So this is the first story that I have actually posted on this website. I have read over 2000 fanfics and I finally got around to posting my own.

A little background behind this story; I've had an obsession with Skull from Katekyo Hitman Reborn for a little while now. He is such an interesting character, being "the man the grim reaper hates." This story started out as my headcanon about Skull (even though I'm pretty sure others have had the same headcanon as me), and morphed into something that surprised me.

I'm currently trying to rewrite it a bit to make it flow a bit better (and also to procrastinate on finishing my summer AP English, which I'm trying so hard to get out of it cries, homework). I'm probably going to rename this from The Shattered Mask to Shattered Skull or something like that..

So…warnings. Suicide attempts, self- hate, experiments on children.

Updated 9/6/2016

If you notice any mistakes, please let me know.

I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.

When Skull first received to an invitation to a meeting of the seven strongest, he was surprised. Originally, he did not plan on going, but he had nothing better to do so he decided to go. When the six (or seven- he saw the blond guy stalking the blue haired lady) other of the strongest saw him with his makeup and piercings, they immediately classified him as weak. Everybody, except Luce, did not give Skull any chance to prove himself. Was it because he was the youngest out of all of them? Or because he wasn't a part of the mafia?

Luce was the only one who realized he wasn't weak. It helped that she just seemed to know things. Everybody else should have known better than to immediate call him weak though. If he was actually weak, why would he get an invitation then? Those kinds of mistakes could get people killed.

Meeting the others pulled him out of a state of apathy. At first he found it amusing that he was surrounded by some of the strongest and most intelligent people in the world, yet none of them saw through the mask he wore. He found it amusing that not a single one of them noticed the countless scars carefully hidden under his make-up and jumpsuit, or the countless scars on his heart. Or that he wasn't weak. He found it somewhat amusing that the greatest hitman in the world thought of him as a lackey. After about two weeks of this treatment, it stopped being amusing and Skull felt his apathy return and carefully hid it. Since the others never bothered to actually get to know Skull, he decided he would not attempt to change their opinions of him. They weren't worth it.

When they first became Arcobaleno, Skull was overjoyed, but managed to hide his joy behind countless complaints. It wouldn't do to have the other Arcobaleno to know that he was actually happy with the curse.

Maybe the curse of the Arcobaleno would cancel out his other curse, his own personal hell?

It didn't.

After all, as his nickname implies, he is the man the grim reaper hates.

After he found out the Arcobaleno curse did not help him, he was angry. His now infant body could not do anything. He was too small to do any of his stunts, losing his main source of income. He was too small to do anything, plus people took him even less seriously than before.

One of the only bright sides that Skull could find to the cure was the pets. He received an octopus that he immediately fell in love with and promptly named Oodako.

The other bright side that Skull found was that Verde, in one of his rare moments of kindness, created an entirely new motorcycle that fit his new body size. It was even better than his old bike!

Skull had a feeling that maybe Luce ordered him to create the bike, but he didn't care. Receiving the bike helped him decide that maybe the others weren't so bad.

He only stuck around the other Arcobaleno so long over the years because he actually somewhat liked them, despite the fact that they constantly teased him. He couldn't bring himself to show them his real self the rare moments that his apathy left him, Skull actually found himself amused over their antics.

He eventually decided to join a famiglia, the Carcassa, and somehow managed to take over the family, which was something very few people knew. He eventually got the great idea to try and take over Mafia Land. Despite the fact that they never succeeded in taking over Mafia Land, it became one of the few things Skull found amusing.

When Skull figured out he was actually sad over Luce's death, he decided he was getting too close to the others and pulled away from them.

Years after they were cursed to be the Arcobaleno, Tsuna figured out how to break the Arcobaleno curse. Everybody was so happy to finally be free from the curse, yet the fact that they were still infants put a damper on things. Colonello was perhaps the most disappointed since the woman he loved, Lal, happened to be the only one of them to receive her adult body back.

Skull allowed a small hope to break through his apathy. He thought that maybe his original curse would finally be broken along with the Arcobaleno curse.

Over the next week, Skull made various preparations before he checked to see if his original curse was gone.

A few days before he was going to see if his curse was gone, Verde sent out a group text to all the ex-Arcobaleno (nobody has yet figured out how he managed to always find out their numbers since most of them were using untraceable disposable phones that they changed every few weeks). The only thing the text read was, 'Within the next 24-48 hours expect rapid body growth as our bodies return to their original forms.'

Of course that caused a massive flurry of text to be sent by everybody. Skull responded with a text, keeping up his mask, saying, 'YAY! The great Skull-sama will return to his original handsome self!' and was promptly booted from the group chat by Verde.

He decided to wait until he got his original body back before seeing if the curse was gone.

Later that day, Fon sent him a text saying that there was going to be a meeting on the mountaintop where they were cursed in three days.

Two days later the now seventeen-year old Skull checked into a hotel near the mountain and snuck Oodako into the room. Making sure to lock the door behind him, Skull decided he couldn't wait any longer.

He sat in the middle of the room and gave one last smile to Oodako. A loud bang was heard before everything went black.

Wow. Rewriting this seemed to have actually made this a lot better and twice as long.

I should probably get onto doing my AP work so I may rewrite the rest at a later date (or later today or in the next week depending on how much I actually feel like getting my work done).