Genre: I'm not good at choosing genre, for now it's drama except if I suddenly want to focus more on romance or friendship, or tragedy or angst, or action. This is that kind of story.

Pairing: hint of 1827 or 7218 if you prefer it.

Full summary: Enemy from the past returned to Namimori for revenge. But Hibari wouldn't budge and kept Namimori safe even if their appearance faltered him. But whose enemy exactly is? Why they looking for a brunette? And why their appearance upsetting Hibari so much? (Contains mask, festival, and people's secret pasts; hints of 1827)

Word counts: around 1400

A/N: This is my first published English fan fiction, but you don't need to go easy on me. You can inform me if I made mistake or choosing unfitting vocabulary. But, for this chapter, I guess I made many mistakes because I don't have much time to edit it. Please bear it for a while.

In an almost empty street, a sound of a crying child could be heard. For such a rare occurance, for once he got out from his sanctuary.

Before the no-one-know-how-old building, there's a little fox crouching on the foreground.

"How did you get here, little one?" He asked from the doorstep.

"I-I got lost," answered the brown fur ball between his small hiccups.

The tiny body was covered in wounds and dirt.

What an unsightly view. How fragile for such a beautiful being.

"I see," and just for this once he would overlook the trespasser. "How long are you going to stay there?"

"I-I don't know my way back home."

"You have lost your way. Is there something you lost as well?"

It seemed the brunette wasn't an attentive listener. He was lost in his own problem.

And he started to lose his patience.

"How long will you keep crying!?" He scolded harshly, making the little fox flinched and looking his way.

His satisfied smile turned to gentler one as he beckoning the child to follow him to the building.

"This is a storage house which keep thing one lost," he said as they walked through row and row of organized articles and goods.

"Do-do you took all of these?"

Some of the things looked valuable and expensive and some others looked like a crap in a man's eyes. But the two different beings knew just how much important those things are for each respective owner.

"I-it's not veey nice..."

"In the left are things that people ignored while in the right are things that people gave up," he pointed out each row and disregarded what his little companion said, "But sometimes there's also special things that running away from their own owner or taken by another."

-...-...-

The two arrived in front of a shelf which no different than another.

The place was like a labyrinth. If it was not for his sense and a little instinct he had, the little fox wouldn't be able to follow the strange humanoid creature in front of him. Definitely not a chance on his slow feet. However only in that row, he could feel a strange feeling growing inside his belly. Suddenly, his head felt light and his steps were balanced. His back went straight and his breath became even. He walked faster without minding his wounds.

The little fox stopped before the humanoid.

"I believe this is yours," the humanoid presented him a traditional wooden box.

It smelled dust and burn as much as it smelled wisdom and power.

He hesitantly reached out his hand.

"You will not come back here anymore."

The small hand touched the solid top and it suddenly burnt.

He screamed.

"Now, leave."

The humanoid waved his pale hand. And the little fox was blown away to the door with a white fox mask in his hand.

-...-...-

There's a picture of a fox mask. Its eyes are completely slanted and ended in nice curve. Big comma or tomoe as its eyebrows are deep red. The mouth and other decorations are also drawn in the same color.

Although it's one of the typical traditional Japanese fox mask, it will be hard to find one of these being sold nowadays. Lambo wanted one after he forced Tsuna to read a picture book they found in the Sawada's attic.

It is easy to bribe a calf, but it is sure not easy to bribe a hitman, moreover the strongest one in the world. Tsuna was forced to find the same exact thing as the one in the picture book as a side training.

Exam was close and Tsuna had to drill school materials into his head whenever he could. Tsuna has long accepted the fact that he can't fooling around after Reborn had been stricter in their training since he was freed from arcobaleno curse. But Reborn has not. He must have thought it will be funny to find him struggle to find some things.

"How can I found one?"

"I didn't know you have an attic, Tsuna!"

"Don't divert the conversation baseball-freak!"

Tsuna, Hayato, and Takeshi were walking to school together like usual.

"Now, now, don't be too serious. Speaking of attic, there used to be a festival around this time. Huh, they sold a lot of mask too, didn't they Tsuna?"

But Tsuna had no idea know what Takeshi talking about. After some bickering with Hayato, Takeshi continued.

"It's a big festival you know. One of Namimori specialty, but it's stopped being held three years ago."

And then Takeshi told them story about how he had participated in baseball match between neighbouring shop districts to decide who would get the most strategic selling area.

-...-...-

Tsuna, Hayato, and Takeshi arrived in Namimori punctually. They were safe. They saw Kyoya on the gate but they saw nothing dangerous with his behaviour.

If it's festival... did the Disciplinary Committee has something to do with it? Tsuna thought.

Kyoya noticed the familiar feeling of being watched, but it was not just by anyone. He glanced at Tsuna. They have locked eyes for a while before he decided it's enough wasting time and went back inside the school building.

Huh? What was that about? As expected, Hibari-san is really scary!

Just several days back, Tsuna and his guardian have to find a bomb. It was their first time not fighting enemies head on and wasn't given a time to make peace with each other, so their cooperation was really bad especially with Kyoya and Mukuro. In desperation, they separated themselves. And in the end there's only Tsuna and Kyoya near the suspected area. Tsuna wouldn't call that cooperation, but Kyoya did holding himself well. And although it was a little bit tricky, in the end the bomb didn't detonate.

Tsuna realized it was his first time finishing an ordeal with only his cloud guardian by his side. Maybe because of that, he thought that maybe, maybe Kyoya wouldn't be as scary as before the incident. Maybe they have gotten closer and he will give him some slack in school - of course not.

-...-...-

He had hoped he wouldn't see the little fox so pitiful again, but he also hadn't hoped to see him in the very top of the food chains.

The ground was literally ablaze. And in the center of it was the little fox covered in blood.

Ah, he wore the mask.

"It's you," the brunette said coldly when he saw him. "I thought you are another one."

"Human?"

"Corpses. Soul wouldn't budge as fast as the body wants it."

Meat after meat piled up one after another. Those rotten things were like a lump of men nightmare once he noticed it. He was unable to find a proper visual look because of the darkness. The deep darkness resonating from the only one standing being in front of him which trying to pull him in too.

Only the sudden sound of siren jolted him back to reality.

"I'm leaving."

"Please wait. You are wounded," he said when the little fox running pass him.

"These aren't my blood."

"Your heart is," he said lamely, but nothing truer than his words.

"What was that day anyway? It seemed you have returned me my power. But to keep this power together..."

Was it just him or he felt rain was falling?

The little fox walked pass him and vanished for good and he was just standing there.

Suddenly something caught his eyes. He bent down to pick it up. It was a book. A picture book entitled The Fox's Den.

-...-...-

On the cover of the book there are picture of a baby fox and a lot of messy stuffs piled together as the background. The stuffs were burned. However it's most likely that the corner of the book which was blackened and suspiciously smelled a lot like burn wasn't intentional.

Reborn picked up the picture book Tsuna read to Lambo the previous night from the floor. It was not a regular children book. It wasn't coming from any publisher, more like self written papers bonded together which was made very well by its writer. Beside, the content was too creepy for children if adult put their thought about it for a moment. Fortunately, for the book to exist in Sawada residence, it's only meant more amusement ahead.

A/N: I know this is just the first chapter, but I need to go somewhere without any internet connection or even electrical device for months. So next chapter will come out much much later (don't worry if I got holiday I'll write a lot). I intended this story to be around 10 short chapters. Until next time, please inform me if there's something you didn't like about this story, so we can enjoy reading and writing it together (Akun)

Help me here:

- I love drama, but it seem my writing style don't cut for it. What genre do you want this story to be?

- What you call an action to switch off a bomb so it won't detonate?

- Have any nice fighting hand to hand actions in your head?

- Just curious, what do you think will happen in this story?