Katekyo Hitman Reborn

The Bucking Kelpie

Katekyo Hitman Reborn and its characters belong to Akira Amano.

Tsunami had a lot respect for water. Water can be beautiful with its crystal clear ponds and streams, to deep blue seas kissing the sand. It wasn't just the water's beauty that Tsunami respected. She was also aware how dangerous the water could be. On a sunny, peaceful day it could gurgle like a baby. During a storm it becomes a roaring beast, slamming and slashing! She had a lot respect for the water, considering that she can't swim.

Every day after school, Tsunami would go by the city's drainage system. Despite its not so glamorous description, the city had taken to beautifying it with trees, thick green grass and multi-colored flowers. It was almost like a park. The water was deep enough that some small fish had made the drainage system their home. Tsunami liked to sit by watch the water flow by. The sight and sounds of the water carried the day's stress of dealing with the ridicule her bullies give her just because she couldn't do anything right.

But, the water has given her something she could do. Garbage is swept in the river either by the wind or by the most common factor, humans. Mostly humans. Tsunami took it upon herself to clean up the garbage when she is able. If the garbage was close enough she would reach as far as her short little arms would let her grab it. She would then dispose the garbage into the closest trash can on the street.

One day, there was a plastic shopping bag floating on top of the water. Tsunami crawled on her hands and knees and reaches out for it. The trash was a little far for her, but it was still rather close that she was determined to somehow get it out of the water.

"Careful there, you'll fall!"

Tsunami almost did fall into the water. She sits ups quickly and turns around. Standing a few feet away was an older boy. He looked to be either a senior in high school or a young college-goer. He looked foreign with his blonde hair and angular, strong features of his face. He was smiling kindly, but Tsunami couldn't help but since something malevolent behind in his face.

"Were you trying to get that garbage?" The young man asks.

He stood up, walks to Tsunami's side and with his long arms reaches for the bag. It must have been Tsunami's imagination but the water appeared to have change course and rippled towards his hand. Tsunami gasps. He looks at her smiling.

"Got it."

"Oh!...Uh…t-thank you!" Tsunami reaches for it.

He pulls the bag out of her reach still smiling. Tsunami stares at him confused. In looking at his face she noticed that his hair was dripping wet now that he was close to her. It looked as though he had just come out of the shower.

"Do you do this every day?"

"…yes, I do. It's my peaceful place. I…like it to be clean. It's much relaxing that way. Besides, the water is prettier now without that garbage, right?"

The man smiles again, this time the smile was kind and sincere.

"Yeah, it is nicer. My last home was near a very large river. It was so beautiful, with its green grass and tall trees. It kept the air cool during the summer. But, then a factory was built near it…the river was the first to die and soon everything else followed. People could be so destructive and uncaring when it comes to nature."

He tightens his fist, holding in his anger. Bitterness was in his voice.

"So, I had to search for a new home. It took a while but I found this place. I don't live too far off. It's more modern than natural here, but…like you said; the water is nice to look at here. The city seems to appreciate its presence by making it attractive here."

Tsunami smiles and nods in agreement.

"My name is Dino. I hope that you never drop this habit of keeping the water and the park clean. If I can make a suggestion, you should really get a long-reaching net for the garbage that you can't reach. It would be much safer for you."

"That's…that's a good idea! I'll do that! My name is Sawada, Tsunami."

"I will remember you."

Tsunami got the net and was glad that she could nab more pesky pieces of junk! She hadn't seen Dino in a while. Probably busy doing older young adult stuff than day dreaming by the river like a certain middle-schooler. Standing over a bridge she saw incoming garbage comin. She takes out her handy-dandy net and extends it several feet to catch it. To extend her reach even more Tsunami leaned over the railing of the bridge.

"Hey, No-Good Tsunami! Need help?"

"Huh….?"

The water rushes towards Tsunami fast.

'I'm in the water!...I'm in the water!'

Tsunami starts kicking and grabbing at the water. She was in the water! Someone had pushed her into the water! They knew who she was! Surely they knew that she couldn't swim. Tsunami was in the water! She tries climb up to reach the surface. She had to get air! She needs air. She was taken by surprise when she was pushed in. She didn't have a chance to take a breath. She never realized how deep the water was under the bridge! Deeper and deeper she sunk. How long had she been in the water? Her body begins to work against her to save itself. Her body needed air, her brain demanded. But she knew better than to open her mouth. The body felt it knew best and Tsunami felt her lungs trying to push out the over-used air in her lungs. It was dead air trying to escape her lungs.

'No! There isn't any air here!'

She felt that her lungs were swelling up. As if they were trying to burst out of her chest in their desperation to get air. Her brain screams and howls, tearing at her skull demanding that she opens her mouth. She shakes her head in the water. She can't, she can't…she'll die, she'll die!

'NOO!'

She squeezes her eyes and if she wasn't underwater, there would be tears of pain and frustration…she sputters against her mouth and her mouth opens. The water seizes it chance and drove into her mouth and down her throat. Tsunami was in shock. How could she? She knew this would happen! But she had to breath…she had to open her mouth! She gasps and gasps for air but it was nothing but water, water and more water.

Air? Where's the air? Her body was confused.

To correct its mistake of letting air in, her brain tells her throat to close up. Don't take any more water, her brain tells the throat. The throat tightens and Tsunami chokes. Water was trapped in her lungs now. It made Tsunami feel heavy as she sunk even further in the water. Tsunami feels light-headed and she loses little control of her body. Her throat opens up in a feeble attempt to catch air again. There wasn't any air and it shuts close again. Her lungs got heavier and she sinks deeper.

'This is it then...' Tsunami chokes.

There is silence and the pain becomes dull.

'Drowning…isn't so bad…it almost feels nice in the end…as if I'm falling asleep…'

Tsunami closes her eyes and the darkness swallows her mind.

On the bridge, two girls were laughing so hard that they had to sit on the ground. They had been laughing for a good minute after they had come up behind Tsunami, grabbed her legs and threw her over the bridge. They imitated the sound Tsunami made before she hit the water and started laughing again. After another minute, their laughter died down and as they wiped their tears from their eyes they noticed the quiet. Tsunami wasn't screaming. She wasn't crying. There wasn't any splashing. The girls jump up to their feet and look over the bridge. The water was calm.

"Um, Iris…where's Tsunami?"

"….I…I don't know, M.M…uh, the water can't be that deep!? Could it?"

"N-No way! Maybe Tsunami got up and walked out and ran home without us knowing it!"

"Y-eah, yeah! You're right," M.M. agrees with Iris eagerly. "That stupid net she had…it's not here! She must have took it with her!"

As the girls try to reason and assure one another that they just didn't commit murder, the water's temperature drops abruptly. The cooling water fuses with the air and fog forms over the water and rises. The girls are surprised to be suddenly caught in a fog.

"What's going on?!" Yells M.M. "Where did this fog come from?! Iris! Iris?"

M.M. looks to left seeing nothing but fog.

"Iris!"

M.M. backs away from the railing. She clutches her hands to her chest. Her heart races as her confusion turns to fear. Too many things happen so quickly. First, Tsunami disappears; M.M. refuses to believe that they had killed her, then the fog rising from the river covering everything and hiding Iris from her. She looks to her left and her right, hoping to see something or perhaps see Iris. But the fog was so thick, gray and dark like smoke. Footsteps are heard walking on the dirt path then moving onto the bridge.

"Iris?"

The footsteps where heavy and the sound they made were clip-clop, clip clop. It was probably two people with heavy feet. M.M. sees movement of a tall figure. The form becomes clear and it was a handsome, young man. Their eyes meet and M.M. swoons.

"Hello." The man smiles.

"Hi…" M.M. smiles tucking her hair behind her ear.

"Strange fog, huh?" Dino twirls his finger in the air directing towards the fog around them.

"Yeah, came out of nowhere!"

"Are you lost," the young man asks.

"You can say that. I can't see anything? I think I lost my friend."

"Oh, you're looking for someone? I thought I saw someone earlier…"

"You did?"

"Yeah, it was another girl."

"Tch, she must have got scared and ditched me when the fog rolled in!" M.M. folds her arms.

The man chuckles and runs his hand through his blond hair.

"I can help you get through the fog," He holds out his hand.

M.M. tries not to giggle. The man was young and handsome. He was a foreigner too. Since he was in Japan, he must have money to be able to study abroad. M.M. takes the man's hand and she jerks. His hand was cold! Like ice!

"Is something wrong?"

"Your hands are cold!"

The man laughs and holds her hand tightly.

"Sorry about that."

M.M. finally notices his hair. It was dripping wet. Her attention was pulled from his hair by the man's hand tightening around her hand. He motions with his head towards the direction behind him. He flashes her with a charming smile and M.M. is lead by the man in a daze. The man introduces himself to her as Dino. Dino takes M.M. off the bridge onto the dirt trail path that follows the river downstream. The fog's reach was far, following the two along the path. M.M. couldn't get over Dino's cold hand. Also, Dino's hair never dried. It stayed wet, damp and dripping down his neck.

"Just a little farther. I saw her somewhere up ahead."

Dino moves off the dirt path and starts to walk on the grass. As they walked along the grass he moves closer to the water. M.M. could tell how close they were to the water by the sound of it. Which was odd for the water was calm before and now it was running rapidly.

"Don't worry." Dino assures her. "Ah, here we are."

They stop. M.M. looks around trying to see through the fog, "Where is she, I don't see her?"

Dino kneels down, making M.M. bend a bit. He picks something up and holds it in front of M.M.'s face for her to see.

"She must have moved on, I believed this belongs to her?"

M.M. stares at the object in his hand and her blood turns cold. In his hand was Tsunami's net! She backs away from the net. Dino pulls her back.

"What's wrong? Doesn't this belong to your friend?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Your friend was holding this, right?"

"I don't know anybody that owns a net!"

M.M. tries to pull her hand out of Dino's. She only was able to tug on his hand.

"Are you sure? You called her by name." Dino smiles.

His smile no longer had the hypnotizing effect now that she was afraid of what Dino knew. The net belonged to Tsunami. He knew that! He knew that she knew Tsunami.

"I thought we were looking for my friend?!" M.M. becomes frantic, "Let go, you're scaring me!"

"I'm not holding onto you," Dino chuckles.

M.M. looks at their hands. Dino releases her hand, but her hand was still connected to his skin. M.M. pulls her hand away and his hand moves with hers. She flings her hand about as if she was trying to fling a fly trap off her hand. She couldn't get loose from him!

"W-what's going on? Let me go, you bastard!"

"It's been a long time since I fed on a young girl. But I don't like my prey wiggling about. I like my meals dead."

M.M. screams and struggles against Dino. Dino grabs M.M.'s other hand and steps back into the water. M.M. cries for help, screams for Iris. She curses and cries as she tries to dig her heels into the ground to prevent herself from being pulled in. Dino smiles sweetly, licking his lips. He was up to his knees in the water. Dino he didn't struggle to keep his hold on the girl. M.M. sinks to her knees, she sobs and begs Dino to let her go. She confesses to him that she did know Tsunami. She and her friend, Iris, pushed her into the water. But they didn't mean to hurt her! It was a joke. She assures Dino that Tsunami was still alive. Dino makes a noise in throat and it comes out of his nose like as a deep snort. With one good tug, he pulls M.M. against his chest. He releases one of her hands and with his freed hand presses M.M.'s head to his chest. They stood in the water waist deep. The water was freezing to M.M. and if it wasn't for Dino holding her she would have been swept away in the speeding current of the river. M.M. tries to push away from by placing her hand against his chest. But she was stuck to him like glue. She could hear his heart beating rapidly. Was scaring her exciting to him? Was this some sort of sick joke? He really wasn't going to kill her was he? It had to be a joke! His heart beats faster and he chuckles.

"That's your heart beating, not mine."

He leans backwards and allows himself to fall into the river. M.M. takes a breath and she was drugged into the water!

Dino turns so M.M. was upside down in the water. He kicks his feet going through the water with the speed of a shark. M.M. keeps trying to get away. She puts a foot on his waist and try to kick away from him but her foot would get stuck to him. Dino feels her struggling against him and his smile was gone. He licks his lips, eyeing her hungrily. He grips her shoulders and digs his nails in. M.M.'s eyes widen and she holds in her scream. He digs in further and his nails sharpen ripping through her clothes like paper. Streams of blood float between them. M.M. is shocked when Dino takes a deep breath and the blood flows into his nose. He breathes out and bares his teeth at her. His teeth looked liked it was trying to coming out of his mouth. The gums pull out along with the teeth as they become larger and flat. The incisors extend becoming like sharp tusks. Dino's entire eyes darken with no light in them. M.M. was horrified of the man's appearance. She screams in terror and struggles again. Dino stops swimming and floats. He holds M.M.'s upper and lower and jaw in his hands and opens them wide to let the water rush in. M.M. tries to cough out the water but it only draws the water in as she breathes in to breathe out. M.M. spasms as the water fills in her lungs faster. Like Tsunami, her throat contracts to keep the water from filling in. Dino growls, making the water bubble. He uses his other hand and jerks M.M.'s head back by her short hair, baring her throat. He darts his face forward and clamps his blunt, scissor-like teeth onto her throat and grinds his teeth through. She opens her mouth in silent pain! With a jerk of his head he rips open her throat. A bloody cloud fills M.M.'s vision, hiding Dino's monstrous face of glee.

Iris angrily walks along the path. Her inch and a half heeled shoes grounded down on the pebbles. She was cursing her friend for abandoning her at the bridge. As soon as the fog rose she was gone without a word. She was also angry at Tsunami. How dare that girl make a fool of her! She wasn't dead! That little pest must have gotten out of the water and ran home! Well, she was going to show her tomorrow at school! Iris hears a splash. She narrows her eyes. Maybe that was Tsunami! She makes her way towards the sound. She was able to see a little better as the fog lightens up. Lying on the grass was a white horse. The horse's head was bowed it was nibbling and licking its chest. Its blonde mane seems to sparkle with water dripping down like diamonds. Iris stares at the horse until it stops cleaning itself and turns its head towards her. Its ears turn forward and it softly whicker. The horse tosses its head, encouraging her to come close. Iris wasn't much of an animal person but the horse was just enchanting. It wasn't everyday that you come across horse in the middle of a park. The horse continues making pleased noises as Iris stood over the horse. She pulls out her camera and prepares to take a picture. The horse extends its neck and sniffs the phone. Iris smiles and starts taking few pictures. After putting her phone away the horse, while still lying down, drags itself towards Iris. Getting close enough it nudges her hand. Iris slowly raises her hand and rests it on its nose. The horse closes its eyes. Iris becomes braver and strokes the horse's long muzzle getting a happy sound. The nose was very cold. Was the horse sick or something? It pulls itself even closer to Iris to rest its head on her shoulder. The head weighs her down a bit allowing the horse to hook its neck around her back and guides her to its side. Iris suddenly has an urge to climb onto the horse's back. She didn't know why she thought that, it just came into her mind. Seeming to have read her mind, the horse gently knocks Iris onto its back. Even the horse's body was cold! Iris corrects her position on the horse, properly straddling her legs over its sides. The horse leaps onto its feet and bolts into a run. Iris squeezes her thighs to keep her balance and latches onto the wet mane. The horse neighs and with a leap jumps into the water. Iris shouts in surprise of the horse's decision to take a swim in the freezing water. She felt strange all of the sudden. The horse's soft, velvety fur once wet became smooth like skin. Her skin touching the horse's skin felt like it was being pinched. She moves her legs and found she couldn't move them at all. She twists and turns her hips to loosen them. As she struggles to get off its back, the horse was merely standing in the water. The water tickling its belly. It allowed Iris time to panic and begins to slosh through the water. Iris tries to convince the horse to stop. She pulls on its mane and finding she couldn't remove her hands. She thrashes on its back wildly. The slop of the river slants down and the horse was up to its neck in water now. Iris was nearly submerged now in the water. She tries to keep her head above the water. She takes in air and holds her breath as the horse dove beneath the surface. The horse swam like an otter. It tucks its legs beneath its chest and bucking its body. Iris pulls on the horse's mane, trying to steer the horse back to the surface. The horse pull against Iris's steering. Iris feels her cheek starting to burn from holding her breath. Her lungs were starting to burn. In her fight to get off the horse, she was starting to lose her energy. The horse touches down on the cement floor of the river. Iris hears strange sounds, like something hard rubbing against something else hard. She feels the horse's muscle tense and then it relaxes. The horse loses its beauty and become a dark-skinned horror. The horse turns its head to look at Iris and it brays out a shriek revealing its lower and upper tusks. Iris' eyes widen and she nearly loses her breath. She shakes her head, this was a nightmare, this wasn't happening! Her eyes catch something in her peripheral vision and on looking upon it she opens her mouth and screams. She saw M.M.'s mutilated body! M.M.'s dead eyes gazes up at the surface gray and lifeless. Threads of flesh and muscle wave sluggishly in the place where her throat should be. The hole in the throat was so large that she could see the bone of spine. Her uniform were torn and bloody revealing teeth marks on her skin. M.M. was missing her arms and one of her legs. The leg that was still there had its foot nibbled off leaving just the ankle. Iris was screaming and screaming in the water. The horse's mouth curls back showing its teeth and tusk in a mocking grin.

Tsunami lies on the grass unconscious. Her face looked so peaceful that she appeared merely to be sleeping. Even though she looked at peace her lips were blue and her skin was pale. Dino straddles over her, pushes up her chin to tilt her head. Then he places his hands below her stomach with the heel of the hands pressed into her waistline. Closing his eyes he takes a deep breath. On breathing out, he pushes his hands over her stomach and pushes them up to her ribcage. He makes several long strokes until his hands reached up to her throat. Tsunami's mouth falls open as a bubble forms in her mouth. Dino's eyebrows pressed together in concentration and the bubble rolls out of her mouth like a long tube. Dino guides the elongated bubble with his hand out of Tsunami's mouth completely. He flicks his hand and the bubble plunges back into the river. Dino climbs off the girl and lifts her into his arms. He pulls the cold from her body by hugging her and her body warms up and dries. Tsunami slowly opens her eyes and they focus on Dino's face.

"….Dino…?"

"Didn't I tell you to be careful?" Dino he scolds playfully.

"I…I was! But then…" Tsunami notices how close she was to Dino.

She squeaks and jumps out of his arms. Dino chuckles as Tsunami fixes her hair and clothes to cover up her embarrassment. It wasn't working out very well for her. Dino's chuckles grow into laughter and Tsunami sighs. Finally, as Dino's calms down, Tsunami decides to ask Dino a question.

"Dino? Why are you wet?"

"Hm? I'm wet because I had to jump in the river to save you."

"But, what about the other times you were wet?"

"Mmm, I like to swim in the river."

"Hiiiiiie! You swim in the river!? I know the water looks pretty and inviting, but it is a drainage system and you could get sick."

"I've been swimming in that river for awhile. I haven't gotten sick." Dino beams.

Tsunami bows her head in defeat. She stood up and Dino follows her to his feet.

"Well, thank you for saving me, Dino. Um, I'm sure my mom wouldn't mind, but, you can come home with me for dinner, to further thank you."

"Alright, sounds good. I had some snacks earlier, but I still got room for more!"

Tsunami giggles.

"What's for dinner tonight?"

"Liver."

Dino shudders, "Oh…really…uh…"

"What's wrong?" Tsunami blinks.

"Heh, heh, please forgive me for being rude but, I don't particularly care for liver."