Halcyon Days

Summary: He goes into a shop, gets stared at by the creepy shopkeeper, and comes out to the sight of the words, "Hello, welcome to the Game of Life" floating in front of him. Of course, the shop wasn't there anymore when he turned back. Of fucking course. Tsuna wanted a refund, dammit. Gamer!Tsuna

LOAD SAVE FILE: Starting Point

File 001

The shopkeeper was staring at him. Actually, the shopkeeper had been staring at him since Tsuna darted in for protection against the rain.

He. Stared. Intensely. All the while eating his ramen.

Internally, 'hieee'ing when his eyes meet the shopkeeper's, Tsuna ducks under a shelf and pretended to examine a primate skull.

Or, at least, what he hoped was a primate skull.

(Oh god, what if it was a human skull…)

"It's been a long while since I've gotten a customer." A voice behind Tsuna makes him jump and spin around, as soon as it breaks through his consciousness.

"Hiee!" he shrieks, almost knocking over an expensive-looking vase.

The shopkeeper now stood behind him, evidently finished with his ramen and now peering at Tsuna with something akin to fascination gleaming in his eyes.

And Tsuna? Well, he squirms and bites down another 'hiee!' as he tries to (subtly) back away.

"Would you like to have anything?" the man inquires, looking meaningfully at the skull Tsuna cradled to his chest like a teddy bear.

"I-what-no!" Tsuna sputters as he thrust the skull forward so the shopkeeper could take it from him. "I-I like video games better!"

Eyebrow raised, the shopkeeper only smiled and took the skull back with two hands. "Hmm...is that so? Unfortunately, I don't have any physical games in here…"

Tsuna frantically shakes his head. "No, no! It's fine!"

He sneaks a peek outside, and noticing the rain stopped, Tsuna mutters a quick, "Sorry, I got to go!" Then before the shopkeeper could say anything, Tsuna sped past the man and out the door.

All alone, the shopkeeper's eyes seemingly glowed behind the checkered mask.

"Hmm…" Tapping his fingers against the skull, the corners of his lips stretches into something close to, but not quite, a smile. "I suppose I can give him a little something…"

File 002

There was a blue screen floating over his head.

Tsuna nearly presses himself flat against the window pane to get a better look at what he hopes to be an illusion.

Tsunayoshi Sawada, LVL. 1

But no, it was still there.

About a block away from the creepy man in the equally creepy store, Tsuna swerves and turns back, an instinct telling him it was all the shopkeeper's fault. Except when he reached that very same spot, he didn't see a shop there.

It was like it disappeared into thin air.

Tsuna stands there in disbelief, something within him knowing a refund was nigh impossible.

Hyper Intuition has gained a level!

"Hieee!" Tsuna shrieks at the sudden pop up box. He then commences to hide behind a tree and mentally cry as the text box followed him.

"Go away," he yells, pinching himself just in case he was dreaming.

He wasn't. The box followed him like a lost puppy, over his shoulder and glowing bright blue. When Tsuna finally convinces himself that it was real and not going to hurt him, he hesitantly presses the big red X in the corner and the box disappeared.

"Whew," Tsuna steps away from the tree and wipes away the sweat that accumulated during the whole scenario. "That was scary."

And weird. It reminds him of when he played on the computer. Or an RPG game really.

Due to your reasoning skills, WIS has gone up by one!

Tsuna barely hangs onto his girly shriek and bumps into a lamp pole.

"Ugh…" he rubs his forehead, trying to concentrate on the words in front of him and wondering why it felt so familiar. "WIS? Doesn't that stand for wisdom or something in my video games?"

He stares at the flashing WIS +1 box and notices that no one but he could see it, judging from the disdainful glances he received from the passerby ("Weird child, talking to himself…") or from the bored, uncaring looks he attracted from the shop vendors. Maybe he was the only one who could see it?

WIS +1!

Okay, judging by the extra...stat point? Point?...point he gained again, he was right. And, and!

...Nothing made sense. It was as if his life turned into a video game.

Warily looking around, his eyes flickers gold in the setting sun as he thought of the possibilities.

A video game, huh?

File 003

"Oh, Tsu-kun!" his mother calls. "Any requests for dinner?"

"Uh, hamburger?" In truth, Tsuna wasn't thinking about dinner at all. Instead, his eyes were focusing on the words floating above his mother's head.

Sawada Nana, LVL ?

Umm… What level was his mom? Tsuna squints a little, trying to see past the question marks in his mom's box, but with no success. Instead, he got another pop up box.

A skill has been created!

Observe (1/100): A skill to find the target's information. Obtained through continuous observation.

Okay… So he got this skill thing to see information? Looking at his mother again, he made sure to lower his voice before muttering, "Observe."

Luckily, it worked.

(He would've been so embarrassed otherwise. Believing that his life was a game…)

Sawada Nadeshiko, LVL ?

(Perfect Housewife)

Worthy of her title, the woman commonly known as 'Nana' is a world-class tier in terms of cooking and cleaning. But her past is somewhat shrouded in mystery…?!

What.

What did it mean 'past shrouded in mystery?' His mom?!

He looks incredulously at his mother. Don't get him wrong, he loved his mom, but still, Tsuna thinks Nana's a bit of an airhead. The whole town does actually. Who else would smile and say nothing was wrong when the house was burning down?

(Tsuna's still a little traumatized by that, to be honest.)

Anyway, he highly doubts his mom has much of a dark past. Did she pretend to be someone's friend when she didn't want to? Or did she accidentally steal a candy bar as a kid?

"Dinner's ready, Tsu-kun!"

Yeah, he doesn't need to worry about his mom.

...Right?

File 000

He clutches the book bag straps tightly in his bunched up fists.

Today was his first day of school and he didn't want to mess it up. Carefully walking around his new classmates, he heads toward the front of the class so he could introduce himself.

Then he trips.

To this day, he doesn't know if it was one of his classmates or if he was just naturally that clumsy. Either way, the damage was done.

Laughter rang out in the classroom, and no matter how much the teacher tried to get them to stop, it wouldn't. He bites his lower lip in effort to hold in his tears as he pushes himself up and introduced himself.

But it's too late.

He has already messed up his own starting point.

File XERRORX

"That skull was my best friend's head you know?"

"Hieeeee!" The skull was instantly tossed. To the floor.

Smash!

"..." Tsuna said.

"Don't worry. I'll take yours as payment later on."

AN: Just to be clear, the Files with numbers bigger than zero are all present drabbles, the File 000 will always be past scenes, and File XERRORX are just omakes/bloopers.

So this one was something I've always wanted to do since the Gamer webtoon became popular. It was just stuck in my head and wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it... Finally, it's done and I can now go and study for exams until the next plot bunny attacks.

(It's super effective, lol)