( 18/01/2015 ) - metric system

Salve !

This is L. Ilovu writing ~ Let's give a huge thanks to Mazura for leaving a review to the last chapter ! ( Sorry we didn't reply to you, by the way, except for our thanks, we had nothing much to say *love* ) I finished translating this chapter a bit in a rush, but I managed to get it done in time, hurray ~

As I don't have any personal comment to add here, we'll just pass on, for those who are actually bothering reading this, haha ~

No guests review ~

Disclaimer

Katekyo Hitman Reborn belongs to Akira Amano

The Solitude's Flame ( La Flamme de la Solitude )'s original idea belongs to Y.

L. was given the right to translate!

Prepare buckets of blood, this chapter hasn't been beta'ed

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Next chapter should be up in two weeks ~ ! ( 01/02/2015 - metric system )

(: Enjoy :)

Namimori, in the morning. Not even a breeze on the streets of the residential neighbour, not anything, except for this shady figure walking slowly, his shoes hitting the ground.

He was watching every movement, every detail around him, analysing the location, impregnating himself with the atmosphere.

His step finally stopped; his mission was about to begin. Thinking of that, he looked up to the house in front of which he stood, and guessed he was in front of the good one.

Yes. Everything began here. It would be his starting point.

Without leaving the house out of his sight, he went and hid between the branches of a bushy tree, from where he could perfectly see the door he targeted.

And he waited.

He stayed there few hours, unmoving, silent. Some passerby entered his view range. They didn't see him, and he didn't pay more attention to them. They didn't have any of what he was looking for.

And then, finally, after maybe two or three hours patiently endured in silence, two new figure made their entrance. They went up to the door he was watching, and rang while happily chatting - or animatedly arguing, it was kind for hard to determine as one was overflowing with gnarl and the other one was giving off radiant smiles.

Their presence made the one who was spying them raise an eyebrow. The info-brokers seemed to have forgotten few details in their report. But he didn't blame them, those 'details' wouldn't be really useful for the mission he was required to accomplish. A priori.

Speaking of which, few seconds later, the famous door opened, making him forget about the two 'details' lately noticed. A young man just came out of it, rushing, his uniform being a mess, and a bit of his breakfast still in his mouth. He seemed to excuse himself to the two others, and the trio soon ran off.

The figure in the tree looked at the apparently innocent scene with concentration, worried. Detailing his target for the first time, he put some pictures on the alarming words of the report he had between his hands. It said that there was some perturbation that had for a epicentre the teenager looking frail and not so smart, the one he had under his eyes. And, indeed, for someone of this mysterious figure's level, the whole report could be summarized in one glance: the dark and cold aura around the kid couldn't fool anyone.

Although, while he was noting how dangerous this energy was, one of his instinct made him quit the branch that served him as a perch, and just in time; said branch, as long as the other ones, began to shiver like wild animals - and it certainly wasn't the wind, that, by the way, didn't blow - and, under his eyes, and those branch snorted to free themselves of their leaves, revealing sharpened stakes absolutely not natural. Stakes that, now out of their trunk, converged awfully fast, deadly, toward his target.

A cry of an incontestable virility rose, and, in the end, the stakes hit the ground, right at the feet of the one they went to kill.

Weird...

The phenomenon, if it seemed to have nearly given a heart stroke to his target, didn't seem to surprise him more than that once it was over. Once the shock passed and the worries of his friends concerning his well-being appeased, he only seemed to be jaded and bored about what happened. He even went off and took the branch with a tired gesture to throw them into the closest bin.

So, it must have been a recurring event in this boy's daily days, deducted the one who was now following him on his school's path. Himself wasn't that impressed concerning what just happened - seeing the lifestyle he led, murder's tentative of this ilk were barely bad jokes to him. However, for a mere civilian, he guessed it must have been quite traumatising. But it seemed that his target had already passed over the 'mere civilian' title.

This said, even though the actions he saw weren't that maddening themselves, he felt that he would have to act for everything to go back in order. And quite fast, if possible. The aura around the small brunet that wasn't belonging to him - no doubt on that, he was hawk-eyed on this - was too strong and malicious to be ignored.

Nevertheless, he choose to use his work-free day at observing in the distance, just like he planned it, before preparing everything for him to make a grand entrance. And it was all the better because, as the day, the classes and the caprices of the poltergeist, he noticed something new. Something way more surprising than usual, as it was observed on a 'mere civilian'.

But, alright, he already had judged this kid over the civilian status.

Well, even though he could have relativized the thing, thinking back to the complementary information given by his informant, the spy didn't hold back a huge smile from settling down on his lips. Now, every theorical information that was communicated was finding a material body under his eyes, in the person he was following : the danger he had to eliminate, and the brunet's identity, that was giving itself away in a vast and warm aura, orange, that was dancing around the small body, just like scrolls of crazy smoke. An energy only waiting for its liberation, already awakened, which was a paradox since it was because of the black shadow slowly eating it out.

Definitely, this boy wasn't a civilian.

And it wasn't really a surprise that the spirit wasn't letting go of him, if he possessed such a flame...

And... It was really a shame that, him, had been sent to end all of this.

Tsuna came back from school quite in a good mood that day. Indeed, Mukuro only tried to kill him three or four times, today. It changed from the twenty-ish tries a day. Plus, he had to see the bright side of this : he was more and more able to anticipate what the spirit was about to do - he was feeling it, in a way. Ah, and he became sharper at dodging random projectiles that was thrown to him, too.

Thus, he saluted his mother with a less jaded voice than usual, and went up the stairs to go to his room, ready to possibly welcome the appearance of his dead stalker - the 'possibly' being only in this sentence to be polite, as he knew the spirit was coming every day. He didn't have any reason to stop doing so.

However, when he stepped on the first stair, someone rang the doorbell.

He abruptly turned around, and looked at the wooden panel, wondering who that might be. Then he walked to it to open it.

Peeking outside, he was surprised to meet nothing. Shrugging, and thinking it only was a bad joke, he decided to go back, so he was about to close…

-Ciaossu.

… when a weird salutation made him look down. He raised an eyebrow, perplex, as he took a good look at the… baby?

Strangely dressed, his spiky black hair that must have been sticking into place with the same antigravity force that was acting the very same way on his own unruly hair. Two capillary spirals bouncing around his chubby cheeks and a small smile way too insolent for his age.

-Hum… Did you get lost, kid? Suddenly asked the brunet, as he realized he could have gone way for few rounds more till he got at the end of the list of the reasons why this kid was strange.

-I don't think so, replied the clear voice of the newcomer, am I at Sawada's? Are you Sawada Tsunayoshi?

-… Y-Yes, said the concerned, his curiosity spiked, and even more confused. What did anyone want to do with him in peculiar? Especially someone he didn't know?

The kid didn't take long to give him his answer, presenting himself at the same time.

-Good. I am Reborn, an exorcist.

He held up a small card were his identity was scribbled down, and the teen took it, blinking.

-An… exorcist?

What was this bad prank? An accomplice of Mukuro, that was actually a hitman and that he was about to bring up a pistol out of nowhere to shove it right between his two eyes before pulling the trigger?

The baby did nothing of these, however, holding himself back from giving any complementary explanation about his presence, just as if it was natural that Tsuna question his presence here. And, indeed, YES! It was absolutely normal, legitimate and justified!

-Yes, began the childish voice, absolutely not concerned about the gaping mouth of the other. Someone reported the presence of an evil spirit under this roof and, out of magnanimity, I came to the rescue.

Tsuna couldn't believe him. And many questions were appearing into his brain. First, what was doing this… this… exorcist? At his house? He didn't ask for anything. Especially not a stranger that wasn't really giving off the 'trust me' vibe, especially by the way he just presented himself. Plus, how did he know? Okay, this visit could be totally hazardous, a mere coincidence, but the young man guessed it was not. But then, did someone follow him, denounced him, or what? It couldn't be his friends, he was convinced of that, but then again, it was the only persons that knew what was happening.

And about this 'evil spirit'… Well, okay, seeing it from another point of view, Mukuro could be qualified as 'evil' by much more than one aspect; but, still… Why the hell was he thinking about all of that just in front of a mere baby?!

Breaking out of his thoughts, he looked back at the infant, determined.

-Yes, well then, no thanks. There's no problem in this house. You can go play elsewhere, kid, He spit, a bit irritated, before simply closing the door right in the nose of the young visitor. He had other things to do than play a stupid neighbourhood brat's game.

Tsuna thus went back to the stairs, his light hear a bit gone, ignoring the door on which the baby decided to knock regularly. However, only was he comfortably installed at the table in his room that he heard his mother's voice at the entrance's corridor:

-Araaa Tsu-kun~ ! Who's this infant at the door? One of your friends?

-No! he yelled from upstairs, wishing to have peace once in his life.

-Yes, the brat replied, in the same time – he got tensed when he heard the cursed voice once again. I am Reborn, an exorcist coming from the Arcobaleno's Order.

Really? What an imagination… to invite himself at people's house!

-Aaah, I see. Look at how cute you are in your suit~ Do you want to come in and drink tea?

-I'll take coffee instead.

… And he made himself home, too! Tsuna didn't remember when his house became a restaurant, where everybody could go in and order what they wanted. And also, coffee, for a baby? Was he the only sane person under this roof?

Well, maybe he was not, once he thought about it: he was being stalked by a dead, after all. But he had to have more common sense than the two others reunited, who were still happily chatting at the entrance, ignoring him completely.

You wanted proof? Here it was: - Okay ~ You can go upstairs meanwhile, purred his mother's voice before going back to the kitchen.

Thus, this was how he finished face to face with some weirdo called Reborn in his room, who was calmly sipping his coffee and eating small cakes. Not that he didn't try to keep him from coming to his room.

After quite a long moment of never-ending silence, where the baby only drank, apparently giving all his heart in this activity, he put his cup back into place and spoke. He repeated the same speech than the one in front of the door, except for the fact that he seemed more grave than mischievous. Tsuna was honestly doubting that an infant could speak with such a dark and serious tone.

Without noticing, he still accorded more credibility to the exorcist. More than he did earlier.

He listened the baby in silence, how it was important for the spirit that stuck to him – he didn't speak about the house this time but Tsuna himself – to go away, since he was obviously dangerous. And all the more since that, from his observation, that entity had been haunting the young man for a long, long time. It had had the time to root himself deeply in this world thanks to his host, which was never good if no one was controlling the spirit.

At this information, Tsuna blinked. Huh? A long time? Reborn seemed to speak about some years.

Understanding this, he interrupted him immediately:

-But, err-… No. I mean, it can't be true, what you said. On the long time…

-What do you mean?- the other frowned, surprised.

-Mukuro-san… The spirit. He's been here only for few days. Two weeks, I think. Yeah, two weeks at the maximum.

How?

Reborn stayed shut few seconds, troubled. A quick glance at his interlocutor confirmed his diagnostic: the two energy dancing around the small body were too mixed for the fusion to be that recent. To his veteran's eye, this must have been long from many years, at least. For such a link to be formed…

However, the detail that was annoying him from the day before, if he only listened to his instinct, he estimated the link to be formed – it was a confusing information; and he loathed confusions – to be way older from what the logic could accept.

The boy was fifteen years old.

Was the link capable to go back to a date prior to his birth? – In theory, no, it wasn't.

So, it meant only one thing: the ghost had implanted itself like a parasite, and so deep that his presence felt like it was eternal. It was more or less never seen before, but it was less impossible than the rest of his hypothesises. But, in this case, it was dangerous. Obviously. Or at least, if the concerned person didn't know the good techniques. And looking at the dark aura trying to dominate the orange one, the kid didn't have any technical or theoretical knowledge about the occult.

As he got lost into his thoughts and hypothesis, Tsuna anxiously watched him. His guest was looking toward him but didn't seem to see him, at least not physically, and he was sometimes grumbling incomprehensible sentences to himself.

After this only did Mukuro, who took his time that evening – probably because of the foreigner's presence, - appear. Despite the situation, and the fact that the said foreigner was after him, Tsuna felt glad to see the ghost. Ah, and his appearance had drawn Reborn out of his thoughts.

"Kufufu ~ Don't loose any more time into your calculi, brat," The entity mocked right into the exorcist's face. "Tsunayoshi's right: I began to cling to him two weeks ago, and our first meeting is barely a month long."

He bore his eternal smirk as he spoke, looking right into the eyes of the baby. The later, as for himself, stayed neutral at the ghost. He just had turned around and, impassive, checked him out from head to toe with great attention. In the end, both of them had eyed each other scornfully for few seconds. Then the chat resumed:

"Are you sure?" Reborn snorted, dubitative. "You don't have the same time notion as humans at all, do you?"

"Sure, but I still can read a calendar," The other replied tit for tat.

Another few seconds of disdainful silence. Then Reborn shrugged.

"Bah, anyway, this detail is not important."

He turned back to the brunet, ignoring fully the third person in the room.

"Tsuna." The one who was called froze under the imperial tone Reborn used. "I'll tell you one more time: I am an exorcist whose mission is to eradicate the threat created by this thing." He scornfully showed Mukuro with his hand. "But for me to act, I'd like to have your consent first, it'll ease the process."

The 'thing' the baby was for still found something to retort:

"Kufufu ~ You're not an exorcist, Arcobaleno. Or else, me, I've never died."

"Yes," The other said, mean. "But what I have to do here can be considered as exorcism. The name doesn't matter."

He ignored the entity once again, who was chuckling with his signature laugh, and focused on Tsuna, who wasn't sure he had understood the last exchange. Mukuro said he wasn't an exorcist… what was he, then?

He wasn't graced with the time to ask the question out loud. The guest was already going back to his explanations.

He spilled every argument in favour of letting him do his job. Firstly, such phenomenon were always the starts of perturbation in the worlds' balance. Tsuna didn't understand what that was speaking about, he felt as if he needed Gokudera by his side as a translator. But from what he got, if a spirit breached through the frontier without control, it was bad. And protect the world's balance was precisely the baby's mission, from what he said. That's why he came, and he couldn't go back to his home empty-handed. Plus, from what he could see, Mukuro's manifestation into the living's realm was quite intrusive, such as, as he was right now, being so real every mortal could be capable of seeing him, even though he didn't have any corporeal body.

Suddenly, hearing this, Tsuna glanced at the door, fearing Nana would irrupt into the room to complete her perfect hostess' task. Well, knowing his mother, she wouldn't mind one more guest. At the most, she'd be surprised she didn't see him come in, and she'd propose a cup of tea, nothing out of habit.

But still, the small brunet didn't really want his mother to chat with a ghost.

However, he kept his mouth shut and continued listening to the other's monologue. Until a certain point where, just like at the beginning of this conversation, he got confused, not agreeing to what the other said.

"…And there's also the fact that he's sucking into your energy to appear. And if he doesn't manage to kill you before, you'll end up dead from exhaustion. A lack of spiritual energy isn't something to take lightly."

"But, err-…" Tsuna finally intervened, taking his chance to say something before the following pro-eradication arguments. "Concerning that, I don't think it'll happen that way. I-I mean, at first, sure, I felt strangely weak, but it went away quite quickly. I think my body must have got used, or something…"

Actually, when he thought of it, he didn't really have any problems with Mukuro's presence. Except for the catastrophes provoked by his madness, but hey, that, if it was here or in his… world, it would be the same, right? Plus, it wasn't really his fault. He felt bad about sending back the entity without helping him beforehand, as he still clung onto the deep guiltiness he felt each time he thought of the reason he was stuck here, with him. This whole story was more his fault than Mukuro's.

And concerning these stories of balance and dangerousness… to say so, he didn't understand what was important and what wasn't. And, even though it seemed important, Tsuna didn't know enough to judge what was prior to what.

Ah, and also… Mukuro already had refused to go back. Even though he didn't want to say why. Tsuna hadn't tried to make him change his mind afterwards, and he said he wouldn't make him go away. He couldn't go back on his decision. Even his own cowardice could find a limit.

Also deep in thought, Reborn was thinking about it, too. He had been once again surprised at the small brunet's retort. Come on, he was currently seeing the orange aura being consumed by the ghost's presence, right under his eyes. It couldn't be an illusion. It was happening right now!

And then, he finally noticed after few minutes that, despite that, the boy's energy didn't diminish in a bit since the day before, where he observed him all day. And he seemed to be in perfect health for someone who was taking care of an entity since two weeks – he still doubted the time span, but he would trust him. Only one problem at once.

Of course, he was more than aware that this energy was regenerating by itself. But even with a good night of sleep, an optimal life's hygiene and a perfect knowledge of the said energy, how could it be possible to regenerate oneself that quickly, even though a spirit was constantly pumping a part of it to be a part of the living? No human was supposed to have such a quantity to disposition.

But maybe was he surprised for nothing much, in the end. Many times before had he the occasion to encounter impossible things in his life. Especially with people possessing the same kind of power as this boy. A flame pure, warm, seemingly inexhaustible…

As he was evacuating his questions while clinging to this vague and lame explanation, Reborn almost regretted taking this mission that made him come to this house. He knew quite well that if he was to accomplish it, he would kill such a beautiful flame, sealing forever the potential of his carrier, as well as the ghost that was grafted to him just like a leech would.

And that, that was one of the rare thing that plunged him in a dark mood. To be forced to renounce to something as rare as it was interesting, fascinating. Worse : destroy it with his bare hands.

"Okay, I'm switching methods," he said, interrupting himself in the middle of his monolog. Anyway, the small brunet didn't seem to go back onto his decision, despite everything he said – on the contrary. Determination was glinting into his eyes, and in his flame too, even though his face still seemed confused.

The two other protagonists had turned to him once again when he talked, not with his tiny baby voice, but with a deep anger, relentless, cold. He noticed a shiver of fright from the teen. Good. Maybe this would work.

Something green sled into his fingers; one second later, he stood up and pointed a gun of the same color right between the eyes of the brunet, point blank.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi," He spit coldly, giving him an inhuman look. The boy shrieked out of terror as he realized the situation he was in, suddenly dangerous.

"HIIIIIIIEEEE! Wh-What?!" He yelled, eyes wide open, as if they were ready to pop out of their socket.

"I'll ask only once more… It is you or this ghost. Your choice?"

Tsuna was a bit lost when he got up from sleep, that morning. He didn't sleep very well, too preoccupied by what had happened the day before. Thankfully, he didn't have to drag his heavy body to class, today.

He didn't know how everything had gone wrong, at first. Nor how he got away alive.

There was this 'baby' exorcist but that wasn't really one, that his mother let enter freely, who had babbled about a lot of things he didn't memorized for him to get away from Mukuro, and that had finished by pointing his gun right between his eyes without preventing or anything, probably because his monolog didn't seem to work.

Well, of course…

As if his life wasn't in danger enough because of Mukuro's crazy moments. Had he to add up a mad, armed baby to his list of annoyance potentially mortal?

Speaking of that, he hadn't registered what had happened next.

However, he was pretty sure the other had shot.

But knowing how he got away alive, it was another thing…

"Kufufu ~ Surprised to be breathing?"

Tsuna got up suddenly when he heard Mukuro's voice; the spirit was gently sitting down the table, at the same place from yesterday. Strange, usually, he waited for him to get up before appearing. But, it was kind of neat for him to be there. He must have seen what had happen for real.

"Ah! Mukuro-san… Well, it's that… I'm pretty sure I got shot at yesterday, so…"

"Kufufu ~ You did."

Tsuna's eyes widened. Despite his eternal smirk, the ghost didn't seem to lie. Out of instinct, the small brunet put a febrile hand against his forehead. Nothing.

"B-But then, how…?" He stuttered, confused.

"The bullet didn't hit the target."

How? A bullet shot from right against his skin that didn't hit the target?

He didn't have the time to question the improbability of the situation anymore. The doorbell rang, followed, few seconds later, by Nana's voice, announcing that Gokudera was waiting for him. The young man must have come to take some news about his health before going to work, probably. Or maybe he had a break today and they would pass the day together. In both case, Tsuna was quite happy, it would let him put the trauma from yesterday on put.

Nevertheless, there was something that was worrying him, since he woke up.

As he stood up and went to a amass of clothes where he picked some clean stuff, he turned once again to his entity:

"Mukuro-san?"

"Hm?"

"Aren't you more… transparent, today?"

Indeed, it was almost possible to see everything behind the immaterial figure. Tsuna wondered if he was only able to see him because he knew he was there.

But he only got a mysterious 'kufufu~' as a reply.