The inside of the Vongola castle was magnificent in an eerie way.

Though the castle was alive with thousands of dim light emitting from thousands of bulb all over the place, there was still an uneasy vibe surrounding the area. Like that great hall of the castle had heard a million cries over a million deaths.

The floor was covered with elegant red carpetting which were trimmed with golden stripes on various random spots. There was a huge chandelier made up of very dim lights at the very center of the dome of the hall. A huge terrace was overlooking the area from the second floor but that part of the keep was very dark. I was sensing that somebody was watching us from up there, though how I could tell that, I wouldn't ever know.

Yamamoto was very nice to tell me what that part of the castle was called, hence why I knew it was called the great hall of the keep. Gokudera even corrected Yamamoto as the latter initially told me it was called "the hall" and Gokudera righted him by adding the word "great" to it. That resulted to both of us being called stupid by Gokudera. I thought he changed since he was older than he was in the anime but maybe I was wrong. Yamamoto just laughed and apologized but I didn't feel any good about it.

I was brought inside by the three guardians of the family (Yamamoto, Gokudera and Ryohei since Hibari went ahead of us because, of course, he hated crowds) in Reborn's command and I felt nothing but a prisoner. Only Yamamoto made a friendly small talk with me.

At the very end of the great hall stood a huge elegant chair which I had only seen in movies where kings sat with all the power in the world. We were still far from the throne itself but I could already make out the figure of a man in a black suit sitting there with his legs crossed. His left elbow was resting atop the armrest and the side of his head was resting atop his folded knuckle. A calm orange flame was emitting from his forehead--the dying will flame. On the right armrest, an armored lion cub was quietly sleeping with the same orange flame emitting from around its head and tail. The man sitting on the throne was giving its pet a light caress on the back with his gloved hand. He was regarding us with so much calmness that I almost didn't recognize him.

So that's how he looks ten years into the future...

Standing beside him, on his left, was Reborn who already had his pistol kept somewhere beneath his suit. His hands were tucked inside his pockets coolly. Earlier I was wondering why he wasn't a baby anymore but then I remembered that at the end of the manga, the Arcobalenos' curse was removed and they went back to being normal. Normal in a way that they were still a baby when they went curse-free but they were already able to grow up.

At the foot of the throne, adult Lambo stood wearing a black suit as well, with a green button down inside and his horns were properly placed on both sides of his head. He was also looking at us like he was waiting. On the pillar carved with an elegant mosaic not too far from the throne, Hibari was leaning with his arms crossed and was also patiently waiting for what was about to happen.

A man in a black suit like the boss was also standing beside Reborn with a warm smile on his face. At first I wasn't able to recognize him but as we got nearer, I realized I was looking at a grown Basil.

Time seemed like flying and before I realized, I was already standing at the foot of the throne, looking up at Tsuna and his bright orange eyes.

Gokudera stood at the right side of the throne, taking his place as the right hand man. I remember him saying, "That bastard Hibari. His hate of being in a crowd is so annoying. Does he think he's superior?" before standing beside Tsuna. Yamamoto was standing at the foot of the throne as well together with Ryohei and Lambo.

Lambo's yawn pulled me out of my reverie.

"How long will this meeting take, Yamamoto-nii? I am invited to a party tonight, you know," Lambo said.

"Hmm? I don't know. But you'll get to your party, don't worry," Yamamoto said with a smile.

I nervously looked around me. Being surrounded by these people in formal clothing made me feel so small and unimportant in my dirty school uniform. I still think that I smelled so bad that day since I hadn't taken a bath yet after a long day in school.

Everyone was looking at me, like they were expecting me to do a head spin or something.

"I..." I started. I didn't even know why I even dared speaking in the first place. "I didn't do anything wrong..."

I thought I saw a small smile formed in Tsuna's lips which made my heart beat so fast. He really was my number one.

"I know," Tsuna said and his deep, adult voice took me by surprise. It was just like Vongola Primo's voice in the anime. Calm but you would definitely obey if that voice ordered you to do something. "Don't be so afraid, Akari."

Tsuna knows my name. I can now die peacefully.

"How did you know her, Judaime?" Gokudera asked.

Tsuna straightened from his seat and put his left hand on top of his crossed legs. Natsu, his pet lion, yawned from his side but continued sleeping nevertheless. "Reborn told me all about her."

I looked at Reborn who was still quietly standing there, regarding me with a dull but dangerous stare.

Reborn knew about me?

"It's just like what Mukuro told you," Reborn started. "The reason why Vongola is falling apart since Primo's time is because of the absence of a certain family member. A vital family member."

What Reborn said caught Hibari's attention because Hibari looked at him after minutes of closing his eyes. I even thought he was already sleeping.

"I don't get it, Reborn-san," Gokudera admitted. "Mukuro told us something about Dokuro not being the Elena of this generation. Who is this Elena?"

"Yeah. I extremely don't know any Elena," Ryohei seconded.

"You won't really know, Ryohei, since you were in Vindice's prison when Daemon Spade told us about her," Reborn said. "And Yamamoto and Gokudera were in Daemon's illusionary dimension during that time."

"But who is she?" Yamamoto asked.

"She was the light of Vongola in Primo's time," Tsuna answered. "She was Primo's friend and Daemon's lover at the same time. She was the reason why Daemon became a part of Vongola."

I knew all of that. I'd read the manga for, like, twenty times already. Cover to cover. Volume one to the last.

"When Vongola was at its strongest, Primo decided to pull out its military forces, believing that their interest of protecting the people and the innocents had been forgotten because of its growing power over the military," Reborn continued for us. "Daemon was against it since he believed that if Vongola still had its power, they would be able to keep the peace for the people. But Primo wouldn't listen to anyone and withdrew all their forces, and attracted numerous attacks from their enemies who saw that as an opening. Elena was killed in one of the ambushes. It caused Daemon's betrayal, leading to the misleading story of the first bosses of Vongola and Simon Family."

I remember all of that. I knew the story all too well. Daemon Spade, the first Mist Guardian of Vongola, wanted to make the family the strongest after not being able to protect his beloved Elena. He hated Primo's ways so he betrayed him by making Cozart Simon, the first boss of the Simon Family and Primo's best friend, go to war with only fifty members with him to face twenty thousand enemies. It led to the war between Tsuna with his guardians and Enma Kozato with the tenth Simon Guardians.

"Since then, Vongola ruled by fear, starting with Vongola Secondo," Reborn continued. "Vongola lost its original purpose and became something that makes people tremble just by hearing its name. Both Tsuna and Primo hated that but this generation is still unable to bring the family back to the way it used to be when it was built. The first family failed when Elena died and no other generation had someone like her. After she died, that was when Vongola changed entirely. It had always been six guardians and the boss. But the original Vongola family had eight core members. The boss and the seven guardians."

Everyone's eyes turned on me. I had a distant feeling of what this conversation would lead to and I wasn't liking it.

"That's not going to be me, right?" I said to clear the confusion that was possibly enveloping everyone else in the room. "I mean, I am not going to be the seventh guardian of the Tenth, am I?"

I looked at everyone's faces and I had seen either a scowl or a puzzled look.

"Are you refusing the generous offer of Judaime?" Gokudera hissed at me.

I made a step back as I got completely afraid of him. Gokudera was about to say something more but Tsuna gave him a silencing look.

"I am still against this, Judaime, Reborn-san," Gokudera mused. "We don't even know her. And a kid like her won't be much help."

"We won't know until she wears the ring," Reborn said which earned a lot of whispers from everyone aside from Hibari and Tsuna.

"What ring is it, Reborn-dono?" Basil asked.

"The eighth ring of Vongola which was long forgotten about and not any generation knew of other than the first. Primo kept it locked away in the depths of this castle. It was a bitter reminder of Elena's death which he indirectly caused. Elena used to wear it," Reborn explained further. "The ring of star."

I had to put my hand over my mouth to stifle my laugh. Hibari noticed it and glared at me so the silliness I had felt was quickly washed away and I had to straighten myself. I cleared my throat quietly and said, "Sure, naming the flames after the weathers is cool but star? That's so lame."

Everyone glared at me. Well, Tsuna didn't, at least. That was what's important.

"Alright. Katekyo Hitman Reborn is my favorite anime, okay? Like, my number one," I started explaining. "But this is just a dream. A very realistic dream, for that matter. It's not because I love you guys that I can be your guardian whatsoever. I cannot be in an anime. I am a real person. And also, I need to wake up now since my obaa-chan will surely get mad at me and I still have this cool new anime I am watching. But don't get me wrong, you guys are still my first love. Just... I can't be your seventh guardian. Okay?"

Silence. There was silence for about a minute until Reborn broke it with a sarcastic smirk.

"Nobody said you are going to be the seventh guardian yet, Akari," Reborn said and I felt offended. After my long speech, that's what I would be getting? "We still need to keep an eye on you."

Gokudera snickered but Yamamoto unexpectedly came to my rescue.

"Cut her some slack, Gokudera," Yamamoto said and turned to me. "Sorry, Akari. I thought you were a tourist earlier. But I don't get it. Why are you thinking we are animes?"

"Because you are?" I answered in a questioning tone. To try and hide my embarrassment, I positioned my chin up and acted like I wasn't really affected. "Well, anyway... that's good. Tell me, how did I even get here?"

"Parallel worlds," Reborn said. "You are from a parallel world, Akari. A world where we are existing but not on the same level as you."

I let that sink in for a minute or two. Then I realized, my dream was giving me a bunch of bullshit. "You're kidding, right?"

From inside his coat, Reborn pulled out his pistol and a dangerous light gleamed in his eyes. "I don't kid."

"Hey, Reborn. Don't scare her," Tsuna scolded then looked at me with an apologetic look in his eyes. "Sorry about that."

Reborn didn't listen and didn't put his gun away but he continued explaining. Anytime I would be pissing my skirt. I didn't want to die in a dream.

"Yuni had seen this forecoming," Reborn continued. "She had seen a great war between Vongola and another mafia family who would do everything to take us down. Yuni had seen a seventh guardian of Vongola ending it. It's inexorable but at least it can be stopped."

"So there will be another extreme fight coming," Ryohei pondered the idea in his head. He punched his right palm with his left fist and his eyes were glimmering. "Alright! Count me in to the extreme!"

Lambo whimpered and sat on the floor, holding his head on both sides. "I hate war. I just want to party."

"Calm down, Lambo," Yamamoto consoled. "Tsuna will not ask you to fight. He will never allow it. Right, Tsuna?"

Tsuna gave Lambo a warm smile. "Stand up, Lambo. You don't need to be afraid."

"Can I go now, Tsuna-nii?" Lambo asked as he stood up, though he was still shaking a bit. "I have a party and you know I never turn down an invitation."

Tsuna sighed and looked at Reborn. "He won't need to hear the rest of it, right?"

"Yeah. Go. A crybaby will just get in the way," Reborn said.

Lambo shot him daggers with his eyes. "Goodness, Reborn. You still think of me as a crybaby but someday, I'm gonna kill you."

"Be my guest," Reborn threw his pet Leon, a shape memory chameleon, into the air towards Lambo and it suddenly turned into that of a take-copter, the one that Doraemon used to fly, but Reborn's was green and not yellow.

The take-copter automatically attached itself on top of Lambo's head and without any warning, it dragged him out of the castle screaming. After a moment, the take-copter flew back without Lambo and landed on Reborn's waiting hand and turned into Leon the chameleon again.

"That aho-shi," Gokudera snickered.

"That looked fun!" Yamamoto exclaimed, laughing.

"What an extreme equipment," Ryohei remarked.

Tsuna sighed, Basil laughed awkwardly and Hibari just yawned. They hadn't changed at all.

"We asked Yuni about the seventh guardian but she didn't know whom it would be," Reborn added to the story he was narrating earlier. "All she knows is, the seventh guardian cannot be found here in this world. That is the reason why no other generation had a seventh guardian. That person is not supposed to be in this world."

"Then why did you choose the parallel world I was in? What made you choose me?" I asked. I was thinking that I might as well get all the information I could before waking up.

"In other worlds, it's either we are not existing or we don't know each other. Vongola doesn't exist but we do. Yours is the only world where we exist the way we really do but we are not people. It's better to have it that way so we won't have to explain it from the day I met Tsuna," Reborn answered.

I didn't know if I should laugh or what. He just didn't want to explain to somebody who wouldn't know a thing about them.

"How did you get ahold of a parallel world, anyway, Reborn-san?" Gokudera asked curiously.

"Yeah, how?" Ryohei asked. "Yamamoto and I had been scouting the allied lands for any other attacks from the enemies and Gokudera had been gathering information about them with Basil. Hibari was working on his own. We extremely didn't know anything happening here while we were away."

"Where had you been, Tsuna? I saw Gokudera picked you up earlier," Yamamoto asked.

"I went to the Gesso Family," Tsuna answered simply and maybe it was just me but the dying will flame on his forehead glowed brighter.

Everyone tensed just by hearing the name of Gesso Family.

"Gesso Family?" Gokudera asked, completely alarmed. "You mean... you went to Byakuran? Why didn't you tell me, Judaime?"

"Byakuran and his Gesso family are no longer enemies of Vongola," Tsuna said. "He was the one who lent us his knowledge about parallel worlds after he heard what Yuni told us about the existence of the seventh guardian. He suggested that the guardian could be from a parallel world, and Yuni confirmed it. He was the reason why we made it this far."

"Why did you listen to him, Judaime?" Gokudera asked, all worried. "He was an enemy! You cannot trust him!"

Tsuna sighed, like he already expected to hear this from his right hand man. "Yuni trusts him."

Gokudera was about to argue some more but I decided to cut him off. "Hey, hey, hey. You forgot to answer my question."

"What?!" Gokudera snarled but Tsuna silenced him again with just a simple look. I was liking the older Tsuna more and more.

I took a deep breath to gather my strength. This dream was stressing me. "Why did you choose me?"

Tsuna looked at me and in his bright orange eyes, I could see the many unspeakable things about the world. "Yuni saw the flame in you, Akari."