Show us your power!

Last time on 12th Family Chronicles, Soichiro and Kaname teamed up to defeat Bakura! Their teamwork had been put to the test as they (surprisingly) cooperated pretty well with each other. But even then, they proved no match to the mighty Bakura! As a last resort method, Soichiro pleaded that Renovatio shoots Kaname with a dying will bullet and with that Kaname had awakened a flame hidden inside himself. Now, Kaname did all that he could against Bakura but only one person would be enough to defeat him. Go on, Soichiro, show us your power!

........

Soichiro stared ahead at Bakura, his mind being calm as water. Previously, Soichiro was scared out of his mind and almost peed on himself because of Bakura's terrifying power. Experiencing it was 10× worse than anything else in his life, except maybe a few things. None of that mattered to him as he finally had the power to beat Bakura and stop his rampaging. Looking at his fist, he clenched it and walked towards Bakura. "I should start it off with a kick." Soichiro said aloud as he slowly raised his left leg, managing to balance himself with one leg was pretty hard. He had to try his utmost BEST to not topple over and screw this move up. Bakura just shook his head at Soichiro, "What kind of person are you to tell your enemy what you plan to do?! Hohoho!" Bakura's laughter left a dead facial expression on Soichiro's face. Bakura remained unnerved by Soichiro's face and let him get his leg close enough to his head. "My, he's a stupid child. I'll entertain him a little bit more!", Bakura thought to himself as Soichiro's leg tapped the right side of his skull.

"Shut up." Soichiro said as Bakura was sent flying off the stage and into the old seats. Bakura laid against a small pile of broken seats and looked up to see Soichiro still adjusting to his new strength. Bakura was jealous of how Soichiro was suddenly so powerful; Earlier, he was a human punching bag for Bakura. Gripping the handles of his daggers, Bakura launched himself forward at Soichiro and raised his hands high as his daggers sharp ends were pointed at Soichiro's heart. "It's no fair. I had to train under a monster for years to reach where I'm at now. And this little twerp decides to come in and get stronger in me in just a few seconds?! HOW DARE HE MOCK ME." Bakura thought to himself as his daggers were inches away from piercing Soichiro's chest. Bakura grinned madly as he was so close to victory... only for this to be proven false in the next second. In truth, Bakura was simply far too slow to attack Soichiro with his weapons, they were easy to predict at this point. Soichiro had just moved to the right side of Bakura and thereby avoided his attack. Soichiro frowned slightly as he kicked Bakura's arm with minimal effort and sent the mafioso falling onto his back.

Rolling to the side before Soichiro's foot could make contact with his torso, Bakura shot up and held his daggers in reverse grip. The sharp blades faced backwards as the handles of the daggers had been held tightly. Bakura has never used this type of stance against any type of opponent, even Renovatio, unless he was really in a pinch. This stance was meant for agility and a speed boost, something he was lacking against Soichiro. This boy was truly something else! "To force me into such a desperate measure, he must really be the one to lead the Giove as its twelfth boss. Soichiro, show me your power!", Bakura excitedly thought as he rushed at Soichiro with a vertical swing at Soichiro's face. His dagger cut Soichiro's cheek as a small stream of bleed leaked from him. Gritting his teeth and trying to ignore the pain, Soichiro moved his left foot behind him as his right foot stayed in front of him. Dashing at Bakura, their forearms collided once again and Soichiro threw his left fist into Bakura's jaw. The uppercut had made Bakura stagger a bit and Soichiro took this as a chance to punch him in the chest. The impact was far too much for Bakura as he could feel the air being knocked out of his lungs. 

Bakura spat out blood onto Soichiro's face and blinded the boy for a few brief moments. Taking it as a sign to recover his power, he dissolved into nothing as he hid somewhere in the theater. Wiping the blood off his face, Soichiro looked around to see Bakura but came to no avail. Surprised that he could hide so quickly, Soichiro looked at Kaname. "Did you see him run away?" He asked the crimson eye boy and he simply shook his head. Just then, the feeling of cold steel against his skin could have been felt for a brief moment. Another cut had been formed on his body, this time on his right arm. Soichiro had his guard up just in time to see Bakura in front of him with his dagger nearing his heart. Aware of this, Soichiro swiftly kicked the dagger out of his hand and then made a 360° turn to perform a kick into Bakura's face. Falling onto the ground, Bakura clenched his face in pain as Soichiro kicked onto his back. "What was your purpose for all of this, Bakura? Mindless fighting gets you nowhere in life." Soichiro said to the mafioso and Bakura just laughed at him. He spat in the boy's face and howled as if it had been a full moon. Soichiro hadn't been phased by this, however, and wiped the spit off with the sleeve of his shirt. "I do what is necessary, Giove XII. Had our roles been reversed, I'm sure you would have done the same as me." Bakura said before Soichiro felt a sharp pain in his chest. He felt to his knees and began to throw up blood as his bones began to break into tiny pieces. Renovatio watched and walked over to Soichiro, patting him on the back as Bakura slowly got up and limped his way to the exit. Kaname was about to go after him but Renovatio's stare had him frozen in place.

"This is the after effects of hyper dying will mode. Once hyper dying will mode time is up, all the damage you received during your fight immediately is placed on your body. Some more training and this consequence will be erased from your memory like a save file from a video game. Oh, that reminds me, I should start playing Sonic Adventure again!" Renovatio happily said as he lifted Soichiro up and carried him to the exit of Simon Middle. Once he got to the exit, he saw Soichiro's friends gather around him and Yoruichi rushed at Renovatio to get a close-up of his boss. Yoruichi held back his anger and ruffled Soichiro's hair before punching a tree. Renovatio watched Odysseus stare at his boss's unconscious body in anger and tried his best not to lash out on his friend's. "Had we not been scared... maybe we could have prevented the boss hurting himself this badly." Odysseus murmered to himself as Hotaru was disgusted by Renovatio's actions. Same had gone for Hoshika, though she was a little less angry because he had done something similar in the past. "Let's get him to an hospital, he needs to heal up. Bakura isn't just going to let him rest easy; So you guys need more training." Renovatio informed them all before dashing towards the Namimori hospital. This time, he hadn't been smiling and had a frown on his face as he leaped onto a rooftop.

Soichiro had been dreaming of his mom and their average life. He had always yearned for something exciting to happen to him as a kid. Lucia would always tell him not to wish for things like that, "Adventuring at your age is very dangerous! Your not even old enough to stay at home without a babysitter." Lucia had told him and he always tried to defy her reasoning. He attempted to sneak out of the house at age 7 and sleep in the woods with nothing but a sleeping bag and some junk food. Later that night, it rained and he was forced to get back inside his house. Only... his mother would always be there to help him with whatever was troubling him. Whenever he needed it, she'd always be there for him. His mother... was a great person, all the way! Even if she had been apart of a mafia, it doesn't matter to him. She'll always be Lucia Tsukuba, A caring mother of Soichiro Tsukuba! "That's why... I can't keep... getting beaten...", Soichiro softly spoke in his sleep as a smile formed on Renovatio's face.

"What a good kid."

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20 minutes earlier, Lucia Tsukuba stood in front of Midori Middle. She was armed to the literal teeth. Wearing a jet black suit with two rifle's wrapped around her back, a belt that had a satchel attached to it, which held ammo for her guns, and two holsters attached to it. Pistols in hand(s), she was prepared to enter Midori Middle. Just then, with the intercom placed in her left ear, Lucci's voice was heard. "Mrs. Tsukuba, I'll relay the mission to you so we don't screw up and end up dying here. The mission is to find the safe that contains the files to all the successors to the Giove line. The safe was placed here by a woman named... Holy shit, I still can't believe her name is Hela. Hel-a lame!", Lucci's small joke annoyed Lucia for a second until she finally grasped the joke. Almost bursting aloud, she returned to her serious side and asked Lucci to continue.

"Hela is apart of the Giove's information team, the Clover, and secretly placed the safe somewhere deep in Midori Middle. We had our suspicions of her being the mole but uh... she's on vacation. She did end up sending one of her colleagues to protect the safe as a substitute teacher, only for us to find out that the colleague was the mole. His name is Daniel White, the first ever male to work at Midori Middle, and he was executed by Giove XI's left hand. I think Giove XI didn't know about it until a few hours back. Anyways, TL:DR, Your goal is to find the safe and bring it back in one piece. Matter of fact, why the hell did they even place those files in a goddamn safe, don't we have hard drives for a reason?!", Lucci nearly shouted in her ear and Lucia turned off her intercom.

She snickered since Lucci did have a valid point. But this wasn't a time for jokes as the lives of the next generation of Giove was on the line. Stepping closer to the entrance, the door was at least 10 feet tall with yellow engravings of the date of when Midori Middle had been founded. "1947. That should come handy in the future." Lucia said as she tried to open the door with a key, but the little bastard didn't unlock the door. Sighing, she kicked the door and it fell over with a loud thud. She could be as loud as she wanted; There was no one here to stop her except Bakura's "friends". She could smell them lurking in the shadows, waiting for their prey to come closer. She took notice of how Midori Middle, unsurprisingly, looked a whole lot more expensive than Namimori Middle. Like, the place had books everywhere! It was a massive library for all we knew. Raising her pistols high, her eyes darted around as she looked for any person that needed to be eliminated or incapacitated.

Seeing pitch black arms wrap around her waist, she elbowed the person behind her in the gut and was freed of their grasp. She turned to see a robed figure with chains on their wrists, their eyes redder than blood stared at Lucia. "Just what the hell are you? You look... unhuman." Lucia said as the person, if you could call it that, was pointing at her. Their fist clenched tightly as a threat to her and she fired four rounds at it's body.

The bullets LITERALLY flattened once in contact with the thing's body. So that renders her guns useless against this thing. "Whatever, It'd be stupid of me to just attack it. Escape is the best option." Lucia's thoughts must of been heard by her target because it appeared behind her once again. Showing off its remarkable speed, Lucia turned around and tried to attack it but failed as it evaded her attacks. Lucia sweat dropped at this display of speed and sighed in frustration. How was she supposed to beat something she couldn't even hit? Just then, the thing spoke out to her and Lucia gritted her teeth as it speaked. "Tell... your boss... that we... are coming for... him. We... are superior to you... miserable humans." It said as it dissolved into nothing. Lucia shrugged at this and sighed, it was probably just some angry guy who has a narcissistic side. Though, he was incredibly durable if her bullets couldn't pierce him.

"I don't care. I must focus on that goddamn safe." Lucia whispered to herself as she marched forward and looked for the stairs that led to the upper level of Midori Middle.

Walking over to the left, she saw a staircase that led upwards and walked on it. At the top of the stairs, a disciple of Bakura stood there holding a pistol. The disciple was to guard the upper level of Midori Middle and kill any intruders. Fortunately for him, Lucia was willing to give mercy to her enemies. Slowly creeping up behind his turned back, she wrapped her hands around his neck and "gently" squeezed until he passed out. Hiding the disciple downstairs, she rushed back up the stairs and walked down the hall with her bolt-action rifle outwards. She saw a door on her left and slowly twisted the door knob, opening the door a little. Seeing through the crack in the door, she viewed a woman being held in a cage by three disciples of Bakura.

"Jejehaha! Do you think Master Bakura will be angry at us for using her as a stress reliever?", one of the three asked and they laughed harder.

The poor woman was wearing nothing but lingerie that seemed to be tore up a bit. They must have beat her up a little bit. Slowly opening the door, Lucia silently walked to the second disciple in the middle of the three and pressed the end of her rifle against his spine. "Don't. Fucking. Move." Lucia said as the woman began to beg her to free her from the cage. Lucia shushed her and stepped backwards to the cage, careful to not take her eyes off the small group.

One of them decided to be brave and play "hero" by rushing at her with a knife raised. Lucia fired a bullet at the bastard's chest and put a hole in his heart. Sighing as some more enemies might have heard the gun shot, she quickly fired another bullet at the nearest one. The one who previously suggested rape was shot in the leg and fell to the floor, struggling to hide his pain. Smiling at that, Lucia snapped the last disciple's neck and let his body drop to the floor with a thud. Dragging the one shot in the leg the hair, Lucia dragged him to the stairs and kicked him down.

Walking back inside the room, she freed the woman and gave her a quick hug. "I-i was just coming here to-to find a couple of my students documents and these... these fiends just attacked me out of nowhere! Thank you for saving me, ma'am. I promise to not tell a soul of what happened here, on my life!", the woman said as she rushed out of the room and Lucia held out her hand to shout 'wait!' but it had already been too late. Punching the air in frustration, Lucia angrily walked out of the room and continued down the hall. "I could have asked for some more information on the safe's location. But it's whatever."

Reaching an end to the hall, she turned to the right and a group of disciples had their guns raised at her. She dropped to her knees with her hands behind her head and they marched towards her. Only for them to be pumped full of lead by a 10-year old boy, Lucci. How did he end up getting here faster than her? "There was an elevator! Man, had you known that, this mission could have been finished quicker." Lucci said as a hand was placed on his head and Lucia fired a couple of bullets from her pistol at the disciple that had their hand on Lucci's head. Six holes had been formed in the torso of the disciple and Lucci let out a sigh of relief. "I'd think I was a goner had you not been such a great hitman, Mrs. Tsukuba. Thank god." Lucci said to his partner and they rushed down the hall with no time to lose. Finally, their journey had been nearing its end because Daniel White's office had been at the very end of the hall.

Nearing the door, Lucci had a bottle full of tear gas and slid it under the door in case anyone had been in there. Pop! The lid came off the bottle and the gas filled up the room, causing any in the room to be rendered unconscious for a few hours. "Wait a few minutes before going in, Lucci. We have to wait until the tear gas is gone." Lucia said to her 10-year old partner and he shushed her by holding a finger to her mouth. Moving his finger away, she scoffed and the two waited five minutes before stepping foot inside his office. Once Lucia had given the "okay", Lucci kicked the door in and held out his own rifle. He almost fired a shot but Lucia took the rifle out of his hands since it was "Grown folks toys". Lucci searched Daniel White's cabinets, searching for the safe. He threw anything he found incompetent to the ground and continued his search for the safe.

"So, Lucci, while we still have the chance... why are you helping us? Shouldn't you have gone back to Italy to your boss?", Lucia asked the young boy and he shrugged at her before putting his focus back on the safe. Frustrated that he couldn't find it, Lucci angrily ate a ice cream bar from God knows where. Lucia chuckled at the sight of Lucci trying his best not to throw a tantrum. Lucia began to think about Soichiro... wondering if he was safe and unharmed. "My sweet little baby, I hope Renovatio kept his promise and protected you... if not I'LL KILL HIM." She thought before Lucci walked to a black box, covered by a large brown rag. Removing the rag off the box, Lucci tried to pry the lid off with his bare hands and let out a pained yelp. The lid was far too heavy for him to lift, and Lucia knew that. Smirking at him, Lucia removed the lid from the box with no difficulty and saw that the safe was in the box. Letting out a happy yell, Lucia unlocked the safe and saw that the files had still been inside it. From the looks of it, they hadn't been touched by anyone except White. "Then he wasn't the mole, Lucci. Had he been the mole, the files wouldn't be here and we wouldn't have found it so easily." Lucia calmly deduced from the evidence of the safe still containing the files of the successors and hardly being touched. "It also feels like Daniel did his best to protect the files from anyone, going as far to set up traps against allies in case they had been the moles." Lucia thought as she prayed for Daniel to find peace in the next life.

"Oh... then he died for no reason. I hope he is okay in heaven! But we can't grieve over him right now, we still need to get the files out of here. Disciples are bound to find us because of the dead bodies we left behind! So grab the files and let's go!", Lucci said as he rushed out of the office with Lucia behind him. Keeping the files close to her chest, she ran down the stairs with Lucci and made it to the entrance of Midori Middle. They were so close to accomplishing their goal! Lucci smiled as he kicked open the exit door and ran out with his eyes closed. Dancing in glee, he spun around in circles until he couldn't see straight. Laughing as he laid on his back, Lucci hadn't noticed Lucia's silence and continued laughing like a toddler.

A round was fired in the air and that gained his attention. Lucia saw disciples of Bakura have guns pointed at them in all directions and one walked up to them with their hand out. "Give us those files and we'll make sure that you get taken care of... nice and easy." The disciple said to Lucia and sweat rolled down her forehead as she slowly walked towards the disciple. As the files were almost in his hand, she threw them up into the air and fired six bullets into them with the rifle. The files were no more and Lucci stared at her in shock, "NOOOOOO!! GIOVE XI IS GONNA KILL US!!" He shouted in agony as he could feel the anger from the Giove boss so far away. In fact, his body felt as if it had been caught on fire and the boy began to hallucinate the 11th guardians of the Giove standing in front of him. Shadowy figures with their weapons aimed down at him for failing the mission given to him. Lucci actually thought he died for a minute until Lucia stared down the disciple in front of her and the disciple backed down. Turning away, the disciple raised a hand with a smile on his face. "Kill them both. That's a direct order from Master Bakura himself."

Lucia watched as they all raised their AK's at them and regrets slowly creeped into her heart. The thoughts of never getting to see Soichiro married entered her mind, yet she did not cry. Perhaps, this was her time to atone for killing many people back in her younger days. All the people she mercilessly killed must have wished this upon her in their final moments of life. She dropped to her knees and prayed to God to beg him for forgiveness. Lucci panicked and started throwing smoke pellets at the ground, covering their surroundings and making it very hard to see. Grabbing Lucia by the wrist, Lucci and her managed to escape with a few bullets heading in their direction. "Thank you, Lucci! Without you, I'd have been a goner." Lucia informed her partner as they ran into Q's restaurant and hid under a table while a small group of disciples passed by. Thanking the heavens, Lucia and Lucci came out from under the table to see an upset Q. Q had her knife at Lucia's throat, "You almost brought trouble to my restaurant! Do you know how much money I put into renovating this place!? I didn't buy it so you can destroy it like all the other places." Q said as she was getting ready to twist the blade into Lucia's throat. Moving the knife away from her throat, Lucia paid Q 60 yen before sitting on a chair.

"How does it feel to be in Namimori, Q? Or should I call you Quinzel? You never specified what you like being called." Lucia jokingly said as Q looked at her and threw a sandwich at Lucia while trying to hide a smile. "You know damn well I hate being called Quinzel. It doesn't suit me." Q informed Lucia and Lucci before the three of them felt a sharp pain in their chests. Rushing outside, the three of them witnessed an ambulance driving recklessly to the hospital. Lucia rushed towards the ambulance once she saw Renovatio sitting on top of it with his magnums outwards. This had not been a good sign at all. Q watched as Lucia fell onto the street as Soichiro was being taken inside the hospital to be taken care of. The woman cried, even while knowing her son was going to face dangerous enemies, it still hurt to know that she failed to protect him. Q walked up to her and dragged her back inside the restaurant, urging her to change into more formal attire before rushing in. "You can't go inside a hospital with guns wrapped around your body."

Soon, Lucia had been called into the hospital and she rushed to Soichiro's room. The boy had barely been conscious from what she could tell. He most likely didn't even know where he was. Slowly walking to her son, she sat next to him and held his hand. Gently squeezing it, she cried as Soichiro was beginning to be dragged deeper into the pitch black hell of the mafia. A world where only the strongest could survive and he was not strong enough to defeat a lowly thug. "Why did I let myself be in this stupid family!? I didn't mean for you to get hurt, I thought that Renovatio was going to protect you... but I was wrong. He has his own goals in mind and protecting you isn't one of them. I should've never let you near him in the fist place!!", she yelled aloud. Yoruichi, Hotaru, Odysseus, and Hoshika heard her cries of anguish outside the door. Yoruichi was going to step inside but Hoshika stopped him from doing that.

"From what I've learned as an assassin, you never walk in on a mother with her son. And she needs to be with him for now. We'll see him soon, okay?" Hoshika said to the teenagers and they all agreed with her. Looking back at Soichiro from the peephole in the door, Odysseus was determined to make Soichiro even stronger than before. Along with the rest of them.

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The ending of this chapter really hits close to home, if I'm going to be honest here. Sometimes, you just never know how much you care about someone until you lose them. So, I want any of the watchers viewing this story to go say "I love you" or something to your loved ones. Just show that you care about them, y'know? We never know how much time we have left on this earth. So make the most of it.

Prince Zenin, Signing out for the day.