Fandom: Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

Idea: Powerful Mafioso are dropping dead left and right. There's just one problem: What's killing them? After discovering the source of the deaths, Tsuna and his Guardians have yet another life-or-death situation on their hands, because their Flames are eating them from inside out.

Author's Notes: It's pretty sad, in my opinion anyway.


Email

The evening sun streamed in through the partially-drawn red curtains, leaving strips of light across the Decimo's study. It was quiet, except for the sound of rustling paper and the occasional yawn.

A loud ringtone broke through the suffocating silence, and Tsuna dropped the pen onto the floor in his haste to pick up the phone.

"Hello?"

The caller's voice sounded scratchy and worn out. "Decimo?"

"Shamal!" Tsuna said, worry lines creasing his forehead. "How's the research going?"

"It's… bad," the doctor said, "I'm sorry. It's a bad time for me to deliver even worse news, but I'm afraid it's now or never."

"Have you discovered the source of the deaths?" Tsuna asked, trying and failing to hide the tone of urgency in his voice.

"Yes, but… it the situation isn't very good," the normally flirtatious doctor admitted with a weary sigh. "I'm sending the details to you now."

"Thank you. Your help is much appreciated," Tsuna said honestly, and they hung up.

The brunette had shadows under his eyes and there was a blanket of grief covering the normally upbeat and cheerful Vongola Mansion.

In the past weeks, the most powerful Mafioso had mysteriously died, falling over dead during the most inopportune times. At the beginning, they'd suspected mass assassination attempts, but it had been ruled out once there wasn't a trace of harm on the victim's body.

What worried the Vongola the most, though, was that their boss might die as well.

There was a common trait in the deaths. Those that had suddenly passed away with no signs of physical harm on the outside were all a part of the stronger Mafia community, and they all used Dying Will Flames.

Their boss definitely counted as part of the upper Mafia society in terms of wealth and power—heck, the Guardians did too.

The number of funerals in the past weeks was unbelievable. Just yesterday, they had all donned mournful black outfits and attended Lanchia's funeral.

Tsuna was taking most of the burden out of all of them. He'd hired world-class scientists, and Verde was working to solve this problem as well—everyone was doing their best to find the solution, even normally lazy and picky ones like Shamal.

Even the most stubborn of people could tell that this was a serious situation.

A notification told Tsuna that he'd received an email, and he immediately clicked on it.

To: Vongola Decimo

From: Trident Mosquito

Subject: Dying Will Disease

At this, Tsuna frowned, but brushed the unsettling gut feeling away in favor of continuing down the email.

Recently, the top scientists gathered in a mass meeting to solve the new problem of powerful Flame users mysteriously dying with no detectable cause of death. After three days and nonstop hours of constant researching and experimenting, we've come to the conclusion that all these victims died from what we have named the Dying Will Disease (DWD).

DWD is a new condition that has recently arisen, and while we suspect that it may be the work of someone trying to take down the entire Mafia underground organization, there is no concrete proof. However, by comparing the states of the now dead Mafioso, we are certain that there is only one explanation to their deaths: their own Dying Will Flames.

I assume that you are fully aware of how Dying Will Flames work, so I'll give you a more detailed description on the Flames.

The Lightning Arcobaleno and genius Verde revealed his years of research to us scientists, due to the upcoming threat of death by Flames. While his research is exceedingly impressive, it has also shed the light on our precarious situation regarding our late Mafioso.

The Flames feed off your will, which should be obvious, and also part of your life force. They're the physical embodiment of your inner strength and resolve. This, you should know. However, a secret that's been kept far away from the prying eyes of the power-hungry mafia public (in fact, it was stored in Verde's own secret lab for decades) is that Dying Will Flames are often subconsciously released, to the point where the user no longer as any power over them.

Verde never mentioned this to the public because he simply assumed that the Flames would leak into the air and dissipate, instead of harming the user.

Recent events have brought him to realize that instead of leaking out into the air, Flames like to stay inside of their user's body, flickering until their user dies and they leave, searching for a new user. That's one of the reasons why true power with Flames often skips a generation or two, because the previous user has to die before the Flames are free to seek a new user.

Locked Flames are a state that Flames take before the user learns how to control them properly. If the user's strong, the 'box' of sorts that the Flames stay in would serve as a way to rein in the Flames, and keep them from going wherever they like inside their user's body.

The thing with Flames is that they like power.

They always seek the more promising person, the more powerful person, because much like us, Flames like to be in a top position of power. If you're from a powerful bloodline—like you are, Decimo, since you're directly descended from Vongola Primo—there's a 95% chance that you'll be just as powerful, if not more so, than your ancestor, because their Flames like to seek out their descendants, who'd be just as powerful as their ancestors were.

Our most accurate hypothesis would be that the most powerful Mafioso's Flames have sensed someone even more powerful out there: and they all want to lay claim to him/her first.

Therefore, they begin to rebel against their user, trying to push their way out of what they now think to be a weak body. Our research noticed that all the now dead Mafioso reported to feel 'strong, much stronger now' just before they died, and our guess would be that their now wild Flames allowed them to gain greater control before finally breaking free.

DWD is a disease where your own Flames would eat you from inside out.

If our guess is correct, there's a very dangerous threat towards current Mafia society. Not only that, but if we don't find a cure… the entire Mafia Flame-using population will be wiped out very soon.

And the person all the Flames are flocking to? He or she will have free reign over the Earth, with no one to stop them from conquering all they need.

Respectfully,

Trident Shamal

Tsuna reread the email three times.

He picked up his phone and dialed a number. "Call a meeting," he said, trying to sound calm.

"With who? Everyone."

"By everyone, I mean all the Families."


Teamwork

Groups of people filed into the high-ceilinged room that had once held so many balls and celebrations filled with laughter and music, and friends. The chandelier sparkled in the light as well-dressed Mafioso and their wives and comrades took their seats at the many round tables situated around the room, each with dark crimson roses artfully arranged in the center as a symbol of their mourning.

The meeting hall was strangely quiet, weighed down by immeasurable grief. It was easy to start the meeting—too easy. Tsuna, who had often complained about how rowdy these multi-Family meetings were, would have given up anything for the hall to be noisy again.

Tsuna coughed, adopting his boss-mode. "Good evening, respected ladies and gentlemen," he greeted, "I am pleased to be able to bring the news that there has been a discovery."

He'd hoped for a louder reaction, one that would bring more hope to the subdued Mafioso present, but all he received was a few widening eyes and a few fists clenching in hope.

"I received an email from Trident Shamal regarding this new disease."

Whispers broke out, and Gokudera, who was seated at the closest table to his boss, was the first to speak up. "Tenth," he began hesitantly, "Why is it that only the strongest Mafioso were struck by this disease?"

"Can I answer that after a short explanation?" Tsuna smiled sadly as he received a nod from his right-hand man. "Very well." He cleared his throat again, and gestured for the projector to be turned on.

"I will give a short, summarized explanation on the reason of the Dying Will Disease, which will be abbreviated to DWD. From what Trident Mosquito's email told me, the Flames have tendencies to look for the most powerful user they can find. A powerful user can keep the Flames somewhat restrained in the 'box' of sorts that they had been Locked in, but otherwise, Flames like to be free and travel around their user's body as they wish.

Recently, however, it is suspected that a more powerful person had appeared in the Flames' radar, and all of them want to lay claim to this new person first. Now that they deem their current user weak, they rebel and fight to get out of the body, effectively eating the user from inside out and killing him."

The audience shuddered in sync and Tsuna almost laughed out loud and this small semblance to normalcy.

"That's why all the powerful Mafiosi have died in the past months." Tsuna's voice dropped lower and he sounded dejected. "Their Flames betrayed them."

"Are we in danger, then?" someone asked hesitantly.

Tsuna couldn't resist pinching the bridge of his nose in exhaustion as he answered, "As of now, Trident Shamal, Verde, and our best scientist are working for the cure. They have guessed that if they don't find the cure now, the entire Mafia population would be completely annihilated, one by one."

There were multiple gasps as hardened Mafiosi tried to hold themselves together at this startling new discovery.

"I thought that a person can only have one Flame type?" Gokudera asked, and the high-class crowd calmed down enough to listen to Tsuna's answer.

"It should be impossible to have more than one Flame type," Tsuna's gaze turned sharp. "If the cure isn't found and the person isn't killed, not only will we be dead but the entire world will be left to his mercy."

"You're saying…" Lambo almost looked like he was going to burst out in silent tears. "He'll literally be unstoppable?"

"We can't let that happen!" Yamamoto burst out, "It's not fair to the normal civilians of the world!"

"That's true," Tsuna agreed, smiling at his Guardians. "That's why I have sworn to myself to win this battle."

Everyone raised their glasses and cheered, and Tsuna was glad that they tried to look on the bright side of things—not that there really was any.

"We have to," Gokudera said, looking serious as he set the glass down on the table and stood up. "I'm going to go research."

Tsuna felt a surge of pride towards his Guardians and faced the room once more. "This time," he addressed them, unconsciously going into full boss-mode, "We're not just fighting for our lives. We're fighting for our world, our family, and most importantly, the world's future. This could be a turning point for the world as we know it—it's up to us to decide whether it shall be good or bad. Are you willing to join me?" Tsuna raised his glass of wine, and felt overwhelming relief at the cheers that echoed back.

"Let's do it together."


Allies

Teamwork was something rarely seen in the shady underground Mafia society. Families liked to stay cold and aloof, preferring to keep to themselves and plot out their way to the top.

Tsuna was glad that his allied families were good people, ones that didn't do slave trading or illegal—oh, who was he kidding, the Mafia was illegal all by itself—but his allied Families didn't kill for fun or go on massacres, which Tsuna was grateful for.

They'd showed him that all of the Mafia wasn't entirely a bad place.

After the meeting most of them had come up to the Decimo and assured him that they'd try their best in this seemingly hopeless situation.

Strangely, it felt more like they were working on the right side of the law, which was an alien feeling to many people who'd been affiliated with the Mafia for the majority of their lives. Gokudera had voiced this out loud.

"We're doing something for the good of the world," he said in an awed tone.

Needless to say, Tsuna was amused. "Have you forgotten about Byakuran?" he asked, as the two strode down the corridor.

"Not as much as I'd like to," Gokudera admitted. "Still," he adopted an expression of utmost seriousness, "Is this true?"

"Which part? The Dying Will Disease, or the potential threat that's looming up in our future?"

"The threat."

"Unfortunately, both are true. It's unimaginable, isn't it? This… betraying Flames thing."

"It's definitely not something I ever imagined would happen."h

"Shamal has promised to contact me the second they find a lead."

"I hope they find one soon." Gokudera's grimace turned even darker. "I don't want to see someone die like that again."

Okay, so most of you probably read through this and thought, 'this is entirely wrong! That's not how Dying Will Flames work!' but I had to bend their properties a bit to fit this particular fanfic. Sorry for the confusion! Also, I think I should stick to happy stories… O~O This is way too serious for my writing style and tastes!

And yes, dark crimson roses do indeed represent mourning.