. "Enough with the nonsense and take it down!" He blinked away the tears, noticing a flash of panic in Hibari's bluish grey eyes. 

He bit his lips, drawing blood from his no longer bleeding lips. "I.." He jerked when Franco hit his head with the gun barrel. "Stop with the drama! If I'm going down, I'm bringing him along!"

Ryuuichi drew a shaky breath. "Judgement;" The Historian ring glowed, an image of a scale appeared in front of Ryuuichi, glowing as though it was a hologram. "Death Penalty."

The image flickered and morphed into what it seemed to be a thousand long spears. "W-wha-?" The spears floated around and shot down onto Franco's back, impaling into his flesh from his legs up to his shoulder. With his weaken grasp, Ryuuichi easily walked out of it, turning to the man.

Franco choked when a spear stabbed through the back of his neck, piercing through . "Endless Abyss." Ryuuichi whispered, and the last spear stabbed onto the back of the skull. Franco stiffen, and fell onto the ground. A glowing ball floated in front of him, tainted in black. 

Ryuuichi looked at it for a moment. He grabbed it, and crushed it. The ball shattered in his hand as he released his hold, dull sparkles and ashes slipping down the gap through his fingers. 

He slowly turned to the others as the world tilted upside down, he out, the shield itself cracked and shattered as well.

Hibari managed to catch the teen before he hit the ground, gritting his teeth. "Oi!" He softly patted Ryuuichi's cheek, noticing how the younger teen's lips were slightly blue, pale. His pulse was weak as well. Clicking his tongue, he immediately carried Ryuuichi up into bridal style, and hurried out, the rest following.

"Stop daydreaming there and hurry up!" Amemori came back to earth and scrambled up, running after them. 

---------------------------------------------------------

Hibari wanted to bite Ryuuichi to death, and then bring him back to life to kill him off again. He was damn exhausted, mentally wise. Just how many times does the small animal wants to be admitted into the hospital? This marked as the fourth time- or was it the fifth?- he got admitted, and the second time for landing himself in the ER. In the span of a year (and into the ER in less than a bloody month). 

(Not that the prefect can say anything. He got admitted in the hospital in a year alone just as much, if not, even more.)

Honestly, Hibari was tempted to personally end the teen with his own hands.

He shifted uncomfortably on the hard, plastic chair, looking away from the crowd. Dino was having a minor surgery as well, more like simply stitching up his wound. The blonde didn't lose that much blood, unlike Ryuuichi.

They almost lose him on the way to the hospital, barely making it with CPR. 

Hibari had his hand over on the pulse, keeping it there while Ryohei and Reborn did their work and trying to heal the unconscious Ryuuichi. It wasn't much of a help, actually. Whenever the tissue grew, repairing in a fast pace, it fell apart just as quick.

Reborn clicked his tongue. "His core is breaking. Tsuna, Dino. Place your hands on Ryuuichi's and draw out your flames, pull him back." The two did as told, having difficulties, but managed. "Hibari." He looked at the prefect, all serious. "Use your flames as well. While Dino and Tsuna's flames can gravitate him because of the bonds, yours can do as much."

The prefect did not need to be told twice, or any other explanation as he too, pulled his flames out, the hand never leaving its spot on the neck. Reborn nodded, and he too, did the same. The hitman tried to heal the core, preventing it from breaking while the three made sure that Ryuuichi doesn't slip away.

All of the sudden, the pulse stopped beating under Hibari's fingertips. He immediately did placed both his palms on the chest and pumped it, trying to bring him back to life. He cursed under his breath and tilted Ryuuichi's head, and placed his moouth over the teen's, breathing out before pumping the chest again.

He did it twice when Ryuuichi gasped, eyes cracking open slightly. The others sighed in relief, feeling that Ryuuichi was settling down and the core healing itself up. Still, they held onto the flames just in case. 

Ryuuichi's eyes briefly met Hibari's before he passed out again.

The teen really gave them all a heart attack. What shocked them wasn't how Franco died. No, that man deserved it. It was the broken gaze Ryuuichi held out of the sudden. The ever so strong Ryuuichi breaking down, it honestly scared them. 

It has been years since the last time Kei saw Ryuuichi cry, when Ryuuichi was merely nine. Kei and Sakura had gone to work in Italy again, going straight for a few month. Yuuichi cried, of course. It was a given that their youngest son would cry, wailing loudly while hugging them. Ryuuichi, on the other hand, simply stared at them by the door way when tears started falling down. He surprised himself and tried to keep it in, but Kei and Sakura saw it already. (They smiled at the silent sob and pulled both of their sons into their arms.)

And that was that. He and Sakura never saw the teen cry again. Kei could count with only his right hand how many times Ryuuichi cried. It was both a wonder, and concerning. 

Kei sighed and merely held onto his wife and son tighter.

The rest turned away from the three, and indulged themselves in soft talks. 

"I wonder what happened.." Yamamoto muttered. "I've never seen Ryuuichi that scared before." Tsuna and Gokudera nodded as well. Ryuuichi was always calm and collected, occasionally playful and mischievous. It took them aback when the ever so strong teen broken. It pained them as well, somehow able to feel Ryuuichi's emotion at that time.

Tsuna frowned and peered at Amemori, who sat far away. He had a feeling that it had something to do with him. 'Why does everything that happened has something to do with Amemori..?' He somehow knew that the time Ryuuichi got into an accident and got amnesia was all related to Amemori. Well, the accident was plain accident, but the result of the amnesia? His hyper intuition just screams at Amemori. (And Mukuro.)

"It's the first time Hibari spoke above his usual volume as well." Ryohei commented. The boxer wasn't as close as the three second-years to Ryuuichi. In fact, he couldn't exactly remember if he had talked to Ryuuichi for more than ten sentence before. Ryuuichi came off as someone who's not comfortable with opening up to him. And he was actually correct about it. Yet, Ryuuichi was the one who managed to push all Hibari's button when Ryohei only succeeded with one, exasperating Hibari to the point that he didn't even want to deal with Ryohei anymore. 

And it happened because Ryohei was freaking stubborn. 

The trio nodded at his words, sweating slightly when they felt Hibari glancing at them slightly. They were practically whispering, and Hibari was like, at the other end of where they were sitting. 

Tsuna turned to Reborn. "By the way, what did you meant by Ryuuichi's core?" The hitman was sitting beside the brunette, head tilted down. He cast a brief glance, staying silence for a moment.

"The core is actually the core of one's flames. It is the one that both produce and absorb flames. It's a similar concept to Dying Will Flames. Both are the life force of one's body, with the core as the port of Dying Will Flames. It's very delicate and strong at the same time, depending on each person's will, and needed to be balanced at all times. Ryuuichi's core was breaking because he over exerted his flames, depleting the flames from his core before it was able to generate more flames for the body.

"Which is why I had both you and Dino gravitate Ryuuichi's core and flames, because of the oath and blood connection you both have. Dino, as a blood relative and yours, because of the connection between Primo and the First Historian. Another thing is that the both of you are Skies, just as how Ryuuichi himself is a Sky."

He sighed when Tsuna gave him a confused look. "Imagine a balloon." He took out a balloon out of nowhere, average in size and not tied. "In normal state, it'll be like this. If the air was released," He let go of it, the balloon flew off his grasp and landed on Tsuna's face. "It'll deflate."

He took out another unused one. "But if it was blown to it's limit," He blew the balloon until it popped. "It break and explode."

When the brunette finally understood, horror dawned him. So if he had absorbed everyone's flames, especially the ones with high purity, he might die? Not that he wanted to do that. "However," He blinked at the hitman. "You, on the other hand, is another case. The Zero Point Breakthrough: Revise, absorbs others flames and convert it into your own so that it suits you and your body. It makes you stronger, and more flames than necessary.

"Your core won't break because of the Vongola blood in you. Then again, there was never cases of core breaking because of absorbing too much flames. It was always because of depletion." Tsuna nodded slowly, with a question in his mind.

'Really, what made Ryuuichi overwork himself..?'

---------------------------------------------------------

The surgery took almost eight hours, far too long for their liking. When it did ended, all of them formed into groups of four or three to look at how the teen was.

Ryohei, Mukuro and Amemori went in first. The former two didn't take too long after confirming that Ryuuichi was alright, but Amemori stay rooted on by the door. He couldn't move at all. Mukuro took one look at him and sighed. He walked to the teen and grabbed onto his collar, dragging him over.

"W-what-?" He shot Amemori a glare, telling him to be quiet. He pushed him to the side of the bed, tilting his head at the unconscious teen. Amemori sweated a little before slowly looking at Ryuuichi. He swallowed. Ryuuichi looked like how he was when he got hit by the truck, but worst. It pained Amemori, seeing him like this. More so when he was the reason. 

If he hadn't move at all, Ryuuichi wouldn't go berserk. 

"Shut up." Mukuro snapped softly, but with as much venom, his arms crossed. "Whatever happened is no one's fault but that mad man's. Stop whatever you're thinking before I stab you." 

He scoffed at how surprised Amemori was. "Let's go." The blunette turned around and walked out of the room, followed by Ryohei. Amemori stared. 'Wow. Did I strike a lottery or something?' He never knew Mukuro had this side. Shaking his head, he took one last look at Ryuuichi before walking out.

Tsuna, Gokudera, Yamamoto and Reborn went in next. Tsuna and Reborn immediately checked the teen's core, the brunette sighing in relief when it was alright and Ryuuichi was okay. "The moment he's all healed, we'll give him hell." Reborn said in a threatening voice while the three teenager nodded.

Kei chuckled at that and shook his head, hearing the hitman's words from where he was standing. He gave all of them a nod when they were done and pushed Yuuichi and Sakura in with him, the door closing behind them.

Reborn looked at Hibari, who never left his spot nor shifted during the whole duration. He pulled his fedora down slightly before walking towards the prefect. "Are you not going to take a look at him, Hibari?"

The prefect tilted his head to the hitman, staring into the dark black orbs before moving his head back to it's normal position, eyes shutting close. He didn't even reacted when Mukuro pointedly stared at him before walking off, Ryohei heading out as well. (The boxer went back to inform his sister and her friends, and for sleep because honestly, despite the undeniable fun on punching bad guys, he was exhausted.) 

Reborn merely smirked.

"Tsuna, Gokudera, Yamamoto. Let's head back first. Mama is worried."

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A/N= It's lonnng, hitting 4K. Unexpected unexpected, but I've no idea how to end this chapter. 

The last two part is really, how should I say, unsatisfying. Really, but I wanted the contents?? Oh well. Oh right. None of them knew what Ryuuichi saw.

Ahh, a bit of gore there. Not really, since I didn't elaborate much. And yep, Franco lost his hand. Like, they exploded. From Chaos Shot. Yeppppp. The mental image is really scarring and disgusting. Franco died as a cactus. Yayy!

Ehhh, I forgotten to mention this in the previous chapter (or did I?), but Caelum had thought Ryuuichi how to control his flames even after releasing it to hit someone or something or whatever. Somehow.

The second part is, well, TYL time. It's the same parallel world from chapter 69, or 'Between Borders'. Well, as mentioned, TYL!Ryuuichi wanted Caelum to show Ryuuichi, the present one, what had happened, and yes, he did created a parallel world. Yep. *shrug* Not much anyway. Amemori wasn't shot as the shield was put up just in time when the trigger was pulled.

Fun Fact= Both TYL!Ryuuichi and TYL!Hibari are half , with only sweatpants. *plainly drop implication of seexual activities*    ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) (Psssst! They really did it!)

About the Judgement thing, it's actually the Historian's ability. Somehow. 

Fun Fact= Ryuuichi's first kiss is Hibari, because of the mouth-to-mouth from the CPR. *cackles*

The core thing, Reborn and Ryohei are unable to heal the wound because if the core starts to break, all the tissues in the body, the organs, and the system itself goes haywire. The cells cannot control itself anymore. Or something like that. I think. 

Uhhh, okay, so, this arc might end in one or two more chapters, I don't know. It's not confirmed yet, since I'm still figuring out how to walk this whole thing. *sweat drop* THERE'S STILL THE NEXT ARC THOUGH! *whisper* It will be the last arc thoughhh.. *sobs*

[I apologize for any grammar, spelling, etc. etc. mistakes]