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[If Tsuna knew half the things Zuko has been told, he would probably be quick to deny them all. But for now, he has to try to keep up the brave front.]

My name is Tsunayoshi and I have questions.

You got into a fight with my friend Gokudera. He said that you knew him but he doesn't know you and that you know about the Vongola family.

Are you a member of the Millefiore family? Have you ever heard of a man named Byakuran?

[He probably shouldn't be asking point blank like this. It would be so easy to lie. But based on the information Gokudera's given him, he's willing to allow for the benefit of the doubt.

And if not, they'll just have to go to a (panicked) plan B.]

Edited 2021-01-19 03:11 (UTC)

no
im not from your world
i have no connection to what you guys are involved in and i dont want any connection to it either
theres nothing like that in my world
i mean no harm to you, gokudera, or your family

what are your other questions? i'll answer anything you want
but i dont want to say the wrong thing trying to explain myself
i think i've done that enough with gokudera already...

[The confirmation that the Millefiore are not involved and the fact that this is consistent with what Gokudera's told him is enough to get Tsuna to breathe a sigh of relief. They probably won't have to relocate if that's the case.]

You can take your time. Those questions were the most important and I feel better having them answered.

How do you know Gokudera?
Why did you get in a fight with him?
What do you know about the Vongola?

[His tone relaxes a little bit as well.]

bear with me. i know i sound crazy
and you have no reason to trust me
but i have no reason to create an elaborate lie like this
we've already been spirited away to this realm, so... everything sounds crazy. anything is possible. ok??

gokudera and i met on another planet. yamamoto too. it was called prismatica. people were brought there from many worlds, just like here, to help save that planet with a kind of energy force... in any case. we were there six months together before i arrived here the other day. i have other friends from other worlds that i met on that planet, who are now here as well, who all remember everything that happened there. my sister is one of them; she dated yamamoto and lived with them briefly. she remembers them. so when i saw gokudera the night we fought, i just assumed he'd remember like everyone else i'd met..... but he doesn't. that wasn't him. i mean. it was him. but... it's hard to explain..... magic shit. you get it, right?

he thought i must be from an enemy family because i mentioned you when i was trying to figure out what was wrong with him. he got defensive. he didnt believe he'd ever break the code of secrecy about your family and what you do, so that meant i must be lying, but you have to understand... our lives there had no bearing on our real lives. our destinies were frozen, just like here, and everyone said we'd forget everything that happened there upon our return home. no more than living in a daydream. there were no risks that anything could affect you guys at home. it was only him and yamamoto. we were all afforded a kind of freedom from our real lives. clean slate. i hid a lot about the chaos of my home life too, but never from gokudera.
life was peaceful compared to both our homes — no violence. we just hung out with a bunch of friends our age. gokudera and i have never known that kind of life...
gokudera and yamamoto told me everything they told me in confidence, always in private, because we trusted each other, under the context that it'd be forgotten once we left that world. but no one ever mentioned being spirited away elsewhere and remembering. just going home and forgetting. so this took both of us by surprise here.....

so naturally, he thought it must mean i was an enemy of the family out to get you, or at best that i knew too much and needed to be killed. which... i get.... but it's not the case. i have no intention or reason to betray any of you. ive never mentioned anything to anyone except that gokudera... and this gokudera.

he attacked me. i refused to fight him. he started throwing bombs all over the place. i tried to put them out but there were too many. it was like he went crazy, he didnt care about his own safety at all, he just wanted me dead. i couldnt protect him from himself. i swear i tried. but then he jumped out of the shadows and punched me in the face. so i pinned him down to keep him from throwing any more dynamite. i asked him how he could fight with so little honor, to ambush me like that. then he blinded me with some weird light and punched me again, and told me he has no honor.... which isnt true at all. he is one of the most honorable people i know. but he fought disgracefully. both made me mad.
i lost my temper and finally fought back. but i was so upset, i lost control of myself too and i used my new fire magic at him for the first time without meaning to...

it was an accident. i am so sorry i put your storm guardian's life at risk by using fire when he was covered in explosives. i have fire powers naturally at home. fire as an element is extremely important to me... it's part of who i am. i never want to use my flames to fight a friend, and i dont want my flames to be fueled by rage. fire is wild and dangerous. i've had to learn that i need to control my temper in order to control my firebending, so that i never accidentally hurt the people i love. i am truly ashamed, tenth.
i only fought back for a second before i realized what i'd done. but he'd set off another bomb, and by then my familiar came and protected him. a dragon. then gokudera disappeared.
...and thats what happened.

you'll have to be more specific about your last question.

[Tsuna takes his time to read over everything. It's a lot to take in, and he's not sure what to do with the information if he's telling the truth. It's weird to think of Gokudera and Yamamoto off having an adventure without him but at the same time he's kind of glad. He's glad that Gokudera was able to make a new friend.]

That does sound like Gokudera. He made it back to where we're staying and I've looked after his injuries. He'll be alright.

The magic here is different and I'm still learning it to. My flames are different from what they were back home.

I guess I just want to know if I can trust you. I don't think you're lying, but I just want to be sure.

[Text can only get his hyper intuition so far after all.]

thank you for tending to him. i told him my friend from home is a healer because i was afraid of his injuries. i know that she would help someone i care about just because i care about him. but when i gave him her name so he could find her, he threatened to target her and her brother as leverage against me instead. i can't trust him anymore here so i don't know what to make of that... but i still trust gokudera enough innately to know i should probably trust you. at least with this.
but now im wary to give you their names again, even if you know im trying to protect them. my friends dont know about you guys. they werent on that planet. i never mentioned his name to any of them. i need to know they wont be targeted for no reason. i cant tell them not to fight him back if im sworn to secrecy on your end. and they will fight back if he gives them the chance. but i cant exactly tell them to be cautious either if he decides to bomb their home instead or something. i dont know what to do. but you should know they have nothing to do with this. leave them out.

how can i prove you guys can trust me?
what can i say? do? not say?? not do???
gokudera and i were best friends for half a year and talked about a lot... we never even trained together, not even once, even though i used to train with yamamoto. but me and gokudera always just hung out at home and talked. just talked. usually for hours on end.....
so im not going to lie, he told me a lot. i know i shouldn't know anything at all but that cant be helped now, i know what i know, and i would never mention anyone's business to anyone else even if it werent as serious as this. i understand the risks, and the consequences.... why to keep my mouth shut.
but what else can i do to prove im not a threat even indirectly?
do you have more questions? ill answer anything you want to know

i dont know if gokudera will ever trust me again
i think i just lost my only best friend i've ever had in my life, probably for good. maybe not. i dont know.
but thats not important now.
now this is about keeping people safe and at ease, both your friends and mine
how can i fix this
tell me what to do tenth

[ Meantime, Zuko's having an outright panic attack behind the scenes, and his desperation comes through even over text. His sister has been antagonizing him over all this in their room all night while he's texted both boys, trying to sort it out. In fact, she's been antagonizing him ever since he came home bloodied. It's not helping. She doesn't understand. She's furious Gokudera attacked her brother. And she's not the forgiving type; nor is she the type to talk things out like Zuko is. She doesn't even know why Zuko wanted to be his friend in the first place. She doesn't get the appeal — especially now. She and Gokudera never got along. They never would or should — especially now. He's not mentioning her stance here for the moment, knowing his sister's instability and dynamic with Gokudera even in peace, because he figures maybe that's his problem first if he can quiet her fears and fury somehow on his own; bringing her tentative involvement up right now to Tsuna would only complicate matters further. But Azula's not making this any easier for Zuko emotionally in the moment, while he's trying to have a clear-minded conversation without a clear mind, and with a devil at his shoulder to boot. He's at his wit's end, and it shows. He's nearly flipping out. ]

[This is a lot to take in, so it takes Tsuna a little while to reply. He doesn't really know what the right call is, so he's just going to have to trust his gut over this.]

First off, I won't let Gokudera attack your friends.
I don't think he would go after them unprovoked though. You probably know how overprotective he is. But I don't want to involve anyone else and would rather resolve all of this without any more fighting. And you don't strike me as the kind of person to do something unprovoked either.

Next, is it alright if I show all this to Gokudera? It might help him understand your perspective more. It's definitely a weird situation, but I can tell that you care a lot about him. That's another reason why I don't really want to fight.

I guess all I can really ask is that going forward you just keep anything about Vongola quiet? I'm just...not really comfortable with all of that getting out. I don't know how people will react to a mafia family?

[To say nothing of his own discomfort. But at the same time, it's a stop gap. He knows something will happen eventually.]

I don't really know what other steps to take right now. But hopefully that's a start?

thats a start yeah
ive never mentioned the vongola family to anyone except gokudera and gokudera. i thought i was talking to the same person who told me what i know. that was all. but i have no reason to talk about it with anyone else. i understand the risks from what he's told me.

and no i dont attack unprovoked, neither do my friends. the friends i mentioned to gokudera are named sokka and katara — she's the healer. you should know their names just in case, i guess. in case of what i don't know. but if gokudera doesnt do anything we wont either. there's no reason to. we dont want to fight. we'd seriously rather be friends.

please show him this whole conversation
i tried. didnt go so well.
he trusts you more than anyone. if you believe me that i mean no harm to the family and i am not a risk, then maybe he will, too. it's a start.

That's what I'll do then.
We'll probably need some time to discuss, but I'll get back to you.

But if it's any consolation, I think there's a chance that we can be friends. I want to believe you.

[Tsuna really has no clue how this is going to go, but he's going to hope at least.]

thank you, tenth
gokudera has told me many times about what a great guy you are, only the highest praise
so i want to trust you.

Edited 2021-01-25 08:18 (UTC)

I really don't know if I'm as good as Gokudera says.
And you can just call me Tsuna.

[He's really not that cool.]

no i trust his judge in character
im sure youre as honorable as he says

too bad we didnt meet under better circumstances
gokudera and i had hoped i could meet you someday
a shame it's like this

[ Zuko doesn't care about cool, he cares about honor. And he's still going to keep calling Tsuna "the Tenth" out of respect for Gokudera and for Tsuna both. Sorry, Tsuna, have another weird terse friend to dote on your good moral character... Now with 50% more praise for his honor. ]

[Tsuna just sighs because he sees it as another person who just might be disappointed. He's still a bit of a loser, as far as he's concerned.]

Hopefully we'll at least be able to smooth everything over.
I'll contact you again once we've had a chance to discuss things are our end.

[ Zuko’s clearly already made up his mind on principle. But after how gracefully and openly Tsuna has approached him over this issue, he has no doubt the boy must be as nice as he’s heard, even if Gokudera exaggerated out of admiration. He’s surely not far off. ]

ok. I’ll keep my distance from gokudera until I hear from you again. whatever you think is best I’ll go along with.
thank you.

Can you meet us outside Broceliade forest at [X day] at [Y time]?

Please come alone.

[ The response is almost instantaneous, sent back quickly after Tsuna's message, no hesitation. ]

yes.

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