Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn!
AN/ I had this to just lay on my pc, and when I rediscovered it I just decided to throw it out on the net. Hope you like it... please review.
/One/
Sawada Maya was walking alone again, her father was too busy again to come home to her birthday, so the day was as lonely as usual. No family was there, mother's had rejected the invitations as always, she had no idea why her mother continued to send them, they cut all communication to her when she married a foreigner to their country, but her mother still continued stupidity to invite them any time. Personally she did not see what her mother saw in her father, he all but left them alone going on his important job, with not regard about what her mother sacrificed just to be with him, and still sacrifice for the matter. But for some reason her mother did not acknowledge her loneliness and remanded stupidity cheerful in her faith about her husband's love for her.
She found it a stupid and sad existence to live, forever patiently waiting for the small scraps of attention he would give, like a loyal dog waiting for it's master. It disgusted Maya to see her mother behaving like that.
She did not have any friends either, she missed in the social game that is called friendship, and are somewhat an outcast in her school. It is not to say she had no one to talk to, she was acquaintances with another there, one that liked to manipulate the people around her, and also looked at her peers with barely hidden revulsion at their behavior. They were not friends, but somewhat close none the less.
She disliked her peers because they are so immature in their needs, and their way of getting them.
That one of her own two twin brothers Ryobe, was a very selfish boy, that had a lot of friends, and did his best to annoy her did not help the matte at all. Her bother took a lot after their father, both in look, and the way they treated mother. Her bother was probably why she wasn't so close with her mother. Ryobe was a loud demanding child, where Maya was the more quiet child, and it did not change as they grow up. Mother slowly shifted more and more attention from Maya to Ryobe, it happened so slowly that Maya doubted her mother self knew it had happened.
Her other twin Tsunayoshi, or Tsuna for short, was weakness personalised into a person. He was weak willed, soft spoken and was painfully sly. Tsuna took most after his mother, both in look but also in the way they both behave. Maya had nothing in common with Tsuna that could be used to forge a good bond, Tsuna spent most of his time with mother or in his room doing nothing.
Maya could have played with him, but with her extraordinary intuition, made most games depending on luck or skill boring.
The result was she was lonely, having no one but herself to play with, she walked into her class instantly felt she was far superior, in mind and body. She was lonely, but did not care for companionship from those far below her existence. She repressed her need for friends by training herself in mind, body and spiritual, which only served to further distance her from her inferior peers.
But her need for company changed when she got curious about a path into a dense forest, it looked old. She found it when she was out walking again, her way of getting away from it all, she wanted to see what was at the end of it. And so she walked along the path, on the path she felt something akin to a wall that she passed through that made something stir inside her, after a bit of walking it become clear it would lead to some kind of shine, the tree gate with robe marked the way.
The tree gate may had been red once upon a time, but now it seemed mostly brown with the paint gone with age and weather. The robe hanging off in most also have seemed better a long time ago, now it was looking rotting. It seemed very old and uncared for. It was hidden from the view of the town by the dense trees. Behind the tree gate there were stairs going upwards.
As she got closer she could see how long the stairs went.
"wow" she whispered. It was a beautiful sight, the stairs going on for seemly an entertain with old trees at the side of the path with the tree crowns above the path, blocking out most of the sunlight, but some sun light beams made it through to shine on the upward going path.
After taking in the sights she began to climb the stairs, it was hard as the stairs just seemed to go on. She was sweating heavily and her legs hurt from the work out. She had passed two more of the big tree gates, one midway up the stairs and the one she was standing under right now.
"woah!" she said aloud, she was right it was a shine, an abandoned one at that, it was a big building that had seen better days, some parts of roof and some walls of the building had fallen inward, the shine grounds was big and overgrown with plants. It looked beautiful, and suddenly the whole trip was worth while.
She went to explore the shine ruins, using the unlocked door to get in instead of one of the holes in the walls. Anything of value was removed, forcefully if what she could see of the old marks was true.
She decided to clean the place so she could use it for her needs, but also because her intuition told her it would be best for her to do so, and her intuition had never lied to her before.
So she took the long way up the stairs every day without complaint, with time she began to enjoy it, she enjoyed the walk and how much less effort it took after only a month of cleaning. She began to move anything out of the shine that could not be saved, she cleaned to floors and used her high intelligence to get wood to repair the shine walls and roof, it was a pain to get the wood up the stairs Maya had a bad feeling about what happened to the former owner, as the holes in the walls looked man made.
But as Maya repaired the shine her physical ability got much higher than her peers, and they felt intimidated by the raw power there was in the somewhat small brunet, and isolated her even more then before, not that she minded as she had other things to do.
She was happy that she chose to repair the shine, her body felt much better now then before just to be in. it was stronger and her already clear mind was clearer then before.
her mother Sawada Nana was somewhat worried for the change in her daughter, she wanted her girl to learn how a prober lady should behave, not go off to parts unknown, but as always just put on a smile and let it be.
Maya discovered a hidden room when she was cleaning a wall, she pressed the wall and to her surprise it rotated inward to reveal the hidden room, inside there was much more dust than outside so this place must not have been used often even when people lived in the shine.
Inside the hidden room there 2 things It was one was a big bowl with lit fire, but otherwise empty, something that should not be possible as fire should not burn without fuel. The fames reached only a meter up from the floor and the bowls was a meter wide. It seemed more pure than normal fire, more peaceful in a way, and much stronger.
The Golden flame had the strongest shade of orange in the centre and becoming paler towards the edges, almost yellow at the edge. It moved calmly, it was placed in the centre of the somewhat big room, and gave of a high source of heat, much stronger then normal fire.
The second thing was in the far end of the room, there was a pedestal with something on it. She stepped inside the room, her curious side won big time with this great mystery. When she was closer she could see the item, it was a Magatama of a deep golden colour. It was unnatural in a way, even if it must have laid there in hundredths of years, it still seemed new. It was it seemed alive somewhat, the golden seemed to move like a flame inside the Magatama. (somewhat like a Ikki Tousen Magatama)
Maya felt light headed as she reached out with her hand, the moment her hand touched the Magatama it began glow brightly in her hand. Suddenly it let out a bright flash.
Maya got out of the trace that made her pick up the Magatama to find herself outside on top of the stairs. But that was not what had her starring stupidity, the Shine was fully repaired. It was more beautiful then she thought it would be. There was a granitic bowl in the middle courtyard with the golden flame shining brightly.
"w-what happened?" she muttered looking at the peaceful garden, and the flame. The whole place gave of a peaceful feeling, but had a underlying feel of great power.
She walked forward after admired the surroundings for a bit, before she had a feeling she was not alone. She had a feeling they wanted to meet her as soon as possible, but she was not in danger. It come from the dojo.
She opened the doors to the dojo behind the shine, before looking in. inside was 5 persons in full priest and priestess clothes on, Maya could not help but feel under dressed. 3 of them were men and 2 were woman, they all three had an golden flame on their forehead, it did not seem to harm them. Maya's intuition even told her the woman with the biggest and purest flame was the most dangerous.
The room was big and spacious.
Maya said nothing as she walked inside to meet them, she closed the door after her. She stood before the proud before the strangers, that seemed to judge her silently.
The all had black hair, and had a calm feel to them, like they was at peace with themselves and their surroundings.
"...you are wondering where you are yes?" finally one of them speak up, it was one of the men, very deep voice, and a very muscular build.
"yes" she answered simply.
"then you picked the Flame Magatama up without knowing what it was yes?" he seemed to think she could only answer yes and no questions, but it did not annoy her, it seemed impossible to be angry inside the same room as them, except those without common sense to realise the strength of those in the room.
"yes, but it seemed to draw me to it" said Maya calmly, Maya herself was not one to just could get angry anyway, being able to think logically helped a lot in that regard "I wonder still where here it" she tried to make them tell where this was, even if she had a good idea already.
"where to you think you are child?" one of the woman asked, ignoring my unasked question with her own asked question.
"... inside the Magatama" Maya answered, that is was her intuition was telling her, and no matter how insane it was, the chance of it being wrong was small, it had never her failed before.
"you are right, somewhat. Do you know what the Flame Magatama is?"
Maya's intuition was working in overdrive to explain "a gift, a great power, a powerful artefact, a memory storing device..." she was so confused, a memory storing device should not be possible over a hundred years ago, they should not have the technology for such a thing.
'...useless it was not done with technology...' Maya's eyes flicked toward their forehead where the golden flame was still burning '...But something else...'
"yes, you are right. You know know who we are yes?" asked the man.
"the previous holders of the Flame Magatama" answered Maya.
"...and you my child is going to be the next holder" said the woman with the biggest flame.
"why?" sure she would be the next holder, this was far too interesting not to. But still, she had to ask, it is tradition for people forced into something. Who was she to break those sacred old traditions?
"because there is no one left than you" yay! she is now only a last resort, one that may or may not work.
Now one of the men spoke up cheerfully "beside if you accept, you get super flame powers. That is not a bad deal no?" he seemed weaker then the others somehow... but at the same time more dangerous if needed to be.
"very well, tell my about the super flame powers" Maya nodded seriously, it looked cool to have your forehead lit in flames.
If there were one funny thing about Sawada Maya, then it would be her serious expression she always has on her face, even if she is relaxing or eating candy. Many adults in her early age found it cute, those her age found it unsettling and avoided her. It is not because she is serious all the time, it just look like that. It made those she talk to often wonder if she is telling a joke of not, no matter what it is she is talking about.
Asking about super flame powers in a serious tone and expression, the words said did not match the serious expression at all.
"you are funny! Hahaha...haha...ha...ha..." the childish man laughed, but Maya's serious expression did not change, her eyes stared into him, and he slowly and awkwardly stopped laughing after a while.
"I want my super flame powers" Maya told him very seriously.
"err... sure... anyway you were born with the super rare ability to control flames, and it has been super dominant before now" the child like man explained a bit awkward.
"I was born with super flame powers?" Maya asked
"yes, you were"
"so my twin has super flame powers?"
"maybe, Maybe not. It is already rare to have someone with the ability born, twins is almost unheard of"
"almost?" Maya had a bad feeling at that.
"twins was consisted a curse in the old times and... the problem was mostly 'dealt' with by their own families just after birth"
"oh"
"yea, oh"
Maya was feeling a bit uncomfortable at the dark direction the conversation had taken, and decided to shift it another way "...anyway my super flame powers, how do I activate them?" back in a safe area.
"you can do it through dying of course"
or so she had thought.
"I do not want to die just yet, thank you very much" she countered firmly and dead serious at the amused people that looked at her.
"dying is the fast way, the longer way is through heavy meditation"
"I will pick the longer way please" was Maya's instant response, she had no plans about dying any time soon, or ever for the matter.
"hahaha, we do not really mean dying in the most literal sense, but close enough to 'spark' the fire into being, so to say" he child man looked entirely too amused.
"the long way please"
"through meditation it can take years to discover the place within yourself to start the fire manually, of course there are benefits to both methods. Please keep in mind that we can only be here for a year at most to help before we will disappear from the Magatama"
"why?"
"we are not all the past holders, but merely those that held it last, we are a council if you will. We last used it to make an barrier over this small mountain because of the war, poured our own power and soul into the Flame Magatama to rise the barrier to protect the Flame temple's secrets. However with a new holder of the Flame Magatama your own flame will slowly push ours out, whatever you or we wants it to or not. Even if you do not awaken your flame, the Magatama will still draw on your sleeping flame"
"...so I am slowly killing you?"
"No. we are already dead, and we have being waiting for death for a long time, you are not killing us, you are freeing us from our self-made prison, for that I will thank you" he was being as serious as he could be.
"and so will we" the others said in union.
"but that is not relevant right now, but what path will you chose? The long or the short path?"
Maya thought over it, the short way involve almost dying, and with the long it could take to long to awaking before the former leaders disappear, and thus have no teachers to learn how to control the flame.
Maya is not one to sly away from interesting things even if they are dangerous, quite the opposite really. Maya feel much more alive if what she was doing was dangerous, or there was uncertain and unknown things, it made her blood boil in such delightful ways.
'without a great risk, nothing great is grained' she thought somewhat amused "The short path!" she said firmly.
They smiled at her "very well young one, I should warn you it will hurt" one of the woman told me kindly.
They spread out to stand in a circle around Maya, and hold a hand toward her with the palm pointing at her.
"Hurt a whole lot!" the person that said that did not have to sound so happy about it, thought Maya surly to herself.
Fire busted out of their hands, and pain began.
"concentrate!" she was burning alive and they wanted her to concentrate? Impossible!
"find your centrer! Find your flame!" what the hell do they mean find my centre? My flame? It that it? She could feel a part of her that was hotter than anywhere else but didn't hurt her like the former holder's flames, something that wanted to be used, to help, to be let out of the cage it was in! It that my flame? She could feel it trying to combat the flame near it.
"draw it out! Let it out!" she did! She ripped open the cage to the power inside her very being, it speed through her body to fight the harming flames, and the pain lessened to a degree. But is was wild, outside her control and the pain increased again, from her pain her flames became more and more wild in order to combat the pain and harm itself was coursing.
"focus! Calm your flame! Embrace it with yourself! Acknowledge it in your soul! Calm it!" she was trying to calm it, up instil now the flames was ruining outside her soul, but now she let it in, for good or bad she accepted it. She calmed it slowly till it was calmly and peacefully burning inside her soul, and with it the pain disappeared.
When she come to her senses again she was laying on the floor panting, her body was shaking in phantom pains.
Around her the keepers of the flame was standing looking down on her.
"Oi! Are you alive?" asked the child man.
"no I am not, go away from my copse" answered Maya seriously, but sat herself up.
"sorry we could not move you to a bed, but we thought it would be a bad idea to touch someone fighting their own flame, our touch could maybe be seen as an enemy's by your flame and thus exhaust it more to fight us and make your chances of survival lower than they already were"
"you set me on fire..." it was a somewhat angry tone that delivered the statement from Maya.
"yes?" said the child man she now dubbed bastard.
"I greatly dislike you... and the rest of you too" she added causally without a hint of anger in her voice. The former keepers palmed their head at the sheer causally she said it in, some of them were wondering if it was a good idea to give the sacred Flames of the goddess Seaflihe to the weird child.
'I think the world is doomed'
"why am I naked?" asked Maya
"you were set on fire... it was the first to go" said the bastard
"naaa... you are a paedophile aren't you?"
"NO!"
'no, I don't think the world is doomed... I know it' thought the unidentifiable female dryly.
"just admit it bastard"
"I'm NOT a paedophile!"
"I think thy protest a little to much"
"I AM NOT INTERESTED IN LITTLE GIRLS!"
"sure you are not" sarcasm always helps getting one's argument across.
"...even if I was, you would be the last thing on my mind"
"oh? But you had consisted me? You bad boy"
"I am more to woman with breasts, something you clearly lacks" the bastard declared proudly.
"I am nine years old... what did you expect? Mountains?"
that got look from the five persons in the room, except the person that said the words.
"you sure do not look nine..."
That was true. Thanks to Maya's own effort to become better in mind, body and soul she had grown better than her peers and was bigger in overall size. Not just taller or had more fat, but bigger overall.
"yes, I am awesome" she said with a straight face at them, utterly serious.
"..."
"..."
awkward silence for the five former keepers.
"you know what... forget it" said Bastard.
"forget what?" asked Maya curiously.
"nothing"
"... you know I am still naked right?"
"so?"
"It means that as flattering it is to have my exposed immature body ogled by beasts like you five paedophiles, I would like some clothes"
"I AM NOT A PAEDOPHILE!"
"then give me clothes already, instead to staling to look at me"
"..."
"that is not helping your case you know"
"... I hate you..."
"I hate you more... you set me on fire"
"IT was necessary!"
"... right, I think you just wanted to see me without clothes on... paedophile"
"I'm NOT!"
"the clothes please... and stop looking already... it is creepy"
"says the one with the emotionless face"
"yea, I do"
"... you know that thing in here can not come out in reality, and that you are naked outside too?"
"... really?"
"really"
"really, really?"
"really, really"
"...you are a bunch of perverted paedophiles all of you"
In the end after Maya left the world of the Flame Magatama she found some old clothes to use in one of the rooms, and went home for the day to begin the hard training the next.
Either her brother or mother asked any questions on where she had been, or the miko dress she had on come from, or why she had it on.
Tsuna asked where she had been, but was told by Maya it was a secret. Tsuna did not ask again.
She made a note to bring extra clothes to the shine the next day... just in case they would burn those she had on again.
She went to sleep with the comfortable feeling of her own flame burning inside her.
XXXXXXXXX(scene shift)XXXXXXXXX
The days come and went after that, and Maya had a lot to do, like flame control exercises to keep her clothes from burning to ashes.
It is much harder than it looks like in anime or manga's where the fire leave the clothes alone, or simply do no burn them. The first long time she had to leave her clothes outside of training, since it was ensured to burn if she did bring it. When she first summoned her flame it looked like she was on fire, she had no control over where the flames would emerge from her body. It took over a month to summon it only to her hands without some of flames escaping her control to emerge down her arm.
Of course she also kept up cleaning the old temple trying to bring it up to it's old glory, it was going painfully slowly, being only herself about it.
But enough about that...
"Congratulations with the birthday!"
it was Maya, Ryobe and Tsuna's birthday, they as twins was naturally born the same day, and a lot of Ryobe's friends was over to visit his home.
Neither Maya or Tsuna brought any friends home.
In Maya's case, not bringing a friend home was mostly because she herself did not care about birthdays, and because her closest 'friend', Kurokawa Hana, found birthdays childish, and Hana hated anything childish with an unholy fury that she would get sick by being around childish things for to long.
In Tsuna's case, he did not have any friends, having also missed in the social game that is called friendship because of his sly nature. He was also bullied by his peers for being a lot smaller than the regular Japanese male, at last until his sister took 'care' of the bullies, which included her other twin, Ryobe, that joined in to try to place himself high in the male hierarchy that was being formed, something that Maya ignored.
It was an unspoken rule that girls do not involve themselves in the male hierarchy, and males in the girls hierarchy, at last not officially. Unofficially there were favours being traded around. Anyone that that officially interfered was thrown from were ever they were in their respective hierarchy to the bottom of it, and was an open target for cruel bulling.
They children was not really fully aware of the hierarchy, but they crated it by ancient instinct from the time, as Maya's friend like to say, they were monkeys.
Tsuna was at the bottom at the male for his, sly behavior, girlish visage and small body stature, and was instantly sensed by the brainless monkeys as weak, and was brought down to his place in the bottom of the hierarchy cruelly right from the start, destroying any chance for any friendship he could have gotten.
Maya had without effort made it clear she was at the top of the female hierarchy. With her strong aura alone, she hovered above the hierarchy through sheer ability alone, others tried to make her fall from from her top spot, but was made brutally and publicly humiliated by the sharp tongue of Maya. It did not help that they deep down without themselves they was aware if of Maya's superiority, they feared the power they could subconscious sense from the taller girl.
Her acquaintance Hana had also caved a place for herself with her sharp tongue and sharper mind.
When the boys moved to bully Tsuna, Maya moved in to stop them because while she thought, and still thinks, he was pathetic and weak, he was still family, she did not think Ryobe or her father Iemitsu as family. Those two simply wasn't worthy. While Tsuna wasn't very smart or strong, he was very kind, a valuable trait that was somewhat rare in people, and was helping around the house to lessen the burden on mother. Maya deemed Tsuna a valued servant, and thus under her protection.
While kids was very violent in dealing with those that break the established hierarchy, it did them no good when dealing with Maya who was downright overwhelming brutal when dealing with violence. Maya believes in an 'eye for an eye' in lose teams, if they try to beat her up she would try to beat them up, and she is way better at violence than those that attacked. Maya still scoffed mentally at the boy that followed the standard rule in attacking girls, he had went to grab her hair, only to end with her knee buried merciless deeply in his gut, he had cried for days afterward because of the lingering pain.
After the whole episode died down, Maya was the unquestionable ruler of the class, feared and respected above all. She did however hold herself far above the hierarchy and rarely, almost never, interfered with those below her, except talking to her somewhat friend, somewhat acquaintance Hana.
At the birthday both Tsuna and Maya kept themselves from the party, and somewhat just observed, Tsuna with longing and Maya with cold indifference. Their father wasn't here, he was as usual out somewhere in the world doing stuff. Maya refused to believe that her father's job had anything with 'working abroad at the oil fields' as he had told mother. It was also a relief for Tsuna and Maya that their father wasn't there, as they both did not like the man.
"C-congratulations with y-your b-birthday nee-sama" stuttered Tsuna to his only sister, holding out a gift. They were standing out to the side, both not wanting to be in the chaos that was Ryobe's friends was making.
"thank you Tsuna" she reached out to take the gift from her little brother's shaking hands. It was a book about old myths, something she found interesting.
She nodded approving at the gift, making Tsuna smile happily, he was so easy to please it was ridicules.
"here" she pulled her own gift from somewhere to give to her little bother.
Maya was born first, Ryobe next, and Tsuna last.
"Y-you d-didn't have t-to nee-sama" Tsuna looked very embarrassed at being given a gift.
"you did not have to give me a gift earlier, but you did, it would be very rude not to give a gift in return, bad karma to know" she said, leaving no room for protests.
No, he did not know but he was gratefully took the gift anyway.
"P-painting supplies?" half asked Tsuna, after having found painting things in the gift form his sister.
"yes. You need a hobby!" declared Maya. "you only set in your room doing nothing but being emo when you have free time and not helping mother. So I thought sitting down to paint something could be something to help you relax, and help you clear your mind"
"T-thank you n-nee-sama" said a tear eyed Tsuna, holding his gift into his chest.
"Hmm? I think it is about time I make my leave, my ears can not take the annoying noise of what the loud brats call 'singing'" said Maya to her little brother, the birthday cake was on the table "hmm, mother forgot our names again" she observed causally.
It happened since three years ago when Ryobe had loudly demanded his own birthday cake with only his name written on it for weeks, instead of one shared with all their names. Their mother had given in, but had forgotten to make another cake for Tsuna and Maya, with was followed by the next birthday too, and the one after that one, and now again.
"I t-think, I w-will try m-my new g-gift" excused Tsuna himself from the room.
"hmm?" Maya looked at her mother that was looking a bit forlorn at Tsuna's back as he retreated from the room.
Naya looked at the small back of her youngest as he left the room, she looked down at the cake on the table 'Congratulations with the birthday Ryobe', this day ended up like the last birthday where she had also forgotten her two more quiet children, and just the other two times she forgot, she resolved to do better next year.
They were just too easy to forget, like they did not even need her, quiet about their needs. So easy to overlook, they never even complained about being overlooked, even with Maya's aura that always seemed to be there.
Naya looked at Maya that was observing her with a clarity in her eyes unnatural for one so young, Naya looked away, afraid of what that would be reflecting in the mirror-like quality her child's eyes contained therein.
When she looked again her only female child was gone without a trace.
The lonely mother steeled her resolve again 'next year I will do better!'
As Maya walked up the stairs to the shine 'it seems that mother is not as oblivious as I thought... But then again, it would be hard to miss two of your children is not going to celebrate their own birthday with her'
XXXXXXXXX(scene shift)XXXXXXXXX
Maya was meditating on her spiritual awareness together with the Bastard, when she asked out of nowhere.
"why it your heads on fire?" she made a hand motion toward the flame on Bastard's forehead
"say what?" asked Bastard, unsettled by the sudden question.
"why is your head on fire" she talked slowly as to a retarded kid.
"that is somewhat hard to explain, but I will try" he said "you have heard that the eyes are gateways to the soul?"
"yes... it was said because some could see the emotions through them, but I am not sure why"
"It is because your soul really lays in your head... normally souls can not be seen without those with a good spiritual awareness, or is hidden by the flesh of the living. We are a little different than normal people, when we burned you, you accepted flames into your soul... It made your soul inhuman in a way, you can say we are a close thing to a fire elemental, at last our souls are, our body is still very much human. With me so far?"
"What is a fire elemental?"
"Living power, it is somewhat wrong to call them fire elemental, they... looks just more like a flame elemental. Even if I call them flame elemental, they can sometimes have a vastly different power that do not have anything to do with fire. Not much is known about them, but they sometimes make contract with a mortal, and gifted him with some of their power"
"Are those in this shine gifted?"
"no, you only were"
"I was?"
"yes and no. you would probably remember if you meet a flame elemental, they like to make an impression, so I would guess one of your predecessors from your family was"
Now that make Maya think, was it from her obvious mother's side of the family, or the 'father that is never home's' side. She got the feeling it was from both 'That reminds me that neither I or my bothers know anything of our family, we only meet our grandfather from our father's side once, well not our real grandfather, he is the family head of father's side of the family, and he is father's uncle but asked us to call him grandfather. Never meet my real grandfather. Mother do not talk about her former family, except they did not like her... and neither me nor my bothers have seen them at all'"...back to the point of this conversation... the flame on your head?"
"As you know in here is not really an material plane, we are all but souls here, thus we can not hide it. Your forehead is on fire too you know"
Maya blinked surprised "really?"
Now Bastard was starring at her in disbelief "you didn't know your head is on fire?"
"don't sweat the little details"
"...little details?"
"yea?"
"little details... is... NOT when your head is on FIRE!"
"says the pedophile"
"why!... you!..."
"be quiet! I am trying to concentrate on my meditating here, go outside if you have to be so childish"
Bastard opened and closed his mouth serial times, before he left without another word.
Leaving Maya to her peaceful meditation in silence.
XXXXXXX(scene shift)XXXXXX
Tsuna was drawing again, he was still a beginner but it was nice to just sit down and draw whatever there was on his mind.
He was very grateful for the simple gift from his amazing sister.
Dipping his brush in paint Tsuna thought about his sister, out of words he thought that would describe his sister the best was, super human or monster. Even when she is not even trying to be intimidating he could still see the raw power through her movement. She is simply to graceful, to fast, to smart, to strong, and have too much willpower to be a mere human.
He had many that tried to imitate her, but they all ended up failing horribly to the meet standard she has sat.
Lately she seemed even more busy than she usually was in her hunts on something that interested her. Maybe she found something that did interest her?
"brother..." speak of the devil.
"yes, nee-sama?" he answered, not even turning around to see who it was. He could talk without spluttering with the calm he got from painting.
"father is coming" his hands stopped at the hated person that made his beloved mother sad, making wait for him while he is always gone. Tsuna turned to face his sister, but before he made the turn she was right behind him, a hand on the arm holding the bush, and guided back to the painting and began to paint using his hand.
After a while Tsuna had been calmed by the now familier feel of painting "when?"
"three days"
"I see..."
"Ryobe is out of himself by joy"
"he would, he always adored father"
"indeed, they are so very childish both of them, seemly running around without a care. They are both annoying"
"I see... hey, nee-sama?"
"yes?"
"I can see why you dislike father, but why do you dislike mom?" Tsuna as he could not really find anything wrong with their mother, except she tends to forget them at times.
"Hmm. That would be because she is everything I would hate to be..."
"hate to be?"
"I hate weakness, and seeing my own mother so weak disgust me. She is weak-willed, depending on fathers job to pay for things, she is weak-minded and she is so lost in her love she doses not see anything else than father. She reminds me of a loyal dog, that is just waiting for whatever leftovers her uncaring master sends her way"
"...I see. Thank you for clarifying"
"i am not against dog like loyalty, it is nor that, but she chose willing to live a half-life in her delusion when she could fully live outside it, too scared to acknowledge anything against her world-view, with father at the center"
Tsuna thought over it for a while before asking another question to his sister.
"nee-sama?"
"yes?"
"am I weak?"
"yes, but at last you can think for yourself"
"..."
"..."
"do really think all that about mother?"
"yes, she doses not even know the one of her children that love her the most, hate his father... she gave you another thing of father's did she not?"
Yes, she did. For some reason she seems to believe all her children love their father as much as she does, and seemed to think of it as a privilege for them to get some of his things he left behind from time to time.
She did not see the sad face of her child each time she gave him something of her husband's.
"done" Maya said.
Tsuna snapped out of his thoughts to look at the painting. On it was a beautiful, lifelike orange flame burning brightly. For some reason the flame seemed disturbing familiar to Tsuna.
"... Nee-sama... how do you get strong?" Tsuna asked seriously not looking back at his sister, making Maya smirk inwardly at the steel she always knew was in her sly bother.
She did not want to disappoint him.
"... it is Resolve... if you have that anything else will follow soon enough... Body!, Mind!, and Soul!" she whispered forcefully into the ear of her brother.
Tsuna was shaking by the sheer willpower that was in his sister's voice when she said those words. Right then and there, it carelessly overshadowed his whole existence by numerous magnitudes.
'Monster!'
It was the closest description he could find of his sister. It really felt like a inhuman monster whispering into his ear, he could simply feel her presence behind him as something twisted monstrosity bending reality to suit her smallest needs.
His hands was still trembling when his sister left the room.
XXXXXXX(scene shift)XXXXXX
The next day.
Maya had begun to take exorcist jobs since a while, to have a form for income to pay for the repairs for the shine, or the materials for it, that she had to get herself as for some reason people do not go up there useless there is no choice. It was the barrier that was made by the former guardians that she was learning from. She had already the brought the land from the state, using a rather unwilling contract to make the deal go under the table and out of sight.
It was a well-paying but dangerous job killing the harmful super natural creatures, it was rare to get yoma as they are called, so the pay is rather high. But in a city as populated as Namimori there are almost always some rampaging sprites to take care of. Not that Namimori is a big city, merely middle sized at best, but there are still well over 1000 people in it.
So even if yomas are rare to have, there is always someone that needs help, and are willing to pay handsomely for her to get a rid of it, and she did a good job most of the time.
So she was outside an old house owned by her contractor, clad in a white and red miko outfit ready to exorcise the malicious sprites that had taken to stay inside, as she walked in she held out her hand and an elegant looking halberd materialized in it. The halberd has a red shaft and a big orange tainted, curved blade at the end.
The owner of this house brought it knowing it was hunted. She hired Maya to take before she herself moved into it, so the house was barren of any valuable items and was very dusty, there were still paintings on the walls and other old items. There were serial clues around that point to the previous owner left in a hurry, probably because of the yoma Maya was here to take care of. Doing its stay the yoma killed 4 or 5 people, recorded anyway, the number in reality was probably much higher.
A laugher sounded through the house, that Maya immediately identified as the target, because of how unnatural it sounded, warped in such a way that was impossible to produce with a human throat. Her target was aware of her presences in its territory.
And made no effort to hide itself, seeking a confrontation with its foe instead of hiding from it.
"Is it arrogance or confidence that makes it so sure it will win?" questioned Maya aloud to the empty hallway, not showing the slightest hesitation on following the yoma's laughter to its source.
The yoma had the form of a gigantic spider, with a human head with an inhuman wide smile, full of small but very pointed teeth. It was in a roomful of spider web and traces of old dried blood on the floor.
"welcome to my humble home, it isn't any day the food invite itself" it laughed, it voice distorted in an inhuman way that would have given the urge to run in any ordinary girl.
But Maya was not an ordinary girl by any means.
"i will thank you for not running, it will save my the trouble finding you" her voice ice-cold, her impassivity eyes observing her prey.
"oh, you think you will win?" it asked amused in intent to either intimidate or annoy Maya.
"i will win" cold instant answer, no emotion present on her face. It was a blank mask.
Suddenly Maya swung, stabbed down behind herself with the sharp end without looking away from the spider in front of her. She pulled her halberd back, revealing a huge spider pieced on it.
The Yoma was silent a bit at the display of situation-awereness.
Maya said "i will win because I will accept no other outcome" as she looked herself over her shoulder at the hallway, it was filled with huge spiders, obviously under the spider Yoma control. Looking forward she saw spiders come forth from the spider web that hide them before.
Maya got into a stance with her halberd in silence, not saying anything as she went back to stare at the spider Yoma.
Then Maya charged the spider yoma, yellow flames blazed around the sharp end of the halberd. As she reached the front line of spiders she swung her helbard in a low wide arc, a wave of fire departed from it and burned the spiders, and wave moved towards the spider yoma itself who had a look of disbelief on it face, obviously not seen a flame blessed before. It manged to evade it flame wave however by jumping and landing on the ceiling.
It fired some kind of web balls at her, but she easily blocked them by swinging her halberd around in complicated patterns, the flames still around it. Maya released halberd with one hand while the other used the halberd to stab a spider that got to close, flames gathered in her hand, which she fired at the spider Yoma on the ceiling.
It evaded it again, but this time Maya followed it by jumping after it, just in time to avoid the spiders that jumped on her previous standing point.
It tried to block the first swing with one of its legs, but it was cleanly cut off by Maya, less than a second the head was caved in two. Maya landed with a wave of fire coming out from where she landed to kill nearby spiders. The spiders themselves stopped attacking.
Maya ignored them for now, but she flared her aura which made them freeze in place in fear. She looked at the copse of the Yoma she just killed, it disintegrated into into back dust that disappeared into the air, seemly unmaking itself.
"weak" it was true too, by a the yoma standard it was a weak one. Out of nowhere she produced a phone, she called her client.
"hallo?" a feminine voice come from the cellphone.
"this is Maya, the job is done"
the voice sighed in relief "good, your money will be in the bank soon"
"call me if you require my ability again"
"i will, you have been very effective"
"thank you" Maya closed her phone, and spoke to the room full of spiders as she walked across the room "now I just need to take care of the spiders, it would be rude to leave them" the reached the door and closed it.
She turned around while readying her halberd "should not take more than five minutes" the fire around her halberd blazed up as she gave a smirk. She loved fighting, much more so when the opponent was strong. No it was not fighting in itself she loved so much, it was using her power, her body her mind, to challenge herself. She was strong, and she was loving using that strength.
She was human after all, no matter what her little brother thought.