Tsuna woke up; he was alert and aware almost instantly instead of the usual haze. He stood and stretched with a bright smile on his face.
No last-minute scramble, no disappointing his own expectations, just the silence of the early morning and his own thoughts.
It was amazing. Although, he might have awakened too early. Tsuna checked the dim light pouring from the window. He actually managed to wake up at the crack of dawn, a sight he had never seen before in his life, or at least a sight he could not remember seeing. He had plenty of time to himself until he had to start getting ready. Although, he already had an idea of what he should be doing.
He got out of bed and changed out of his pajamas into some old shorts and a shirt. He then dropped to the ground and started doing push-ups.
The Hanma trait made him a physical beast, and working out some of the aggression he was feeling by pushing his body was needed. That, and he wanted to improve himself; he refused to let the world look at him as No-Good-Tsuna for much longer.
Although, it was not just a matter of pride. He had a bounty on his head, meaning danger would eventually come for him. So he could not afford to waste even a single second. He was not going to let himself die because he was too weak, and he was certainly not going to let his loved ones get hurt because he could not protect them.
Training his physique was just step one. There was going to be a limit to how hard he could train his body, he was a human, but he was a long way from reaching that peak.
He was just worried that even if he trained to the peak of human limits, it would not be enough. Even if he mastered all the martial arts in the world, he would still not be able to stop a bullet. He was also sure that the threat on his life was far more supernatural than he thought possible.
The existence of That Seal told him that things were complicated. He let out a pained groan as he struggled to push past the limits his body was screaming at him.
His chocolate eyes glowed for a brief moment.
The world was more complicated than he thought, but Tsuna was no longer a No-Good-Loser. He also held supernatural power. Time Accel let him accelerate beyond human limits; if he pushed his physique to peak human capabilities and then further increased his speed using that ability, then he was confident in facing even a gunman.
That was also not his limit. He still had the Chaos Gacha, and it was going to continue to reward him.
Tsuna was going to protect everything that was precious to him, and nothing was going to be able to stop him. That was a fact he was going to engrave into his very bones, with sweat, blood, and pain most people would flinch from.
He finally collapsed onto the ground as he reached his limit. He let himself lie on his floor for a brief moment before shifting into another exercise and starting the grind all over again.
He started to contemplate the rules of this Chaos Gacha. It was random, and not all of the rewards were going to help him in his goals, but that should have been expected. He gained tickets of various tiers; so far he had seen bronze, silver, and gold. Gold might be the limit, but there might be a higher tier ticket.
He was given a ticket when he did things... he just needed to figure out what things the Chaos Gacha wanted him to do. That way he could do specific things to gain more and more tickets.
So what were the criteria? He gained a ticket for having a bounty on his head, he gained a ticket for the Seal placed on him, he gained a ticket when he beat up Tanaka, and he gained a ticket from getting along with Hana.
He blushed brightly at the last one but pushed it down as he thought over the patterns. Reputation, Martial, and Supernatural were the categories he could see.
Hana's ticket and the bounty represented Reputation. So he gained tickets from having a reputation at certain levels, both good or bad... well, that was not completely accurate.
If it was just a matter of poor reputation, then everyone in Namimori would have given him a ticket for having an abysmal reputation. So maybe it was not about the poor rep he gained from a bounty and more to do with the attention he gained in certain communities for having it.
That contradicted the situation with Hana. Instead of him gaining a ticket for having the community at large think lesser or greater of him, he gained a ticket for simply getting along with the girl. So either Hana was somehow special, or positive opinions were worth more to the Chaos Gacha.
Tsuna was leaning toward the second option. Hana was a great girl, but Tsuna was not going to say she was something supernatural or overwhelmingly talented. So he was going to operate on the idea that individual positive opinions were worth more than negative opinions in general.
That aligned with what he wanted to do anyway. He did not want to be known as No-Good-Tsuna, so he needed to study, work out, and have others admire him.
He felt a bit nervous at that goal, but he was going to make it happen!
So that was good for the Reputation category. Up next was the Martial one. Beating up Tanaka gave him a ticket. Tanaka was classified as a mook, someone so low on the threat scale that they might as well not be mentioned. So he should gain more tickets if he beat stronger and more skilled opponents.
That should be simple. He had a good read on combat flow, and Time Accel should cover the gaps in skill level. Hell, the skill level between him and his opponents would start to fall away as he fought more and more. The Hanma trait made him very skilled in martial arts.
That just left the Supernatural category. This one he was not going to touch for a good long while. He assumed he got them from interacting with the supernatural aspects of his world. He knew those aspects were going to show up on his door one day, but he wanted to delay that day for as long as he could.
Every ticket he earned would bring him closer to a state in which he could handle the supernatural threats that loomed in the shadows.
Tsuna grunted in pain as he collapsed yet again. His limbs would quiver, his breath would become haggard, and it felt like a fire was burning underneath his skin, but there was something truly enthralling about this process. Something about pushing himself to his very limits struck such a vivid chord in him.
He briefly wondered if everyone usually felt like this or if this was just another byproduct of his Hanma trait. Whatever, it did not matter why crushing his body over and over again felt good; it just mattered that he was going to do this from now on.
Time seemed to blur as he put all of his mental effort into pushing his body, fighting his body's instinct to just give up and rest. It was a near-feral state, but the flow ran through his very being.
He had moved on to another exercise when his door opened and his mother entered the room with the same sunny smile on her face.
"Tsu-kun, it's time to wake up," she announced with practiced ease. Her stride into the room paused as she caught sight of Tsuna holding a plank. She blinked her large, expressive eyes and stared at her son with some confusion, but the happy smile was back on her face quickly.
"Oh my, Tsu-kun woke up early and is working out? Are you trying to impress a girl, Tsu-kun?" she spoke out with a mischievous smile on her face. Tsuna went red and dropped his plank, looking at his mother flustered.
"Kaa-san," he whined at his mother, hoping she would drop the subject.
She just hummed at him with a small smile on her face, clearly taking joy in bugging her son.
"Fine, whatever is motivating you can be your little secret, Tsu-kun. I just hope you can keep up this attitude," she spoke out softly as she took in the rest of his room as well. It was clean and tidy, a far cry from what she saw yesterday.
She said nothing, but her mood seemed just a bit brighter at that sight.
Again, Tsuna blushed and looked away from his mother, finally getting up and rushing toward the bathroom to take a shower. His mother usually woke him up when it was already too late, so he had very little time to get ready before he had to dash to class.
He could skip the shower, but that was not going to be a good idea; his clothes were soaked in sweat, after all.
The shower was quick, and his hair was still damp as he got ready, but the speed he was traveling was already faster than yesterday. If he used Time Accel on his way to school, he should still be able to make it on time for once.
He ran down the stairs and did not trip this time; that small act brought a bright smile to his face. He already felt like today was going to be fantastic. He reached the very end of the stairs and paused like a cornered animal.
The sight he saw was strange and confusing, but it should not warrant this dread he was feeling.
He saw a small toddler dressed in a suit and wearing a freaking fedora. The baby had a small lizard resting on his hat. The child looked at him with large, calm eyes and a tiny smirk that was ringing countless alarm bells in his head.
"Ciao-su," the small boy greeted him with a cute, babyish voice, but Tsuna tensed even further. He felt like he had the full attention of a tiger focused on him, not malicious or even aggressive, but the weight of the baby's gaze on him felt almost physically oppressive.
"Are you Tsuna?" the toddler continued, not even fazed at Tsuna's current state.
Tsuna looked at this Thing for a good long moment before nodding tensely. He was not sure what this Thing was, but he was sure it was not aggressive for now. So it was in his best interest to play along for now.
"I will be your tutor from now on," the masquerading child continued, not missing a beat. That had him tensing even further. His mother had hired a tutor for him, but she had done that before he had received the Chaos Gacha. Meaning this Thing had its eyes on him well before Tsuna's situation had changed.
Meaning this being could very well be connected to the asshole who sealed him before. He felt his blood boiling at that thought, but he held it back. He may want to scream at this intruder, but he could tell this Thing would kill him without even trying, even if he showed off all that he had.
So he just stared at the toddler with narrowed eyes.
The toddler looked back at him as if waiting for a reaction. As the time passed with them staring at each other, a hint of interest appeared in those eyes, but the silence continued.
"Oh, who might this little fellow be?" his mother questioned from behind him as she arrived at the bottom of the stairs. Tsuna tensed and watched the toddler with all of his focus, prepared to fight with everything he had if this Thing made a move on his mother.
The toddler shifted his gaze from Tsuna to his mother, reaching toward his inner suit pocket and taking out a flash card.
"I'm the home tutor you hired, Reborn," the small child introduced himself with a nearly blank piece of paper to introduce himself. Tsuna almost laughed at this nonsense. He understood that when you were strong enough you could do whatever nonsense you felt like doing, but there was no way his mother would buy this. This Thing was masquerading as a fucking baby, what tutor would be a toddler!?
"Oh, is that so?" she questioned lightly, but she seemed off. She was not doubtful; she was not even shocked at that proclamation. She just accepted it. Tsuna stared at her light, bright smile, and his blood ran cold.
He turned back to this Thing and felt murderous intentions blooming inside of him. His mother's reaction was not normal. Meaning this fucking thing did something to her.
The child just smiled blandly at Tsuna, that glint of interest burning brighter.