Tsunayoshi Sawada was determined. Today was going to be his day; he would get out of bed on time, get dressed in the proper way, eat breakfast fully, and get to school on time for once!
As always, Tsunayoshi ended up failing those expectations.
He was woken up by his mother, who gently shook him over and over again, but it did not look like that was going anywhere. He could feel her hands on him, and he wanted to be awake desperately, but slumber held onto him like a crazed lover. She eventually gave up and looked around his messy room with a frown and a huff.
"Tsuna, you've got to take care of this place better," she reprimanded him as she shuffled some of the junk lying around his room to clean.
"Oh, I wonder what I would find if I started to look around," she offered with a mischievous tone. That was the thing that finally dragged Tsunayoshi out of the hold of Hypnos.
He bolted out of bed in a panic and faced his mother with a bright red sheen to his face.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Kaa-san," he spoke out quickly with his arms flailing about. He was hiding another failed test, and he was sure that was what his mother was talking about, but... he was also a teenage boy.
So her searching around was a threat that he could not handle.
"If you say so, now get going. You are going to be late again at this rate," she spoke out with a smile as she left the room, humming in joy.
Tsuna took a look at his clock and blanched. He was going to be late again! So he got dressed quickly, his clothes hanging off of him poorly in his hurry. He then rushed toward the stairs to get out of his house.
Then his day got worse in a predictable but unfortunate fashion. As he was running toward the stairs, he tripped on seemingly nothing and tumbled down the stairs.
He tried to stop or collect himself, but every movement was just awkward enough to make the fall worse. He let out a loud groan as he met the bottom of the stairs, all of his body aching in a familiar way.
"Ah, Tsuna, you really are hopeless sometimes," Kaa-san muttered from her position in the kitchen, not even bothering to look Tsuna over. It was not like him falling was an unusual event.
Tsuna let out another pained groan and shrank in on himself some more. He knew that Kaa-san did not mean anything mean with her words, but they still hurt. He knew he was a failure; he had that fact shoved into his face for as long as he could remember. Teachers, students, neighbors, even strangers looked at him and saw trash.
He had grown numb to the countless cruel words people shot at him, but not the words Kaa-san said. Those always hit him right where it hurt. To know that his mother thought him a completely hopeless case burned far hotter than any of the other name-calling.
It always made him feel even more of a loser.
It was not like he stopped trying to get better. He always did his best, even when the world felt like it was caving in on him, but his best was never enough. His body felt weak, and sometimes his limbs would just not respond. His mind felt foggy and heavy; knowledge just seemed to slip out of his mind. He also had to spend a large amount of his time sleeping for some reason.
Tears gathered in his eyes, but he pushed them down and got up, not acknowledging the idle barb from his mother.
Those things were just excuses he told himself to feel better. It did not matter the obstacles in his way; if he really was trying his best, he should be improving. Instead, he was just the no-good loser that everyone saw him as.
He bolted out of his home, saying goodbye to his mother loudly, running away so she could not see the tears almost overflowing from his eyes.
The only thing he was really good at was crying; his soft brown eyes always seemed to well up just right, and they seemed to express everything he was feeling without a single issue.
The last thing he wanted his mother to see was how hurt he was from her comments. He did not want her to be hurt over just saying the truth about the world.
Once he was away from his home, he slowed his running. He was going to be late anyway; there was no point in rushing with his eyes filled with tears. The last thing he wanted was for everyone to think of him as a great big crybaby... even if some people already thought that about him.
Today was not going to be his day, but maybe tomorrow would be.
He offered to himself lamely, but the mood that was already crushed lowered even more. His head lowered as he stared at his own feet. What was the point of having expectations for himself? He always ended up failing them.
He looked up at the bright sun and tried to gather the will to keep on trying despite the failures. Then, as if the universe itself thought him trying to be better was stupid, a flyer slammed into his face.
The paper clung to his skin like glue. He flailed about as he tried to get it off, but as he did so, he slipped on nothing again and slammed into the ground. Air left his lungs, and his back stung strongly. He gave up on taking the paper off and just let out a groan as he spat out the blood from biting his own tongue in the fall.
The paper on his face flashed with colors that had him panicking all over again, and then it dissolved into light and merged into him before he could do anything. Tsuna felt his heart drop at the strange turn of events, but the words ringing in his mind left him feeling sheer confusion.
[Welcome to the Chaos Gacha! You have been selected as the next lucky participant. Lady Luck or maybe Fate herself might have their eyes on you if you managed to be selected, but that does not matter to me! So let's get the show on the road. Let's go gambling!]
This was it; he finally suffered brain damage from all the falls he had taken. It was only a matter of time, but he thought for sure it would have happened earlier. He only hoped that he was not going to die from this.
He did not want Kaa-san to grieve over him.
[Gained a Bronze Ticket as a starter gift!]
Another paper slammed into his face; he did not even bother being surprised this time and just quietly picked it off of his face and flung it away.
[Disillusioned]
|Uncommon Ability|
You can see through any kind of physical deception and concealment. Such as pitfalls, physical disguises, bending of light, one-way mirrors, etc. As long as it's a physical illusion meant to deceive your senses, you can see through it.
Tsuna blinked at the absurd nonsense sitting in front of his eyes. Great, even his brain damage was making fun of him now. Trying to fuel his delusions of maybe not being a piece of trash by offering him superpowers and awesome abilities. Ha, if this thing really worked, then this screen would not be in front of his face.
Tsuna started to stand up as the screen dissipated. He looked around, waiting for some more hallucinations to show up, but nothing happened, so he calmed down a bit. Maybe he spoke too soon about brain damage; he had taken worse falls before, so it was maybe just a chuuni delusion.
Wait, was that better or worse!?
[Have a bounty on your head! Gain one Silver ticket.]
Yet again, a ticket slammed into his face, and he let out a quiet sigh and grabbed the paper this time.
He spoke too soon; clearly his delusions wanted to fucking mess with him like everyone else wanted to. He gripped the silver ticket in his hands with a frown on his face. Hallucinations were not supposed to come with physical sensations, but this ticket felt very real to his hands.
Wait, how the hell was he supposed to know what was normal for brain damage victims!? His heartbeat sped up, and his worries started to overwhelm him, so he ripped the ticket in his hands, hoping to ease his unease and get rid of this nonsense.
[Time Accel]
|Elite Ability|
Fate - You are able to speed up the time of your own body by increments of 2x, 3x, 4x... The more you accelerate, however, the more strain is put on your body and mind.
[Congratulations, you unlocked your second ability. You may have only one ability equipped at a time. You may swap your ability freely at any time, but there is a five-minute cool-down between each swap. If you unlock five abilities, another slot will open up for you to put another ability in.]
This time, Tsunayoshi froze. Knowledge that was completely and utterly rammed into his very being with the force of a freight train. His mind, for once, did not feel completely hopeless as the technique was molded into his being. Beyond that, a flicker of warmth washed through him, but that warmth was crushed by an unyielding cold that almost had him slumping over into the ground as fatigue and weight slammed into him.
What is happening? The thought screamed in his mind as he tried to function, as his body seemed to be shutting down from the sudden assault. It felt like death itself had clamped onto his very being and was trying to drag him into the pits.
That deep, dark cold held onto him for another brief moment before letting go, and he was able to take a deep, shuddering breath.
[Fate has given you a Golden Ticket, you poor, poor child, to have your very soul chained, dreadful.]
This time, instead of the paper slamming into his face, it appeared gently in his hands. He almost threw it away in fear as he wanted no part of whatever this was. He almost died from the last ticket, but he held back after a moment.
He almost died; he knows that to be true, but... this thing made him special. He could feel this ability, Time Accel, etched into him; he knew he could activate it with very little effort.
It could be just another part of this delusion, but... Tsuna wanted to be special. He wanted all of this to be true. He wanted to no longer be a no-good Tsuna... So even if this was crazy, even if this made no sense, he was going to hold onto this because he wanted it so desperately.
He tore the ticket and waited.
[Hanma]
|Rare Trait|
Baki - You are a Hanma; you are incredibly genetically gifted, possessing increased resistance to poisons and your physical stats grow way faster. In addition, you have so much testosterone in you that any other man may as well be a girl in comparison. Your talent in martial arts is also greatly increased. If you are female, the same effects apply without the testosterone; you are just a genetically gifted freak.
Before, his body felt a pleasant warmth from the ticket. Now it felt like a blaze was consuming him. The fire traveled all over his very being and changed something fundamental about him. He grew taller, stronger, faster, and for the first time he felt like he was alive. No, not just alive. He felt like he could fight gods and demons without breaking a sweat.
Then the cold came back, even stronger. It felt like cold chains wrapping around a vital part of him that he could not quite understand. The blazing fire that felt like the world to him was being snuffed out and was being consumed by this never-ending cold.
It was going to consume him as well. Before, the fire was weak, but it still fed this cold; now the fire was a blaze, and it would only make this Thing even stronger than it was before.
For the first time in Tsuna's life, he felt an overwhelming amount of rage. Veins throbbed beneath his skin, his mouth open for a snarl, and the sheer hate pouring out of him would melt steel.
How dare it!? HOW DARE IT!? HOW DARE THIS FUCKING LEECH TRY TO CHAIN HIM!? WHO THE FUCK DID IT THINK IT WAS MESSING WITH!?
Instead of slipping into the cold embrace of ice, the fire inside of him rebelled and screamed with a conviction that Tsuna had never felt before. This was not something he could accept; his very being rejected this cold with a fierceness that could quell hurricanes and destroy mountains.
The ice cracked, and Tsuna could breathe.