Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.

Blazing Sun:

To be the brightly shining Sun that casts light upon the darkness.

The Vongola Tenth had set up a room specially to honor the fallen. It was a place where their comrades could remember those who had given their lives to protect the Family. Display cases lined every wall—some were empty, many were not. They held photos, charms, favorite guns—anything and everything the ones who survived thought characterized the deceased; the items placed on the other side of the glass were mementos that would keep their memories alive.

Gokudera was there now, standing before a long glass case at the far end of the office—a tribute to Yamamoto. He had retrieved the blade used in his disposal of the Millefiore soldier, one of the spares Yamamoto had taken into the field that night. Upon closer inspection, one-fourth of its length had snapped off and multiple cracks ran along its edge. In the end, they had decided not to include it. Instead, a baseball bat and a bamboo sword were on display. The bat still retained the good condition of a decade ago, when the game had been the most important thing in Yamamoto's life; the sword was the one Yamamoto's father had given him when he succeeded the Shigure Soen style. Both items represented the things of importance to the former Rain Guardian, but not everything that had defined the man had been placed inside.

"Who's going to succeed the Shigure Soen style now, you idiot?" he asked the empty room. Turning away, Gokudera left the quiet office, two new additions to his arsenal dangling from chains at his belt.

Returning to his duties, Gokudera began making his rounds, checking on all the lookout stations to make sure the guards were vigilant; this was not the time to be playing cards and watching football games. The safety of the compound was the first priority, and the camera feeds needed an eye on them at all times. Although recently, they had discovered even that wasn't enough. But it was still better than doing nothing at all.

As he was passing by the gates to the compound, a furious pounding ensued from the tall steel doors. It was accompanied by shouting at a volume of which only one person was capable.

Someone from the nearest post radioed down to the guards at the gate. "It's the Sun Guardian and he's injured!"

The men on the ground immediately set about pulling open the heavy doors. When the loudest of the Guardians stumbled inside, just barely managing to keep a limp body from sliding off his back, the gathered personnel could only stare. As the man collapsed on the cobbled ground a moment later, the crack of kneecaps against stone finally roused the onlookers into action, and someone rushed over to examine the Sun Guardian's injuries.

The lookout reported seeing pillars of smoke rising in the distance, in the approximate area where a nearby town was located. Gokudera ordered ten men to investigate the disturbance and take any necessary measures to ensure the townspeople's safety. He made sure some of those deployed were flame users, in case they came across the enemy. When they were gone, he turned his attention back to the two figures lying on the ground.

There were stringent security measures in place for members who were returning from the outside. These measures were set in place to ensure that all who entered the headquarters were indeed Vongola or from an allied Family, and not an illusionist attempting to infiltrate the castle.

Of course, the Sun Guardian had just blasted those regulations to smithereens—as always.

"What's the password?" Gokudera asked the man who wore Ryohei's features.

"I've forgotten it to the extreme!"

Gokudera winced at being subjected to the high volume in such close proximity. "What's the password?" He asked again, unwilling to forsake this last precaution.

"Sir, we need to get him to the medical bay," a subordinate told him.

"Not until he gets it right," he said sternly.

He saw the men exchange nervous glances with one another, their weapons pointed uncertainly at the Sun Guardian as per orders.

There was a long moment of silence, punctuated by the contorted expressions upon the boxer's features as he racked his mind; they would have been comical, had it not been for the dirt and grime that plastered his face. Just when Gokudera thought the man would explode with the effort, Ryohei opened his mouth and another denial came forth in a great bellow.

"I've really forgotten it to the exteme!"

Gokudera could have sworn Ryohei's voice was echoing off the walls that surrounded the courtyard, traveling to the forest lining the field and down to the town in the distance. In the end, he finally granted his permission, allowing the injured Guardian to be taken to the base's infirmary along with the person brought in on his back.

As stretchers carried the two people into the main building, Gokudera reasoned to himself that the password had been a flimsy precaution at best, and the true Ryohei would not have been able to recall it anyway.


After he had told Tsuna about Ryohei's return and his injured state, Tsuna had immediately dropped everything and rushed to the medical bay. Now, the two of them stood by Ryohei's bedside, waiting anxiously as the doctor went over every inch of the man.

After a thorough examination, it was declared that Ryohei's injuries were not serious—merely scratches compared to some of the wounds he had received in the past—much to the relief of the others. According to the doctor, the best treatment for him was suitable rest; his body would do the rest.

Time and rest—they were luxuries best left to the dead, because the living couldn't afford them in the midst of a war. However, Gokudera knew that their Boss would only worry more if the idiot wore himself out doing something he wasn't supposed to, so he said nothing. Besides, the boxer would do them no good until he had regained his strength.

The doctor proceeded to clean Ryohei's wounds and stitch up the larger ones. The Guardian gritted his teeth and didn't say anything as the needle pulled through his skin repeatedly. Watching the procedure, Gokudera had to commend the guy for his stoic attitude. At least he was taking the pain like a man, unlike a certain crybaby Gokudera could name. When the doctor left the room, Ryohei suddenly spoke.

"Promise me one thing, Sawada. Promise me that Kyoko will be safe."

"Don't worry, brother. My dad already took Mom and the girls to a safe place. They'll have new identities and lead safe lives."

"Good. I knew I could count on you." With that, Ryohei closed his eyes and appeared to doze off.

For some reason, this statement left Gokudera with an ominous feeling. He did his best to shake it off; it was probably just paranoia on his part, after what had happened to Yamamoto. He then left his comrade to his slumber and headed to the next subject of his ever-lengthening To-Do List.

He had wanted to hold an interrogation with the stranger as soon as the two had entered the compound, but Ryohei had insisted that it was unnecessary. Well, Ryohei wasn't here to protest now, and Gokudera had to make sure this was not the enemy's attempt to infiltrate the base.

Entering the patient's room, Gokudera took a seat by the door and waited for the doctor to complete his examination. Once finished, the doctor reported the patient's condition to the right-hand man. It was more or less the same as Ryohei's had been. And since Gokudera didn't exactly have the best-known bedside manner, he was politely reminded to please not light any explosives while he was around expensive medical equipment. Then, with an uneasy glance back, the doctor exited the room, leaving Gokudera alone with the figure lying on the bed.

The town at the foot of the slope had been attacked by Millefiore forces—for what reason, he didn't know. It could have simply been because they were close to the stronghold, and the attack was to make the Vongola feel weak and powerless. By the time the team he had sent down to the town had arrived, it was already too late. The Millefiore had been long gone by that point, but they'd left a path of destruction in their wake. The townspeople had been massacred and the buildings had been set aflame. Only one person had survived, rescued by Ryohei, who had been on his way back to the Vongola base when he noticed the disturbance and went to investigate.

Gokudera moved his seat to the bedside. The screech of the chair legs against the linoleum should have alerted the person to his presence, but there was no indication of such.

"I know you're awake," he said to the back facing him.

After a moment, the person turned so that she faced the ceiling, splaying dark hair across the white pillow; closed lids opened to reveal large violet eyes. He surveyed the woman before him. Her skin bore scrapes and darkening bruises, but aside from those and one bandaged area on her lower arm, she was unharmed. The doctor had informed him that the injury on her arm was a long gash, but luckily there were no signs of infection; and it wasn't deep, so it would heal without problems.

Taking a thin black recording device out of his pocket, he placed it on the stand beside the bed. Her eyes followed the movement, but no other reaction was forthcoming, and her face remained completely impassive. With the press of a button, the device began to record.

"Tell me what happened today," he said, pad and pen at the ready.

When there was no response from the woman, he slammed his fist on the stand to get her attention, but the impact only startled her, causing her to cringe away from him and curl her body in on itself as if she was afraid she would be next. Taking in the fear prominent in her eyes, Gokudera cursed. Remembering that he had new responsibilities now, he took a deep breath and tried to ease the scowl on his features. He imagined the tranquil blue waves that flowed through his body calming his fiery temper, and repeated the request with what he hoped was a soothing tone. After what he felt was an inordinate amount of coaxing, she slowly unfurled herself little by little.

The progress was slow, and he had to resist the urge to shout at her for it; it would probably only cause her to retreat back into her shell. He couldn't help but think that Yamamoto would have had much better luck at this—he immediately pushed that thought back. Keeping the impatience at bay, Gokudera kept up the tedious task until she finally recounted her tale.


"The girl's name is Tanaka Nagi. She was born and raised in Japan, but was sent to Italy to live with distant relatives after being involved in a traffic accident. While she suffered no serious injuries, her parents felt that a different environment would be more suitable for her recovery. For the past ten years, she has lived with an uncle and aunt in the town below us. A thorough background check was done on her, and she came up clean." Gokudera looked up from the document in his hand once his report was finished.

"Is she okay?" Tsuna asked from behind his desk, looking concerned.

"The doctor says she'll recover."

Tsuna nodded, and some of the worry that creased his forehead eased. He then asked, "What about the attack yesterday?"

Gokudera slipped a file from the pile wedged under his arm and opened it. "By the time our agents arrived on the scene, the town had been set ablaze with what was determined to be storm attribute flames, like the attack that had taken out our floodlights. Rain box weapons—our newest prototypes from the development lab—were used to quell the flames."

"The town had no affiliation with the Vongola. Why would the Millefiore attack it?"

"They did it because they knew the Tenth would be wounded by their attack, and it would deal a blow to the Family's morale when a town of innocent people suffered in our stead. This is just the Millefiore's style—ruthless."

"Were there any survivors?" Tsuna asked in a low voice.

"The woman was the only one. She had been running from the Millefiore soldiers when Turf-Top found her. He managed to defeat the ones who were pursuing her, but there were at least thirty of them in the town, and he had to retreat. The others… Our men searched every inch of the place… Not even the children or elderly were spared," Gokudera replied with barely contained anguish.

"We should have had people down there, Gokudera. Guarding the town. This is my fault…" Tsuna cradled his head in his hands, the picture of despair.

"We couldn't have known the Millefiore would attack them."

Although logical, the words offered neither man comfort.

"You're right. Thank you, Gokudera," Tsuna said, appearing composed once more.

Gokudera certainly didn't feel as if he deserved his Boss' gratitude, so he simply inclined his head and left the office.

Over the next few days, Gokudera increased the patrols around the compound and the surrounding land in hopes that the extra vigilance would prevent another surprise attack. He needed to be careful not to spread their forces too thin, but he had to at least do something. They had already been caught off guard twice in the span of two weeks; he wasn't about to let it happen again. But there were no further attacks during this time, and Ryohei was able to focus on recuperating under the medical staff's care. However, the staff seemed to be more worn out at the end of each day than the patient, and several had even put in complaints to Gokudera in hopes that he could talk to the other Guardian.

Gokudera could tell that several days of being confined to bed did not agree with the man. Twice already, Ryohei had been caught trying to sneak out of his room in order to complete his daily training regimen. The fact that there was a two-story drop from his window didn't seem to faze the restless man. Even as Gokudera stood outside the sick room, he could see the nurses trying unsuccessfully to stop Ryohei from doing sit-ups on the floor and to return to his bed.

Getting fed up with their inefficiency, Gokudera decided to take matters into his own hands. Five long strides took him to Ryohei's side, where he joined in the effort. But despite his contributions of yelling, swearing, and increasingly violent threats, the result was the same.

"You should be in bed, you idiot!" Gokudera said for what felt like the fiftieth time since he had entered the room.

"I've been in bed for the past week! I can't take it anymore!"

"It's only been three days, and you'll never get better if you don't rest!"

"I'll never get better if I don't train!"

"That makes no sense, you dumbass."

"I make extreme sense! That is the boxer's way!"

Gokudera smacked his palm against his forehead.

Five minutes into the argument, and Ryohei was on his third set of sit-ups, while Gokudera was ready to knock the stubborn idiot out and simply toss him back onto the bed. He figured a concussion could only help matters at this point. He was just about to threaten the boxer again when a nurse appeared in the doorway.

"Excuse me, sir, but the doctor has requested that you meet him in the female patient's room," she said, looking at the Storm Guardian.

He frowned. Had something happened to the woman? Or had she done something—had she escaped? As soon as the thought occurred to him—that maybe she had been an enemy infiltrator after all—he tore down the hall to the other side of the medical bay where her room was located.

When he threw the door open, it was with some relief that he realized the woman was still lying on the bed, the doctor leaning over her. Regaining his composure, he strode to the doctor's side. That was when Gokudera noted the woman's labored breathing, how her previously pale skin was now flushed pink, and the heat that radiated from her in waves. Her eyes were open, but they appeared so dim, he couldn't tell if she actually saw anything of what went on around her.

"Does she have a fever?" a voice asked from behind.

Gokudera turned to find Ryohei peering over his shoulder, having apparently followed him from the other room. He rolled his eyes, but didn't bother telling the guy off, knowing it would only be a wasted effort.

"The symptoms would indicate so," the doctor began, "but her recuperation was going smoothly. There were no indicators leading up to this condition. It's almost as if it simply came on overnight."

He motioned for a nurse, and she walked over with a set of test tubes and a needle. After he had taken a sample of the woman's blood, he hooked her up to a ventilator and led the Guardians outside the room.

"Do you have any idea what it could be?" Gokudera asked.

The doctor shook his head. "We'll run some additional tests on her blood to see what it could be. But for now, all we can do is keep her under surveillance and hope her condition doesn't get worse."

"While you're at it, you should also test this idiot," Gokudera said, jerking a thumb at Ryohei beside him.

"I don't need tests, I am extremely fine!" Ryohei declared, causing Gokudera to cringe.

"Didn't you hear him, dumbass? He said the woman was perfectly fine too when this suddenly happened!"

"It would probably be best if we checked, just in case," the doctor added. "The two of you came in together, so it's possible that you were infected without realizing it, and it just hasn't hit yet."

Grudgingly, Ryohei agreed to the tests, although he still insisted he was perfectly healthy.


Two days later, Ryohei was back on his feet and as energetic as ever; some things never changed. Watching him bouncing around the courtyard, as happy to be out of the hospital as the doctors and nurses were to have him gone, Gokudera felt the knot in his stomach ease a little.

The woman's condition, however, had not shown any improvements since the onset of her strange condition. Once he had found out about her illness, Tsuna had personally gone down to check up on her, leaving Gokudera to watch by a window in the hall, looking down at the antics of the overly energetic Guardian.

When Ryohei returned inside, Gokudera just figured he had just gotten bored of running around and punching the air like an idiot. But a few minutes later, the man reappeared at the end of the hall and began heading straight for him. With a groan, he glanced toward the closed door opposite the window, willing his Boss to emerge from within. When that didn't happen, he turned in the opposite direction and quickly walked away in an attempt to escape the oncoming nuisance. Luck was not on his side, however; the boxer had already caught up.


Although she had been asleep, he still assured her everyone was doing their utmost to figure out what was wrong and make her better. Taking in her weak and frail appearance, Tsuna felt the helplessness that came with being physically unable to do to anything to aid the situation. It was a feeling that had become all too frequent lately. Patting her hand comfortingly, he got up to leave. When he opened the door, he saw Ryohei and Gokudera standing outside.

"How is she, Sawada?" Ryohei asked.

Tsuna shook his head to indicate that there had been no change. "What are you doing here, brother?"

"Since I've fully recovered now, I thought maybe I could try healing her with my sun flames," Ryohei answered.

"And I told him it was a stupid idea, because he should be conserving his energy for the next Millefiore attack," Gokudera interjected, looking to Tsuna for agreement.

Tsuna, however, had grasped onto the boxer's suggestion with something akin to hope. "Do you think it could really work?"

"We won't find out until we try," Ryohei replied.

Just then, a movement in the distance caught Gokudera's eye. "Hey, doc!" he called out, waving the doctor over to their group. "We should at least get a professional medical opinion first," he said, privately hoping the guy would shoot this plan down.

The doctor addressed the Vongola Boss politely, "Is there anything I can do for you, Tenth?"

"Ah, yes. We were thinking of letting Ryohei try to heal the patient with his sun flames, but we wanted your opinion first."

The doctor appeared curious. "I've heard about the healing properties of these sun flames. It almost sounds too spectacular to be true."

"It sounds like he thinks we shouldn't do it. Oh well, we tried."

"That's not what he said, Octopus-head!"

"You just don't know how to read between the lines, muscle-head!"

Tsuna tried to calm his two friends, afraid their shouting was disturbing the patient in the room behind him.

"Uh… If I may?" the doctor interrupted the two arguing men. When they had turned their attention to him, he continued. "The fact is, we still haven't found what's afflicting Miss Tanaka. And despite giving her the usual treatment for the symptoms she's showing, they've had no effect. If these sun flames are as reliable as I've heard, perhaps they can do what our medicine can't."

"Then let's hurry," Tsuna urged.

The group entered the woman's room. Despite the earlier noise, she had not awoken.

Ryohei sat down on the chair by the bed. Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out a yellow box from within. Forming his hand into a fist, a yellow flame flared from the Vongola Ring on his finger. The flame was inserted into the box's opening; the folds shot open, leaving a small glowing scalpel in his bandaged palm.

First, he un-wrapped the bandages on the girl's arm until her bare limb was exposed. Although it had been nearly a week since she had gotten the injury, her wound still looked fresh, as if it had not healed at all. Ryohei applied the blade of the scalpel to the wound, slowly running it across her skin. After a few seconds, her arm had formed a scab where the skin was joined together with stitches. Soon after, the scab began to fall off in flakes, leaving a faint scar behind. It appeared that things were proceeding smoothly.

Just as the assembled men were sighing in relief, the monitors that were hooked up to the patient began beeping urgently, startling the group. Before anyone could figure out what was going on, the woman's slim frame started thrashing violently on the pallet; every part of her body seemed to move independently of the rest, flying in all directions before crashing back down with great force, and then lifting up again to continue the frantic dance.

The doctor rushed forward, pushing aside Ryohei to get to the patient. He spread his arms out and ordered everyone to stay back. He then rolled the woman onto her side.

"What's happening?"

"She's having some sort of seizure."

"Shouldn't we hold her down or something?"

"No! That could result in injury. Somebody get me a nurse!"

Ryohei turned to do as asked, but ended up collapsing on the floor. A second later, he began mimicking the woman. It was as if some unseen force was causing his body to lift from the ground before forcing him to crash back onto the hard linoleum floor.

"Shit," the doctor muttered. "Somebody help me get him on the other bed!"

Gokudera ran over to his friend and grabbed his legs, the doctor had him beneath the arms, and Tsuna had his arms wrapped around Ryohei's midsection. Together, the three of them lifted the violently flailing man and quickly placed him on the slightly softer surface of the hospital bed before rolling him onto his side as well. Then they watched and waited.

A minute later, the woman's movements had stopped; Ryohei's followed soon after. Just then, a nurse rushed into the room, having noticed the abnormalities on her monitor outside. The doctor immediately began giving her instructions.

"What the fuck is going on? What the hell just happened?" Gokudera demanded.

The doctor didn't reply. Instead, he checked the woman's breathing and searched for signs of any injuries acquired in the episode. Gokudera noticed the man leaning further down to examine something, so he walked over with Tsuna for a closer view.

There was a collective intake of breath when they saw what had caught the man's attention. Her newly-formed scar had turned black along its edges, with inky lines leading from the sides, coloring the veins in her arm and spreading out in all directions. They reached down to her hand and up to her upper arm.

"This can't be," the doctor muttered. "We checked her for infection. This wasn't here before."

Moving over to Ryohei, who had lost consciousness at some point, the doctor checked the areas where his injuries had been, but found no abnormalities on his skin. When he untied the bandages on the boxer's hands, he began muttering to himself. Tsuna and Gokudera could only stand on the sidelines and wait for an explanation.

When the doctor finally reported his preliminary findings, it didn't shed much light on what had caused the reactions they had witnessed.

"Judging by its location… I would guess some sort of infection." He lifted up a slender arm, pointing at the lines that stained the skin. "See how the lines originate from where her wound used to be?" Next, he waved them over to Ryohei's bedside and showed them what he had discovered.

The sight shocked both men. There were black lines tracing the veins in the boxer's hands. Pushing up the jacket's sleeve, it could be seen that they had spread upward as well. But unlike the woman, the black lines on Ryohei's body appeared to have begun in his hand, spreading up his arm from there.

"Does this mean her infection spread to Ryohei when he used his flames to heal her?" Tsuna asked anxiously. "Is that even possible?"

"It shouldn't be. There was no physical contact with the wound itself, and there was no opening in his hand for the infection to enter his system." The doctor paused, looking troubled. "But to be honest, I've never seen anything like this, so I… I don't know what to think."


Once Ryohei had awoken, they had questioned him about the attack, but he didn't remember much—just his knees buckling under him all of a sudden, then an excruciating pain, before waking up to everyone hovering over him. Much to his displeasure, the Sun Guardian had been put back on bed rest less than twelve hours after he'd just checked out.

The episode in the medical bay had left everyone shaken. Ever since that day, the staff had been tirelessly trying to find the source of the seizures. New blood samples had been taken from both patients, as well as everyone else who had been in the room that day. Tsuna, Gokudera, and the doctor's blood had come up clean, and they showed no signs of suffering the same ailment. When Ryohei and the woman had been re-tested, they were found to have some type of poison in their bloodstream, and the black lines on their skin were determined to be the paths of the poison in their bodies.

They had gathered in Ryohei's room that evening to hear the results of the tests, because the Sun Guardian had insisted he had a right to know. That was when they were informed that the poison had been minimal in the two patients' bloodstream prior to the attack, not enough to have had such a powerful impact. In fact, it had had almost no impact at all until the other day. But after the attack, their blood showed increased amounts of the foreign substance. From the looks of how the black lines spread more across their skin each day, the poison continued to multiply, albeit at a slower pace, and provoked no more attacks on its hosts.

"Now it's active, and will continue to spread through their bodies until…" the doctor stopped speaking, but the unspoken words hung in the air between the room's occupants. "What we haven't managed to figure out is why it took so long to activate. Perhaps if we knew that, we could understand a little more about how this poison worked—"

"The poison was activated," Gokudera mumbled. He was staring so intently at Ryohei that he didn't notice everyone else had turned their attention to him. "Activated…"

The others exchanged confused looks.

"Yeah, what about it?" Ryohei asked impatiently.

"Isn't the sun flame's property activation?" Gokudera asked.

"You think there were sun flames in the poison?"

He took a moment to mull it over before finally shaking his head. "Not originally, no. The doc said there wasn't enough poison in your bodies to do anything. In fact, you were even well enough to check out earlier that morning."

"Then where—" Ryohei's eyes widened as he looked down at the metal band he wore. "You're saying they were my sun flames. I caused the poison to spread?"

Gokudera nodded. "It's the only explanation that makes sense. That's why it only caused a reaction when you started to heal the woman."

"But wait, the poison has been multiplying since then. Even if brother's flame caused it to attack, it shouldn't be able to multiply the poison. That's not a property of the sun flame."

"No, but what flame does have that attribute?" Gokudera asked, waiting for his words to sink in.

"The cloud's propagation!"

He nodded. "I think the poison was infused with cloud flames. The woman had it in her system, but the amount wasn't much, so it took a while for symptoms to show, like the fever and her wound not healing. Ryohei didn't contract it from her—he already had it, just in an even smaller dose. Then thanks to the sun flames—one summoning and one receiving—the propagation speed increased dramatically, causing seizures in both of them."

"Wait," the doctor interrupted. "Is that even possible? The poison shouldn't be able to replicate at all, and you're saying that these cloud flames can cause non-living organisms to…?" He didn't finish his sentence, because the expressions on the others' faces had already given him his answer.

This was like nothing they had ever seen before, and the room fell into a deep silence at the implications.


Gokudera scanned the area from a tower window, an agitated scowl on his features as he rubbed his eyes tiredly. It was too damn early for this crap. He had just received news that Ryohei had snuck out of his room again—to train, no doubt. He could understand the desire to stay in shape, especially given the current situation, but who knew what could set off another attack by the poison? Why couldn't that idiot just get it through his thick skull that he was in no condition for these things right now?

Although the Storm Guardian would never admit it, recent events had frightened him. He had thought he was going to lose another friend. The worst part was he wouldn't have even been able to do anything to prevent it, because despite their theories on the custom-made poison, they provided little help in the lab, and there was no progress made in creating an antidote. But they weren't going to give up; he had faith that there would be a breakthrough soon, and then Turf-Top could recover.

From his vantage point, Gokudera was able to spot the guards down below begin to stir. Something was approaching the compound from the distance. Through the binoculars he was handed, Gokudera was able to zoom in on the large animal hopping purposefully across the field.

It was Ryohei's summoned box weapon, its fur shimmering with a familiar yellow glow; the man himself was nowhere to be seen.

That idiot. Was he trying to provoke another attack?

By the time they had established that no enemies were tailing the animal, it was admitted into the courtyard. Several of the guards watched it from their posts, their eyes wide, never having seen a box animal so far from its owner, so far from its energy source.

Gokudera approached the kangaroo, wondering what it had been doing all the way out in the field, and why it had come back without its partner. The kangaroo appeared to recognize Gokudera, because upon seeing him, the marsupial reached into its pouch. Producing something cupped in its forepaws, it offered the item to the Guardian.

Gokudera had to fight the urge to draw back, his breath caught in his lungs.

"What direction did the box animal come from?" he snapped.

"The direction of the town," someone answered from above.

The town. That muscle-head.

Barking out sharp commands, he assembled a team to retrieve the Sun Guardian before he did something stupid—which was only inevitable whenever Ryohei was involved.

They set out immediately, a small group of five—enough to be a formidable force without hampering the compound's defenses. Incensed that the impulsive man had snuck out of the base and was knowingly endangering himself by using his flames, Gokudera led the retrieval team himself.

Halfway there, a brilliant light burst over the treetops from the direction of the town. The illumination was so pure it put the real sun to shame.

"Did anybody else hear that?" someone asked.

"Yeah, I heard it too. It almost sounds like… roaring," another man replied.

With mounting trepidation, Gokudera rushed forward, one arm raised to protect his eyes from the brightness. He kept running—pushing his men, pushing himself—until they reached the town. They made their way onto a broad cobblestoned street, and then cautiously proceeded toward the town square, which was the largest open space in the town. They met no opposition in the street or from the ruins of buildings on either side.

When the team finally reached the square, the sight that met them stopped them in their tracks. In the center lay at least a couple dozen black husks. If not for the obvious limbs that protruded from the main body, they might not have even been recognizably human. The men spread out to examine the bodies. The Millefiore soldiers were easily discerned by their uniforms and Family crest, and their remains comprised most of the bodies. They found one figure not sporting a crest, with its arms wrapped around a soldier's waist on the ground. The men didn't know who the person could be, but the slender frame indicated it wasn't the Sun Guardian.

While his men conducted their search, Gokudera walked between the corpses toward the other side of the plaza. All the bodies were facing this direction when they fell, so he followed the trail until he came upon the one figure that faced the opposite direction. Like all the others, the body was almost charred beyond recognition. Its position aside, this figure was nearly indiscernible from the multiple others that decorated the area, except that this one didn't bear the Millefiore insignia.

Carefully, Gokudera knelt before the body, lifting one blackened arm. When he saw what he had already known would be there, tears rolled down his face.

"We could have found a cure, damn it! Why didn't you wait?" he whispered hoarsely.

For on the right hand, he had found the sun Vongola Ring. Black smears defaced the once-beautiful ring, a permanent reminder of the star that had burned itself out; one last blaze of glory before the glimmering flame that was the Sun had flickered and died.