Flames shouldn't be sealed. The risks are too great, there's always a chance of blindness, of hearing loss, of physical disabilities. There's always the chance it can alter something mental, can cause something to change irreversibly.

Flames shouldn't be sealed, everyone in the mafia knows this.

But such a bright sky, such a burning sky is an inconvenience and a threat, so the scheming boss and the neglectful father mutilate the sweet girl with a gentle smile and kind eyes without a second thought.

They tell her mother she fell sick when she collapses. They smile and laugh and don't think about what they've done, don't stop to wonder about the consequences.

The next day Sawada Tsuna opens her eyes.

The girl wakes and the future changes.


It's been a month since papa left again. Only a month and she's already divided her life into two parts: before and after.

Before papa brought the strange man that insisted she call him nonno to visit, before she woke up the next morning with no memory of the previous day.

She doesn't know how, she doesn't know why, but she knows the strange man and papa caused after.

After means the reassuring warmth under her skin has been replaced with a constant itch. After means she doesn't feel anything when she sees mama crying, doesn't want to comfort her like she did before.

She can hardly remember what she was like before, but she can't have been like this.

Tsuna doesn't think the girl of before would have laughed as she watched a child at the playground fall from the slide. She doesn't think she would have watched the blood pool onto the sand in fascination, only moving when mama pulled her away.

And she knows the girl of before wouldn't be doing this, wouldn't be carving up a cat just to watch it scream.

She's tried to stop. She's tried to make friends, tried to smile and pretend to be normal, but the other children see through her. Creepy-Tsuna they call her, Odd-Tsuna, Wrong-Tsuna.

She knows, in a detached sort of way, that the names should bother her. That if any of the other kids were called names they'd protest and cry.

But it's hard to care when she has more important things to pay attention to. Important things like the pretty red staining her hands and the white bone that quivers beneath her fingers as the cat finally dies.

The clock strikes twelve and Tsuna startles before taking the body in her arms and heading out to the yard. It only takes a few minutes to pack the cat into a box, blood staining her fingertips as she closes the lid. Soon the cat is buried in the patch next to the skinned mice and birds with broken wings and broken necks.

The clock chimes again and she grimaces, running to the bathroom and washing the blood off her hands.

Mama will home from the store soon and Tsuna has to be perfect. She has to make sure mama doesn't notice anything is different, she has to make sure the other adults still think she's sweet and gentle. Tsuna isn't stupid. She knows bad things happen to people that do what she does, that think how she thinks.

No, Tsuna isn't stupid. She knows the girl of before isn't coming back, knows she'll have to live the rest of her life like this.

That's alright though. She may not be normal anymore, but now she's something better.