Warning(s): AU, OC-centric, violence, language, (and will forever be) GEN
Alternate Summary: When the forgotten girl takes her first step into a new world and finds nothing and no-one but strange things and strangers, she refuses to lose hope. The power of the Tri-ni-set is beyond measure, after all. And exactly that is proven when she comes across Fon, the calm before the storm, a child with a pacifier dangling around his neck - a pacifier that she has never seen before in her life but still, somehow, recognizes. She figures that, if she tails the wind for a while, it might carry her to the sky - where she might finally, finally receive some answers that have long been overdue.
Author's Note: Wow, why are all of the original characters of KHR so OOC and why is all of the logic skewed. I fail so hard. Sorry this chapter took really long, by the way - end of school is coming up, as are tests and personal projects and another story for fanfiction I wanna get around to.
I've probably put in, like, around 20,000 words for this story so far. And here I thought I wouldn't spend a lot of time on this. ;-; Although I guess it's okay because I don't actually edit my chapters a lot so it still turns out bad when I look it over, like, the next day.
Anyway, reviews, follows, and favorites are all appreciated!
Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn!.
It takes a week for them to get settled in.
Actually, it takes more than a week for Fon, but Tianshi seems to blend with the chaotic atmosphere just fine. If anything, it's Tsuna's family that has to struggle a bit in order to accommodate the new residents.
On the first day, Tsuna awakens to a barrage of deadly gunfire that has him shrieking and tumbling face-first onto the floor, and later down the stairs to eat breakfast and go educate himself - something he still dearly needs to do, in the world's greatest hitman's modest opinion. He notes, however, that Tianshi isn't the slightest bit fazed by his student's unnatural entrance, and is already awake and watching the street through the window from her bed-couch.
Nor is she frightened by the grenades that accidentally drop like stones from Lambo's hair as he struggles to find his lollipop in the mass of black locks. Luckily, they don't go off, which has to be a first.
In contrast to what he had predicted, Tianshi and Lambo get along fairly well. The idiot cow is reeled in when the girl returns after a walk with Fon and I-Pin, a large bag of candy in hand - filled to the brim with assortments of sweets only native to Japan, which she consents to share with him. She repeats the routine of bringing food home for the next couple of days, in which the Bovino swiftly becomes eager to greet her after her explorations around town.
It's not much of a friendship and more of an advantage for the cow, but Tianshi likes to ruffle his hair when she steps through the front door and Lambo doesn't mind, even if the gesture humbles him somewhat.
Then again, maybe Lambo is too stupid to realize such a thing. Reborn thinks it's a likely possibility.
Over the next several days, Fon and Tianshi are often absorbed into the discord that surrounds them, whether they desire it or not. Usually, Fon becomes part of whatever pandemonium has sprung up when his student is a part of it, too, and Tianshi soon follows because she's a little more attached to Fon than with I-Pin.
They're getting there, though. I-Pin, at least, is eager to befriend the masked girl, who is a dear friend of her master. Tianshi's own emotions are difficult to read, even for him, but she always agrees when the young assassin offers to take her on a tour of a different part of Namimori.
Either way, it's very much like a chain - Fon, then I-Pin, and then Tianshi. Reborn's interest spikes when Fon indulges in more of the children's games than he usually would, and is slightly more tolerant and slightly more amused at the overall madness that contradicts his own alliance with tranquility.
On the second day, when Tianshi comes back to the house for dinner instead of eating outside, Fon takes one look at the familiar mask, beastly and black-eyed, making its way onto the porch, and tells Mama that one more person will be joining them today, but she will not have to make any more steak. It turns out that Tianshi is a vegetarian.
As she opens the door and makes her way to an empty seat at the dining table, Tsuna and Gokudera turn to her with identical expressions of confusion. "You're eating here?" the Storm Guardian asks.
"Fon tells me that Sawada-san is making salad today," she replies, easing herself into the seat next to Yamamoto.
Mama bustles in at the mention of her name, apron steaming with a delightful aroma. "Oh, there's no reason to be so formal! Just Nana is fine, or Mama, if you prefer." She offers a sunny smile. "You should have told me you were a vegetarian sooner! I could have made a few more vegetable dishes!"
Tianshi just shakes her head. "You do not have to trouble yourself just for me, Nana-san."
Giggling, the older woman leans forward to pat her bun with her oven mitt. "I suppose 'Nana-san' will do for now. And trust me, it's not problem at all!"
As she disappears and re-enters with a multitude of dishes in hand, Ryohei energetically compliments the menu and Lambo squeals in delight. Everyone else murmurs their gratitude and appreciation as they pass the plates down the table, Yamamoto in particular rising to assist Nana in balancing all of the dishes like the gentleman he can be.
Gokudera and Tsuna, on the other hand, completely disregard the food in favor of leaning closer to their left, staring at Tianshi with wide eyes as if she's some sort of interesting alien specimen. Reborn almost kicks his student in the head for being disrespectful, but then notices the devious smirk spreading across Fon's face and the attentive look Yamamoto suddenly bears.
He doesn't think he's ever seen anything so evil in the Storm Arcobaleno's eyes before.
Bianchi, Ryohei, Lambo, and Nana are the only people focused on digging into the food in front of them. Bianchi cuts into her slice of steak - even she isn't insane enough to enjoy her own cooking - with deliberately delicate strokes, seemingly uninterested in the sudden gravity of the moment spreading across the table.
Meanwhile, Tianshi picks up a spoon and gathers some asparagus.
She stabs at one with her fork and holds it up, admiring the light seasoning that dapples the stem and the rich sauce dripping from the end of the shoot.
Two seats away, Gokudera makes a sound that resembles a choke. Fon's smirk widens, as does Reborn's as he reclines in his chair to observe what seems to be the most exciting event of the day.
After a tense silence, the little girl brings the leafy vegetable closer to her mask. She lifts the tiger from her face, just a fraction, but enough for her to slip the fork piercing the centimeter-wide legume into the small space between the plastic and her mouth.
Unfortunately, the fraction of space is too small for anyone, even Reborn, to catch a glimpse of her facial features without supernatural eyesight.
Tianshi chews, and the tiger turns a little to face all of them. "It is very good."
"You," Gokudera hisses indignantly from his precarious position, practically bowed over the tabletop. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?!"
Behind the bomber, Tsuna plants his face into his plate - thankfully empty - out of sheer exasperation. I-Pin blinks in the adjacent seat, while Yamamoto just leans back and laughs into the air.
His own smirk pulls tightly across his cheeks as Fon chuckles merrily, jabbing his fork at Tianshi from directly across the table. "Don't smile," he says, trying to sound stern but failing as hints of humor flutter in his voice. "You're torturing them, you know. It's rather impudent."
"Impudence is a characterization of the youthful, my elder," Tianshi says, completely blank-voiced as she stabs at a piece of fish.
Later, after the dishes are washed and Reborn is lying lazily in his hammock, surveying the velvet night sweeping across the sky and somewhat lost in his thoughts, he goes over Fon's words in his head once more - and realizes that, with her mask, Fon shouldn't have been able to see if Tianshi had smiled or not.
But Tianshi hadn't contradicted him. Which means that Fon had just taken a shot in the dark and happened to be correct, or the martial artist simply knew the girl so well that he had developed a sixth sense when it came to predicting her facial expressions.
He finds it difficult to believe in the latter. But if that is true, then Reborn can allow himself to relax a little more in Tianshi's presence. Not completely, since she has yet to do anything to earn his trust, but Fon has always had good judgement when it comes to people's characters.
After watching Tianshi maintain her composure during every possible situation that Tsuna, his guardians, and Reborn himself bring about, he receives the information about her that he sought from several of his best connections.
He's not paranoid. He's the greatest hitman in the world. It's not like he knows the birthplace, age, and appearance of every person he's ever met in his life - but it comes pretty damn close. Reborn makes it a habit to at least prepare himself before meeting anybody at all, so he isn't unprepared for any sort of anonymity.
But the information relayed back contains nearly nothing, except for the simple statement that his contacts didn't - couldn't - find a single thing.
That's exceedingly rare, if not impossible. Reborn's calls are answered by the best information brokers in the world, with the exception of Viper - whom he doesn't even bother to work with, seeing as the Mist Arcobaleno would charge a ridiculous amount that he, no matter how rich he is, does not wish to offer in return for a search on only one person.
It turns out that he might need Viper's help after all. Unfortunately, his current whereabouts are unknown - or rather, inhibited from access.
Tianshi has no birth certificate, no physical description, and basically, nothing for him to work with.
The second day is probably when his curiosity begins to take control.
On the third day, Tsuna's friends come over for their daily homework routine.
"...What're you doing here?" Gokudera asks hotly as Tianshi enters the room, sporting an alligator mask and a stack of lead-heavy books in her arms. Ever since Jyuudaime passingly mentioned that the new girl was 'creepy', he immediately (agreed and) took to suspicion.
She tilts her head, motioning to the book at the top of the leaning tower (of Piza. Oh, wait - ). "Reorganizing."
"She's only helping out with chores." Yamamoto pipes up from his left. "You be a little more friendly, Gokudera-kun." And then the baseball-freak has the nerve to wink.
"Shut up, baseball-freak! Don't tell me what to do!"
"Tsuna," Tianshi says, somehow managing to balance all of the books into one of her hands and a single leather-bound novel in the other. She hands the leather one to Jyuudaime. "Is this yours or Sawada-san's?"
"U-um..." He cranes his neck to peer at the cover, rubbing his nose at the thick dust no doubt accompanying the smell of aged paper. "I...I think that's my mom's? I-It's a pretty old book, after all..." A sheepish head-scratch follows.
Gokudera also catches a glimpse of the title. Thousand Cranes in fine gold flashes back at him.
Tianshi just nods and sets all of the books down, very careful onto the covers of his bed. The mattress groans and sinks in protest, but - surprisingly - none of the books fall. "When you have time," she says. "Could you sort these out and choose which ones you want to keep? Fon and I are cleaning out the bookshelf and yours could be filled, if you so wished."
Jyuudaime immediately blushes and waves his hands in a flustered motion; the bomber immediately grits his teeth at the person who's the cause of the embarrassment. "N-no, it's fine, really," Jyuudaime says haltingly, then. "You see, I. Um. Well, I don't really read a lot, so..."
For a long moment that lasts a year, the younger girl looks at him through the eye-holes of her mask.
"What?" Gokudera finally snaps.
"You see," she says. "I always thought of you as a person who would enjoy the immersion of books and fantasies."
Tsuna shrugs a little. "Um, no. Not really. I mean, um, I guess I used to, and then it just got...boring?"
At the same time, a flare of indignity rushes through the Storm Guardian that lifts him to his feet, a finger pointed accusingly at the creeper of a girl. "What would you know about Jyuudaime, anyway?" he growls. "You only met him three days ago!"
She tilts her head and says, "I know - he reminds me of somebody that I used to know. However, it is improper of me to compare an individual so easily with another."
Then, she bows her head a little. "I am sorry, Tsuna, for thinking so."
What the hell she's like a servant or a maid or a robot seriously, he thinks as Yamamoto grins and scratches his head in the background and Jyuudaime immediately accepts the apology; after all, his boss is merciful and kind to everyone no matter what heinous crimes they have committed.
On the fourth day, Tianshi picks up the remote for the television.
She does not put it down for the next five hours.
"Well," Fon says, pitching his voice over the rambunctious sounds of animated creatures launching themselves at each other across the screen, biting into the other's flesh without a drop of blood spilled (no sense of realism there). The scene quickly changes to the face of a cartoon figure, eyes narrowed with determination as he shouts commands across the arena. "This can't be healthy, can it?"
"I am not sure if you mean that to be a rhetorical question." She shifts slightly on her stomach. Earlier, the girl had wandered to each room and collected nearly all comfortable surfaces - pillows, blankets, the like - to use as materials for her fort in the living room. Only her mask pokes out from the collection of soft fabrics, held captive by the current display of color transmitted through the screen.
Now, he has to crane his head higher to see the face of the yellow rat, buried at the top of the fortress (the height of the thing is actually quite impressive). "Please don't tell me you're planning on staying up there for the rest of the afternoon."
"Nonsense. I am sure that this 'marathon' will last until midnight. Why would I retire so early?"
He actually face-palms. "You see, Tianshi," the Arcobaleno says dryly. "Watching TV for too long can cause a deterioration in eyesight and muscular mass, as well as relationships in your social life. Abusing its functions can prove to be quite harmful."
She pauses, then digs her arms out of the sheets to turn the TV off. "You did not think to mention this sooner?"
Fon's eyebrows elevate to the ceiling. "I wasn't being serious. Not wholly, anyway."
Tianshi stares at him.
He sighs and mercilessly incinerates the urge to throw up his hands, since oh, that's right, she takes everything seriously because she doesn't know the difference between truth and sarcasm even though she's a master at sarcasm herself, and I don't quite get how that works but then again she never really made much sense from the beginning.
"Besides," she continues, collapsing the walls of her fort as she pulls herself up. "I do not have a social life."
"Not exactly," he says. "There's me, I-Pin, and...Tsuna's family, I suppose."
Her statement does border some truth, however. From what he's gathered, she's gone to some sort of public school before but hasn't attended since (not that she really needs to with her level of intelligence), and thus has no school friends to speak of. She has no family members to look out for her - if any do exist - and being nomadic makes it difficult for both of them to get to know anybody deeply, as they always depart from the area after a short while. Luckily, before the curse of the Arcobaleno was activated, Fon had gained a multitude of allies and useful connections with other people (which had led to useful connections with those people's children, which had led to useful connections with those people's useful connections, and so on).
"By the way," he adds as Tianshi finally emerges, lazily stretching out her limbs after nearly a quarter of the day spent in a cocoon. "Nana just asked me if we could wash the laundry after dinner."
She yawns and folds her arms above her head, trembling from the strain. "Mm...okay." Abruptly, the yellow rat swivels to look around the room. "Where is everyone else?"
"Reborn is training with Tsuna, and his friends are occupied with after-school activities. Nana is shopping for groceries, Bianchi is in her room, and I-Pin and Lambo are playing a game outside with Lichi," he lists off. "Dinner will be prepared in about an hour or so."
With one final stretch that releases seismic waves through her skin, Tianshi straightens up and pads over to the kitchen. "Oh," she says offhandedly. "It slipped my mind. The television is a menacing thing, I can see, now that I am free from its addiction."
Fon lets out an ungainly snort and forces himself not to look around for Reborn or I-Pin. He has a character (sanity) to uphold.
"Can I discuss something with you before then?" he asks, leaping onto the kitchen counter to face her.
She raises an eyebrow as she fishes from the cupboard and moves toward the sink. "Such as?"
"The duration of our stay here," Fon states, smiling lightly - although, inside, he is mildly surprised by the amount of reluctance he holds in bringing up the subject. "How long would you prefer?"
"It has been four days already," Tianshi says, lips twitching (strange; it isn't like her to say something so obvious). She sips her cup of tap water and walks out of the kitchen and to the back door, breathing and footsteps silent (as always). The infant quickly latches onto her shoulder. "I have no objection to anything. How long can you stay here?"
Fon seats himself comfortably between her neck and her shoulder bone (the trapezius muscle, was it? it's not like he ever aims for the spot when he's trying to kill someone). "A few months, at most. Maybe four or five. Although I'm wondering if you would have any objection to that."
They reach the back door; she slides the screen open and steps into the breeze, whipping her bangs into his face. The outside has a pleasant, particular glow that lights up the grass into emerald and sets the sky ablaze in sapphire. I-Pin and Lambo are at the far side of the backyard, their faces dappled in the shadow of the bushes as his apprentice fetches an inflatable ball from next to the fence and her friend cackles from afar. Lichi chirps from his perch on the fence.
With an inaudible sigh that Fon feels more than hears, Tianshi lowers herself onto the sun-warmed porch, feet curling in a bed of grass. The two children - or rather, the children with the appropriate age mentality (for once) - have yet to notice their presence (although, one day, I-Pin will be experienced enough to feel even the Mist Arcobaleno's presence). "If you like it here," she murmurs. "Then stay awhile. Do what you wish."
He shrugs a little and leans back, blinded by the sky's brilliance. "Do you like it here?"
The girl's figure stills; her voice is somewhat distant, almost absentminded (or, it would be, but an absentminded Tianshi just isn't possible). "...I find it welcoming," she reveals after a while. "And bright. Like today. It is never dark here."
Something - something like personal intuition - tells him that she isn't quite finished. He waits.
"Four months," Tianshi says, then. "We will leave in four months. Is that too long?"
In the corner of his eye, Lambo screeches and falls to the ground as Lichi pounces on him, and I-Pin runs over to either help Lichi pound the boy into the ground or assist Lambo in defending himself (probably the former) - and the one thing Fon notices, above all, is her smile.
"No." He glances at her. "Not too long."
Even though Tianshi always makes sure that they don't stay in one place for more than half the year, Fon never told her why he doesn't like to stay in one place. Yet, somehow, she seems to know his reasons anyway. It lightens his guilt a bit; after all, he already told - as Colonello would say - a 'half-assed' answer to I-Pin that was meant to sound like it made perfectly rational, logical sense when, in reality, it held no substance whatsoever.
But Tianshi seems to know. Tianshi seems to know everything.
(all the more reason to (fear) (hate) (cherish) (protect) her)
On the fifth day, the black-eyed infant follows her.
Coincidentally, it is also the day she decides to visit the school that Tsuna and his friends attend. Namimori Middle School, the Sky once said as he packed his bags in a rush and flew out the door with untied shoes that he would have tripped on if Reborn had not been there to shoot at the ground in front of him first, making him trip for an entirely different reason.
So, with a faint, translucent interest that is not emphasized nor ignored, she leaves Fon to setting up the sprinklers (o', the guilt that plagues her) in the front yard and heads down the sidewalk, following the cream brick walls. Japanese neighborhoods feel like labyrinths sometimes.
(Dammit, I told you to go left.
Oh, don't give me that - I did go left, but now there's a dead end in front of my quill and it happens to be very unattractive -
Are you sure? Wait -
What.
I meant my left.
...You absolute asshat - okay, that's it, you're just no help at all -
Oh, go fuck yourself if you think you're so high and mighty -
Shut up! Hey, come on, you help me out instead! You're good at these maze games, right? How do I solve this one?)
Eventually, she winds up in front of the pale yellow building that looks more like a prison than a building for educational purposes. Despite that, she can see the green railings lining the rooftop that look to provide a promising view.
So, with nonchalant boredom (because it is not fun to climb things unless you're at the very top already), Tianshi scales the beige (it is beige, is it not? some kind of color she doesn't know what to call) panels of the school's exterior by hoisting herself up the little ledges and indents. She is careful to avoid blocking the windows, but that does not stop her from peering inward.
The chalkboards and the orderly desks, all lined up in rows and burdened with green chairs, are strange.
She is not sure if a child learning with his peers would allow for better academic results, but the overall cleanness and harmony of the classroom is also pleasant. Unique, but pleasant.
Eventually, she nears the top of the building, and - in the middle of reaching for the edge of the rooftop - glances at the large clock in the middle of the wall.
Five minutes.
A flash of displeasure. Frankly, five minutes to climb such a minuscule building is depressing. She may need to practice.
(It might be a good idea for you to learn how to climb. Since you're...well...since you have a condition, your muscles aren't strong enough for you to leap as far as we can from branch to branch, or as high. If you learn how to climb, you could get rid of that disadvantage. Or maybe you could try experimenting with your flames? Or something?
Or I could, let us say, tear down all of the trees.
Must you, really? Have you no heart for the dear birds that nest in the foliage? Ow - )
Regardless, Tianshi is not disappointed - the view from the top is almost liberating. Or at least it would be, if the sky was not clouded with murky white and grey that seems to choke the color out of the world.
She is not fond of cloudy days.
Nor is she fond of spies, eavesdroppers, and hunters. She has played the role of all three, out of necessity, but that does not mean she has to enjoy such work.
Right now, she is being watched - and if she were of any other character, she would catch her stalker and snap his neck, or perhaps his legs, or perhaps his arms. Then, she would torture the poor man until he bursts, and deliver a selective organ to his sender.
The King never liked doing things that way, though, and most of the others thought the same.
(Except the few of them who enjoyed seeing all the gore and torment of their subjugated victims. That changed, of course, when all the despair of the world came crashing down upon them, and they lost their little minds one by one.)
"Good morning, Reborn, Leon," she calls out instead, dangling her legs over the rail.
A flash of glim flickers across her senses, and her eyes swivel around to meet the baby's black, darkened to night in the shadow. For someone who dances with the shining Sun, Reborn's presence is difficult to seek out, even for her.
"Ciaossu, Tianshi." He reaches up a small, stubbed hand to tilt (more like adjust) his fedora. His chameleon is watching her with wide, unblinking eyes that seem to narrow slightly with an unfamiliar emotion. "What are you doing up here?"
Tianshi gestures skyward. "Watching the wind. It is not a nice day for the weather, though." She tilts her head. "Is there something you needed?"
After all, Reborn strikes her as a person who prefers business and profession. Possibly.
(Acting? Seriously?
Precisely! It's all about the act. The stuttering fool, or the eloquent presenter of a grand idea that will chip a few blocks off those conceited bastards' sky-seats - which sounds more appealing to you? Not that hard to choose, is it?
Yes, but really...acting? Is it all just an act to you?
A marvelous play, my friend! It takes a genius to rule the world of business and conduct, especially with all those fools prancing about like they know what it's like to have dirtied their hands.)
"Not really," he says, leaping up next to her. The chain links do not rattle; she admits to a small amount of admiration for the feat. "How did you know I was here?"
She catches the snake-like glance in her direction and refuses to look down at his pacifier, even though the mask hides her away. A soft sigh (she does not intend) drops like a pebble from her lips and quakes the earth with minute vibrations. "I can feel you," she says, then. "Just as I can feel I-Pin or Fon, even when they should make not a sound. But you know this well, yes?"
Reborn smirks. "There's no specific name for it. Just fighter's intuition, I suppose. Not many people can sense me, though - you must be experienced."
Tianshi feels a hint of a smile bubble in her chest, not quite at her lips but close. It is odd - she can already tell that he has the potential for appalling audacity, and yet she is strangely amused by his gall. "Quite a bit," she agrees. "There is a reason why Fon shares his missions with me."
The infant's voice colors with the first shade of disbelief. "So it's true? He lets you follow him?"
"Yes. He does not tell his Triad, though." Tianshi's lips quirk at the remembrance. "He did not like it at first, but I wanted to see him safe - and I wanted to see how he fought, too. He fares well."
"'Fares well'?" Reborn asks - skeptically, but the wry humor still lies. "Fon is said to be the strongest martial artist from the underground in Asia, if not the world." A hint of something seeps into his voice - a thing, like a creature - that has her eyeing him with sudden speculation. "He probably destroys all of his targets in a heartbeat. Did he tell you why he still sticks around with his Triad?"
"Loyalty to the boss," Tianshi says softly. (But the generations disintegrate over time. Such loyalty is to be valued, but not if it nips the bud of one's growth. Is that not so?) "Anyway, his skills in battle are not without fault - and, martial artist he may be, he is still an assassin and prone to danger. There is a reason why he does not claim your title."
Reborn scoffs lightly and says nothing. Tianshi is not fooled - she sees the calculations flit across his eyes like quicksilver. Reasons, evidence, analysis, categorization and characterization - of her, specifically. (The best hitman, indeed.)
"Why do you have a chameleon?" she asks, breaking the muted pause that has stretched between them when she meets the gaze of the chameleon once more.
It - he - lowers his head but refuses to avert eyes.
(You asked me before...before the Massacre, i-if I knew where willpower made it's home.
I remember.
And...and I said the battlefield, didn't I? I said war.
Conflict, you thought. 'Twas a natural assumption.
And you said it was wrong.
Yes.
I...I only -
Would you like to know the answer?)
"Leon is a shape-shifter," Reborn says. She raises an eyebrow that he probably cannot see.
To demonstrate, he reaches up to his animal companion, who promptly melts and transforms into a gun; a green barrel and muzzle, otherwise a burnished black that harshly shoots the sunlight into her eyes.
Squinting, she ducks her head a little; Reborn notices as well and shifts his gun into a more bearable position. (She does not see the puzzled frown that briefly churns his features.)
"...I did not think you were being serious." Tianshi does not bother to keep the laughter out of her words. "Does Leon want to shoot me? Or can he transform into other things?"
"Usually, I use him as a gun," Reborn says vaguely. His gaze darkens as he stares down at Leon's new form, and if she did not know any better, she would think that he is bothered by the sight of a weapon in his hands. (wrong) "Or other things, which are mainly for Tsuna."
She hums and leans back. "Is there a limit to what he can do?"
The hitman's brow furrows as he opens his mouth to reply.
A second later, both of them turn to the door as it swings open.
"Trespassers on school grounds will be bitten to death."
"Hibari." Reborn faces the young man - ebony hair, high cheekbones and pale skin like reflecting glass. He has a fair build, muscles fitted easily beneath the skin and cloth that makes him look harmless - but Tianshi knows better.
She tilts her head back, arms relaxed at her sides and feet swinging lazily in the open wind. Getting into a fighting position will take as much time as dying to a dagger at the throat - and besides, she does not have much of a style to begin with. Reborn is also amicable enough, not bothering to raise his gun - Leon - to level it at the intruder of their conversation.
Even so, it never hurts to prepare. 'Hibari' is holding a pair of metal weapons in his hands; close combat, she supposes, judging from the strength arcing through his arms in particular as he twirls the sticks in his hands like a show of knives. They are hardly threatening to her, but Tianshi observes the fluid motion of his steps as he walks forward to meet them, and realizes that many things have changed since the time when you could crack the skulls of ten men without any worthy opposition.
He is so close to her level (in hand-to-hand combat, obviously - not her fire, no, nobody can match her fire) that she can almost taste his power. It is terrifying.
Breathtaking.
"Baby," Hibari says. His tonfas dip, but not by much. "What business do you have here?"
Reborn tugs on the rim of his fedora, calling Leon back to his station. The chameleon leaps up with his back turned towards her and hides behind the other side of the crown. "Tianshi wanted to go and see what Tsuna's school is like, so she came up here. She's new to Namimori, so she doesn't know the rules about loitering on school grounds."
"It will not happen again," Tianshi says, hoping to placate the man. She then adds, as a sort of afterthought (since Hibari does not seem like one who would find offense in skipping pleasantries), "It is nice to meet you, Hibari-san."
He grunts, lowering his tonfas fully. Reborn must have a good reputation to harness respect from all sorts of characters. "See that it doesn't," he says sharply (like ice). "If you're just about done here, leave."
(He would probably escort them out anyway regardless of whether or not they are 'done' yet.)
Tianshi grabs hold of the rail and lifts her body up, pulling the balls of her bare feet beneath her so that they balance on the painted metal.
"What are you doing?" Reborn asks, watching carefully. Hibari narrows his eyes.
"Leaving," she replies. And then, she laughs (her company does not), because surely Reborn must know Fon's method of exiting the stage, yes?
Her toes free themselves from the railing, and the girl jumps off the top of the school.
On the sixth day, the living room clears out. Mostly.
"Tianshi jumped off the rooftop of Namimori Middle yesterday," Reborn says without ceremony as he hops onto the large couch cushions next to Fon.
Fon can't help it - he bursts into quiet, genuine, maniacal laughter (she must be a bad influence on him) that his old friend patiently endures.
As the chuckles finally come to a close, he manages to say (something along the lines of), "She descends magnificently, doesn't she? Like the feather of a bird."
Reborn looks at him.
"I did not instruct her, to be honest," he admits, raising his hands in an innocent gesture. "She can jump from much higher. But other than that, she doesn't have much control over her flames in manipulating air - she said she reached her limit when she jumped off the World Trade Center Tower in Beijing."
"The World Trade Center Tower in Beijing," Reborn echoes. "And you say that she 'doesn't have much control over her flames in manipulating air'. She's almost as good as you."
He offers a shrug, thoroughly amused by the flatness of the hitman's tone. "It is not something she focuses on. Her real forte is her destructive flame - it's something you have to see in combat."
Reborn nods, taking a sip of his randomly-produced espresso that puffs up steam into his face. Fon gets the feeling that the hitman has many other questions to ask (when does he not?) but, unlike Tianshi, he's willing to wait until they are readily able to be spoken. Instead, he glances at the clock (noon) and asks, "Did your sources ever find anything out about her?"
Reborn's expression is unreadable. It's an even bet - maybe the other Arcobaleno will answer the question, maybe he won't. Fon is fine with either.
"You've changed," the Sun says, then, as he drains the last of the coffee.
"How so?"
"Normally, even if you knew I investigated her files, you wouldn't bring it up unless you thought I was wrong to try and get information on her. So," the hitman cocks his head a little. "You've changed."
"For the better, I hope," Fon keeps his voice light (not that he has to try not to, but sometimes he has to put a little extra lightness in your voice to make it fitting). "Did you find anything?"
Reborn's face is completely blank, like a clean sheet of untouched paper. "Those 'files' I mentioned earlier are nonexistent."
Fon chuckles again, his chest tight with wild merriment. "Don't be so discouraged," he says assuredly to the fellow infant. "I tried poking through her history as well, even though she told me that she literally doesn't exist according to law, sight, and mind. I didn't search as extensively as you may have, but I still came up with nothing."
"It seems like the entire mafia doesn't know who she is." Reborn pauses, no doubt quickly reviewing his thoughts. "Nobody can just erase themselves from the mafia, no matter how little their presence was."
A thoughtful frown mars his features and sobers him for a moment. "She told me before that she was never related with the mafia."
"But she knows how to fight," Reborn counters. "And she can wield powerful flames. Sky flames are the only weapons that are restricted to people affiliated with the underground."
A sigh escapes him as he mulls over the information. "...Tianshi wouldn't lie. She really isn't with the mafia, and never has been. I suppose I could ask her for more of her background, though, if you're so curious."
The dark eyes blink a little (it's more of a quick shuttering, really). "She wouldn't mind?"
"It depends on what she's willing to reveal." Fon tugs at the hems of his pants, fingers running over the ragged seams of silk and fiddling with worn fabric. "She can be quite fickle sometimes."
Reborn snorts, but subsides quickly. "And you'll be willing to tell me what she says? Why?"
The Storm Arcobaleno just chuckles, his mirth fading into a simmering heat at his throat. "Because I'm not overly fond of debts, perhaps - even when they are in my favor."
The hitman smirks, but the soft upward curl that lifts his infantile cheeks tell Fon that this is one of those rare, truthful moments when his old friend is amused by something other than the suffering of his student.
(when he leaps away to assist Nana in cooking breakfast, the dropping of the smile and the troubled stare that Reborn directs at Leon is unnoticed by everyone except the chameleon)
(and the chameleon reveals nothing)
On the seventh day, I-Pin looks up at the mask of the girl who gently weaves the stems of buttercups into her hair that they had collected in the afternoon grasses next to the sidewalk on their way home.
"Can I call you Jiejie?"
Tianshi looks down, twirling the golden petals.
"Okay," she says after thinking about it. "But then I will call you Meimei."
"Okay!" I-Pin chirps.
She looks back out the window again and wonders if Jiejie has ever braided Fon's hair, too.