Weapons and Meisters

Death City was not your normal city, if you couldn't tell by the name. This gothic metropolis was literally governed by the grim reaper himself. And while the people there may seem normal at a first glance, they were used to the abnormal more than anywhere else. There was a school there that trained students to hunt down evil souls, called kishin eggs. When people stray from the right path and lose their morality, they run the risk of of of turning into a kishins, dangerous creatures full of madness. After the first kishin was born, Death sealed it away and formed this school to ensure that no more kishins were ever born.

The school enrolled meisters, normal people who were experienced with weapons, and weapons themselves, who were special individuals who had the ability to transform into a weapon. The school paired meisters and weapons in teams based on how well their souls matched, and gave them the ultimate goal of collecting ninety-nine kishin eggs and one witch soul to make the weapon a death scythe, at least that's what they called it, despite most weapons not being scythes.

A teen with gravity defying, fluffy brown hair walked through the street, his brown eyes staring down at the ground. His name was Tsunayoshi Sawada, but most people called him Dame-Tsuna. In japanese, dame ment no good, so it wasn't very good for the boys self esteem. Not that everyone in Death City was japanese, but when Tsuna transferred from Japan to Death City some of the older students form his old school also came to enroll in the Death Weapon Meister Academy, better known as the DWMA. Between their rumors and Tsuna's clumsy nature and terrible grades, it didn't take long for it to catch on.

However today he was on his way to the DWMA himself. This was his fourth attempt to enroll. It wasn't that he failed the exam, well at least not the second two times, but as a weapon, he needed to find a meister, and no one wanted to partner with Dame-Tsuna. It didn't help the he was just a plain old katana, most people were looking for something flashier, or at least better looking. He recently received a passing grade on his entrance exam, but not a single point higher, and now the school had the next week set up to have students meet each other and partner up. Meisters without a weapon would be allowed to enroll in basic classes as extra curricular to their primary education while the looked for a weapon, as long as they showed extreme promise with a normal weapon. Weapons on the other hand, had to prove that they can at least put up a fight on their own. This this exception was only added in the last decade or so, after a man named Justin Law became a Death Scythe on his own, proving it was possible. Tsuna always thought that he must have learned out of desperation. After all, you'd be hard pressed to find someone that could wield a guillotine into battle. He once wondered if he could do the same, but then thought that he would be lucky to cut a piece of paper in two without help, given his clumsy, pathetic nature.

He was hoping that he'd find a partner this year before the new students found out about him. And if they were already partners, there was a chance that he or she wouldn't abandon him. "Wishful thinking," he said with a sigh.

He climbed the stairs to the school, a large building in the middle of the city that was made of several black towers with red cones on top and had a skull in the front that had red spikes coming out of the nose and eye holes. There was also giant candles angled slightly upwards from the ground. There was a crowd of new students in front of the DWMA currently, mingling with each other and some of older students. Tsuna started to shake, he wasn't very good at talking to people, especially in a crowd. Still he had to try, if he didn't, one of the older students would be sure to recognize him. He took one step forward and immediately tripped over his own foot, falling face first onto the ground. The crowd went silent as Tsuna got back up and dusted off his orange and white sweatshirt and jeans. "Oh, it's just you, Dame-Tsuna," a boy said.

"Dame?" another student asked.

"It means no good,"

"I heard that it's fourth time trying to get in,"

"Really? He failed that many times?"

"I don't know, I think he was here last year, so maybe he just can't find a partner."

"Yeah, but who can blame him. I heard that he only got a sixty on his test."

"Sixty? Isn't that like… the minimum you need to pass?"

"Yeah, if he took it four times already, you'd think he'd have the answers memorized."

"That's why we call him dame."

As time went on, more and more of the crowd joined in on the gossip and laughter. "Maybe next year," Tsuna said quietly as he began to sniffle, giving up on finding a partner. After all, it was only a matter of time before the whole school knew. Tsuna turned around with his eyes squeezed shut and ran down the stairs.

"Hey, wait," he heard a boy call out, but Tsuna didn't stop. He had heard enough for one day.

A boy with short, black spiky hair and brown eyes was standing in the crowd in front of the DWMA. He was a potential meister and since he had a athletic build and was the son of a master swordsman, weapons were practically swarming the poor guy. Not that he minded. He just stood there smiling and laughing as the weapons showed off their weapon forms. They were all very impressive, but none of them seemed to click with the boy.

There was a loud thud and the crowd went silent… for about ten seconds before gossip started spreading like wildfire. The boy just rolled his eye's at it. He never really liked gossip. He just stood there until one line caught his attention.

"I heard that he only got a sixty on his test," one of the student's commented.

"Someone else scored that low," the boy whispered. While he was an amazing athlete, his grades were less than stellar.

"What was that Takeshi?" One of the weapons asked.

"Oh, nothing," the boy, Takeshi Yamamoto, answered.

"Yeah, if he took it four times already, you'd think he'd have the answers memorized," the gossip continued.

"That's why we call him dame."

That's when Takeshi herd the sniffles and was filled rage. His eyes quickly found an opening it the crowd and he ran right through it. Dame, the japanese word for no good. How could anyone use that to describe someone's existence. And right in front of them too. He reached the stairs and saw a figure getting further and further away. "Hey, wait," he called out, but it was too late. The kid either didn't hear him or didn't care.

Tsuna somehow made it to the bottom of the stairs without tripping and rolling halfway down. He bent over and leaned on his knees, out of breath. He felt water coming from his eyes and lifted one arm to wipe the tears away. "Their right, I am no good, useless!" he cried. He already accepted that long ago but it never stop hurting when he tried to fight it away and it just came right back and hit in the face. Wiping away the tears once more, he continued to run away from the school, panting until he couldn't anymore. He collapsed to the ground, breathless.

"You look like you could use something drink," a man said. Tsuna looked up to see an older man with blond hair and brown eyes. His name was Shio, practically every teen that has lived in Death City long enough knew him. Tsuna looked up and saw he was in front of Shio's, a quick service restaurant. It was a small hang out in the city for some of the teens. The place's food was alright, but what it was known for was it's juices. They were all freshly squeezed and frankly delicious. Tsuna bought one once, when he failed to find a partner the first time, but he swore he'd never splurge like that again.

"I'm sorry, but I really need to save my money," Tsuna was on his own in Death City, and his only income was his mother's monthly checks, and since she was also on a low income that wasn't much. Still she was an amazing cook and could make alot of food on her small wasn't so lucky.

Still, even though they're far apart, his mother sent him money, recipes and advice every month. That was way more than he could say for his father, who was god knows where, doing nothing. The last letter Tsuna received from his mom contained a postcard and a note that read Look what your father sent us. The postcard had a picture of his dad in in Antarctica with some penguins. Something Tsuna found awfully suspicious for the supposed construction worker.

"Oh don't worry about paying, this one's on me." Shio said with smile and held out a cup of freshly squeezed orange juice.

Tsuna looked at the juice suspiciously, he was never this lucky. "What's the catch?" he asked.

"No catch son, I just can't ignore an upset kid like yourself." Tsuna remembered a rumor that Shio had a sort of sixth sense that told him when people weren't feeling right, and was usually able to guess what caused it. Not that he would have needed to use it on Tsuna. His face was an absolute wreck.

Tsuna turned over and sat down on the ground before taking the juice and sipping at it quietly. Shio soon sat down next to him. "So what's your name kid?" he asked.

Tsuna froze. No everyone knew the face but everyone the spent enough time around teenagers know the name. "Tsunayoshi," he gave his full name, hoping Shio wouldn't content the dots.

"Tsunayoshi," Shio said slowly. "So Tsuna for short?"

Tsuna gulped. "Y...yes,"

"Don't worry Tsuna," Shio said gently. "You won't hear any of that name calling from me.

Tsuna looked at him in awe. He knew. He knew and didn't care. "Th..thanks," Tsuna said softly.

"Let an old man give you some advice. Don't give up, as long as you keep fighting, you havn't lost. Besides if they're willing to turn their back on you so easily, you wouldn't have been able to sync with them anyway."

Tsuna gave a little smile. "I guess you're right."

"Also, weren't you here about two years ago with the same issue."

Tsuna blinked. "How did you remember?"

"I never forget a face. And you probably heard that I have a sort of sixth sense when it comes to people not feeling right."

Tsuna nodded. He supposed that made sense, if you took logic out of the equation.

"So why haven't I seen you since?"

"I told you, I don't have the money."

"I see. Well I'll tell what. Come back anytime and I'll see what I can do."

Tsuna looked at man in awe again. "I'd like that."

"Then it's a deal," Shio said as he looked up into the sky. "It's getting late, you should probably head home."

In wasn't all that late, but Tsuna knew what he meant. Shio's regulars would be there soon and he knew Tsuna would like to avoid them. "Okay," Tsuna said as he got up. As he left he turned around and waved goodbye. "Thank you!"

When he got back to his apartment he felt much better. He had made a friend. Sure it was an old man that ran a restaurant similar to a burger joint, but that didn't matter. He was still Tsuna's first real friend since he moved to Death City.

He opened the door to his apartment. It wasn't much, just a small kitchen and a bedroom, but that was all he could afford. Tsuna walked over to the bed and sat down on its edge. He turned on the TV feeling exhausted, laid down, and closed his eyes.

He didn't know how long he was asleep, but the knocking on his door woke him up. "Who on earth could that be?" he asked himself. He didn't get many visitors. "It must be someone trying to sell something or maybe someone with the wrong address. Either way I should probably get it."

Tsuna opened the door to a man in a black suit, with black hair, black eyes, and wearing a black fedora with an orange stripe around it. "How can I help you?" Tsuna asked.

"Are you Tsunayoshi Sawada?" the man asked.

"Yes," Tsuna said surprised, he found it hard to believe the man was looking for him.

"I'm going to be forward with you," the man said. "You have been chosen to be the tenth boss for the Vongola mafia family. I'm here to shape you into someone who can lead."

Tsuna looked at him blankly. "Okay what kind of prank is this?"

The man took out a gun and fired it off into the air. "What makes you think this is a prank?"

"Because who would what Dame-Tsuna as a boss?"

"That's not my concern. I've been hired to train you, like it or not."

Tsuna sighed. "Look even if you are telling the truth, I have no desire to join the mafia and become a kishin egg."

"Who said anything about kishin eggs?"

"Uh, mafia,"

"This family is special. None of it's members have ever turned into kishin eggs."

Tsuna groaned. "Who are you?"

The man grinned. "I'm the hitman tutor, Reborn."

Tsuna sighed. Either Reborn was telling the truth, or this was the most elaborate prank ever conceived. Reborn was give permission form both his mom and dad, not that his dad had any say in it. However the apartment was payed for by his mom, so there was much he could do to get rid of the guy. Tsuna guessed she only knew that Reborn was a tutor, not a hitman. She was trying to get him a tutor for ages due to his grades, but she never could afford one. Reborn told Tsuna that this was free of charge, as long as he has a place to sleep, so it wasn't a mystery way is mom would have jumped at the chance.

Reborn was tutoring though. He spent the later half of of the day drilling Tsuna with material from the DWMA curriculum, and every time Tsuna got a question wrong Reborn gave him a whack across the head. Put simply, Tsuna was not happy with these arrangements. Besides the point Tsuna had already gave up on attending the DWMA for the year, so learning the material was kind of pointless.

However, Tsuna somehow found his himself heading back to the DWMA the next day. He had no intention going back, but Reborn's presence was driving him crazy. Luckily the hitman was a fairly sound sleeper, if you don't get too close to him, and after all his complaints about not attending DWMA, Tsuna figured it was the last place the spartan tutor would look.

Covering his face with his sweatshirt's hood, Tsuna made his way through the crowd and into the building. He quickly headed to a classroom on the third floor that was absolutely empty. He walked over to a seat next to the window and seat down, staring into space. While the room was far away from any of the other students, the sound of the crowd outside still reached Tsuna's ears.

Tsuna sighed. "Sounds like things are going smoothly," he said to himself. "Perhaps I should just get a normal job." It was a thought that often entered Tsuna's mind. The only problem was that weapons weren't exactly too well received in most of the world. Many people were afraid of them or saw them as freaks, or at the very least somewhat dangerous. Death City was the huge exception to this rule, and the DWMA's students and alumni were treated with the respect of word peace officers around the globe. Even so, Tsuna wasn't up to staying in Death City if he wasn't going to attend the DWMA.

"Why do that when you can find a meister?" a voice asked him.

"Because no one's ever going to partner with me," Tsuna said flatly, not even realizing that someone was in the room with him.

"That not the attitude of a boss," the voice said.

At that line Tsuna froze and slowly turned towards the voice. "Reborn! What are you.." was all Tsuna could get out before Reborn kicked him out the window.

Time seemed to slow down as he fell the three stories and his eyes slid shut, as he heard the gasps and screams of the students below. 'I'm going to die,' he thought. 'It wasn't much of a life, what a waste. Still I wish I could have found a meister before I died. I dying regret from me, that's almost funny.' Tsuna forehead started to feel hot as if there was a flame busting out of it. 'I just wanted to find someone who cares, someone willing to face life's hardships with me.' "I want to live!" he screamed, only then realizing he had the desire.

As the wind whisked past his ear Tsuna braced for impact. He waited, but nothing happened. The wind stopped, but nothing happened. He waited a little longer, but still, nothing happened. Tsuna slowly opened his eyes and saw a boy with black hair and brown eyes leaning over him. As he observed his surroundings he noticed that the boy was actually holding him. This boy caught him, saved him.

Reborn watched as his student fell through the air. He wasn't to concerned, if worse came to worse, he would have stepped into save Tsuna. He had plenty of methods on hand, just in case. Still, Reborn wanted to see how this would play out. After a few seconds a small orange flame began to flicker on Tsuna's forehead.

A dying will flame, while everyone possessed one in their soul, only a select few knew of their existence, most of which were involved with the Vongola family. Also very few people are able to bring it forth without rigorous training, like Tsuna just did. Not to mention the fact that it was an orange flame, better known as the sky flame, the rarest type of dying will flame, known to be the flame the bosses of the Vongola family used.

"It looks like Tsuna wasn't chosen by a fluke after all," Reborn said to himself. Sure the flame was small, but it was still there.

"I want to live!" Tsuna screamed.

Reborn smiled. "Looks like he gets it," he said and prepaid to step in, but then he noticed a boy running towards Tsuna in an attempt to save him. Reborn wasn't about to take chances, but he was prepared for this. He took out a special dart, designed to weaken the impact Tsuna would feel when he hit the ground. Reborn was originally going to use a more forward method of rescue, after all the dart only lessens the injuries, not nullify them, but this boy seem intent on saving his student, and what was he to take that away from him.

He threw the dart and upon impact it was absorbed into Tsuna's skin. Tsuna probably didn't feel a thing, especially in his current state of mind. The boy ran forward and caught Tsuna right before he hit the ground. Tsuna remained unharmed.

Takeshi Yamamoto was looking through the crowd, but there was no sign of the mystery boy from the day before. "He probably isn't coming back," he said to himself. He may not have known exactly what the boy looked like, but he figured he'd know when he saw the kid. "I can't really blame him, I'd probably do the same after something like that. I can't believe he managed to go through that four times."

Takeshi heard the sound of a window shattering and turn to see it, and there he saw a boy falling from the third floor to the DWMA. The crowd gasped and screamed. Takeshi froze, unable to to move. He wanted to help but couldn't get his body to coraporate.

"I want to live!" the boy screamed and Takeshi's mind went blank. He dashed forward, without thinking, and caught the boy right before he hit the ground.

There was a long moment of silence before the boy opened his eyes and looked around blankly. "I'm Takeshi Yamamoto," Takeshi said to the boy as he put him down. "What's your name?"

"Ts...Tsuna," the boy answered, clearly still dazed.

"Oh, so you're the kid from yesterday," Takeshi said.

Tsuna's eyes widened in horror. He squeezed his eyes shut and turned around. "Thank you," he said quickly and ran off.

"Wait, I didn't mean to…" Takeshi tried to stop him.

"There he goes again, running away," a girl said.

"Well what did you expect. He is Dame-Tsuna," a boy replied.

Takeshi glared at them with a look the could kill lesser men. The two went silent, looks of fear covering their faces and Takeshi turned away, deciding they were a waste of time before sprinting after Tsuna.

Tsuna ducked into a storage shed. Takeshi followed him and saw the shed was filled with normal weapons, used in the meisters' exams. While weapons only had to take the written portion of the exam and demonstrate the ability to transform, meisters had to show that they could wield a weapon and recognize soul wavelengths, so they'd know when they found a weapon they could sync with.

"So he's trying to hide in plain sight," the Takeshi whispered. It shouldn't have been too hard to spot a human weapon in a shed of normal ones, after all, most weapons had a unique design on them to separate them, not just from normal weapons, but each other.

"So you're a weapon," Takeshi called out. But his words were met with silence.

"Tsuna, I know you're here."

"Go way!" Tsuna's voice echoed through the shed.

"Look I only want to talk. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings," Takeshi pleaded as he looked through the shed.

"You're the son of a master swordsman, aren't you?"

"Yeah, what's your point?"

"You can choose any weapon attending this school."

"What are you getting at?"

"I don't want to ruin your chances."

"What do you mean, ruin my chances?"

"People writing you off because of me. You don't want to be seen with Dame-Tsuna, it'll…"

"Don't call yourself that that!" Takeshi's voice cut through the air. "No one existence is no good. No one's life is useless."

Silence filled the air as the meister found a barrel of katanas. "Found you."

One of the katanas began to glow as Tsuna transformed back into his human form. "How'd you know? My weapon form looks exactly like a normal katana."

"I just had a feeling, but can I see your weapon form one more time?"

"Why, you can choose any weapon on campus?"

"Because I want to see yours."

Tsuna sighed. It was hard to argue with Takeshi. He took his weapon form and the point of blade stuck into the wooden floor of the shed. Tsuna was right, he looked exactly like the other katanas, but the moment Takeshi saw it, he felt something click. He grabbed the hilt and he felt their soul wavelengths match.

It's official, we're partners," he declared.

Tsuna quickly transformed back with a look of shock across his face. "Why choose me? You can literally choose any one."

"That's simple, because I want to. Now let's go register."

To Be Continued...