The Bound Sky and the Pained Mist
Lorraine had gone to school, and waited for a certain fluffy-haired boy to kidnap him and take him to the outskirts to where the craggy areas are.
'H-hey, where are you taking me?!' he yelped and his words are translated by Alaude. Lorraine didn't answer him as to the boy's disbelief, she moved like a ninja while carrying him. 'Are you a ninja?!' Lorraine relayed her thoughts to Alaude for translation help.
'Last I checked, Japanese are ninjas and I'm not japanese, kid.' Lorraine retorted. 'There's something I must do for you.'
'Something?'
'Aa.' although the little boy would never remember her. 'For now...sleep.' and she put her target Sawada Tsunayoshi to sleep. 'Jeez, I fumble around a lot...this is awkward! Seriously! So after we free him, we make the school forget about the bullying and we're home free!'
Upon arrival at the crags...Lorraine began channeling her Cloud Flames into Tsuna, propagating his Flame Purity, not his strength so he could out-pure the seal temporarily and break it through. Afterall, one's flame strength and purity is determined since birth. There's just no changing it. She also used her magic to see the status of the seal and his body, and its cracking. She pushed more and more...but somehow, Tsuna's flames itself came to act, and began pushing violently for freedom. 'Alaude!' Lorraine gasped. 'Did you see that?!'
'Yes...it seems his flames are fed up from being trapped...and survival instincts know what's best.' Alaude mused with a small smile as upon unsealing, Lorraine quickly implanted thoughts in Tsuna to make him subconsciously balance the flow of his flames in his body, and re-harmonize with his body. It took HOURS that Lorraine lent Alaude some flames to deal with Tsuna's mother before they give him back.
Then the next day...Lorraine made the school forget about Tsuna being a no-good and put an end to the bullying the boy suffered since becoming 'no-good', and made Tsuna forget about the bullying he suffered.
Its now time for Murakumo Shun(meaning: purple cloud of excellence in kanji) to come into play as Tsuna's Uncle who'll stay over for a few years until Tsuna graduates elementary. That means addling with Sawada Nana's head, too. Alaude is given Japanese Features(unknowingly looking like a certain birdie), but retains his blonde hair and blue eyes. Its a Real Illusion that even normal people can see him, and she supplies the flame needed for him to exist. And Alaude merely goes out, returning to Lorraine to help her in school...as for money, he would give Nana 50000 yen that he gets from Lorraine(he doesn't know she steals the money and she hides that intel from him) to help with the grocery bill expenses for his stay...and always claims to eat out thus never really eats with the Sawadas.
Its a careful arrangement he and Lorraine made...
Ghosts can't eat after all!
xxx
Sawada Tsunayoshi believes he has a really cool uncle. He's real nice too and makes him feel fluffy inside that he has a male influence in his life up to his teens since his father is away too often to work he is barely at home that its just him and his mom in the house...and they get a lot of bonding time.
His uncle teaches him things too...on how to be a good person and stuff. He even teaches him how to be manly and what makes a truly good man...and teach him self-defense.
Or at least, that's what Alaude claimed.
Alaude is in fact, teaching him how to fight like a boss.
Since the Unsealing, Tsuna's school performance improved, Alaude's training improved his P.E and he finally has friends when before the 'resetting', nobody wanted anything to do with 'no-good, loser Tsuna'.
Tsuna is just happy with his life, and loved his Uncle who's just as fond of the Japanese Giotto-look-alike who's really a good kid. Nana raised him well indeed.
To Tsuna on the other hand, he wished his dad was the one to teach him this but he likes Uncle Shun all the same.
For despite his stern and stoic expression, he is in fact, very kind...but something is seriously off with his new uncle. He just can't tell what. His instincts say so.
xxx
In the meantime...
Lorraine adjusted to school life and everyone is somewhat-nice to her since she was an adjusting foreigner in an entirely-different country...who happens to be very good in cooking classes, and arts and crafts. But due to Japanese language, she has a long way to go.
At home...
Her routine was extreme body mastery to the point she no longer feels the stress when she moves her body for combat. For a skinny person, their arms weigh around 1 kg and their legs 1-2 kg as her very estimate or a bit more than that(she's not good in assumptions so she needs some help), and her whole body weight is somewhat heavy for her age, having burned off all her baby fat in training, and fat is replaced with sculpted muscle. Alaude has mastered his body along with his combat skills, and combined with his Cloud Flames, is a personal one-man army that gave him his legend. She hoped to do the same. She wanted to be as strong and skilled as her mentor by the time she graduates College...but given the fact that his style is very well-known, Alaude had her study other martial arts in a bid to be unpredictable and therefore, deadly. So she's been taking online courses...memorizing each move, theory and philosphy before practicing it herself, and practicing each move to the fastest and strongest she could do before moving on to the next move...and after training Tsuna up to his thirteenth birthday, he would leave the boy on the guise of working overseas, and Alaude will revert to his true form to train her in Evasion Agility, Reflexes, Acrobatics, Fighting Senses, Stamina and Durability. All these, a Cloud must possess. She mastered her Mist Flame Skills long ago, she has yet to master her Cloud Flame Skills.
Alaude theorized that her hairdo aside, the flame-active mafioso nearby must have sensed her potential and thus tried to follow her 'home' in a bid to recruit her whether willing or not. Her mastered Mist Flames is powerful afterall, made temporarily-more potent if carefully-mixed with Cloud Flames. So it was a good thing they could get away quickly through the Magic Alleys. So she has to improve her fighting as soon as she could.
But sometime that year...
She had a dream.
A dream of tortured, pained screams of a boy...a filthy, bloodstained and grimy laboratory...people in white with goggles, haircaps and surgical masks...and she felt his pain of being operated in the left eye AWAKE, and no painkillers! And she saw his spiritual form that was utterly tormented, and on the verge of snapping to insanity and hatred. She dove in to embrace him, and formed a Mist Barrier to protect him.
'W-who are you...?' he sobbed out.
'I'm a friend...I can't stop what they're doing because I'm weaker than you right now...you reached out to me even though I'm across the world and that's saying something, but at least I can dull your pain. I'm so sorry.' she whispered apologetically as she held him in comfort, and he clung to her for safety and security, as they helplessly watched what was being done. His original right eye was removed, and replaced with a red one. A red eye that tried to grab him, but she protected him as she came out, attacking and destroying the misty forms coming from the eye...and she fought tirelessly all night. She lost count of how many...but its soon over.
She then took over, and used nothing but melee to kill all the scientists involved...and used her senses to find more. By using Melee, the Vindice can never sense her and catch her in the act. As she did so using the boy's body...the boy watched her in mesmerization of morbid fascination.
She's cute, strong, and saved him from what could be torture incarnate from those hundreds or thousands of hands trying to get to him. By the time she's done, she's so exhausted and delirious, clutching hard on her staff for support just to stand up, but even her staff vanished, making her fall in a heap in the mental world.
'T-thank you...but who are you?' the boy croaked out, his blue right eye becoming red as he ran to get to her prone, weakened form and held her in his arms. She smiled to him weakly.
'A friend I guess...s-so tired...bye...' and as she lost consciousness, she and her barrier faded away, and the last thing she heard was his frantic call of 'WAIT!'
xxx
Rokudo Mukuro could not believe his eyes.
He was scheduled for an ocular implant his family claimed to make him experience death and reincarnation six times after injecting his body with several drugs to make him durable enough for the experiment. Those drugs fucking HURT and he was often delirious, yet often made to train despite his own state since he is to be a human weapon.
He hated it.
He hated all these experiments and the punishments if they couldn't get back up. Countless nights of crying, pain, anguish and sorrow...until one day, a girl claiming that he reached out to out of his own desperation and fear called her to him, and she protected him from what could be his worst torture of his life.
He too, was exhausted from his own screaming, his own fear, his own pain. His surgery still fresh in his head with a patch put over his right eye. It stings and still bleeds when he looked at the mirror. His old eye gone forever and replaced by whatever heck this is in his head.
He focused again, but she could not be reached.
He swore to look for her as soon as he gets out of this hellhole and meets his fellow test subjects...cousins he didn't know about. Its just them now. Every other children...is dead.
'Do you want to come with me?' he asked them. 'Let's take what's useful and get out of here.'
They will travel and train to get stronger...and damn the Mafia World together and find that girl. Its his drive because despite living a life of hell, he still had an angel who saved him. But she was not in Italy no matter how many crimes they committed out of revenge, and his friends and patsy Lancia getting landed in Vendicare. Ken and Chikusa stayed behind to make him escape so now he laid down low with their money...his goal still finding her. He eventually learned the power she used to save him.
The power to make something from nothing.
Illusions.
xxx
'...you don't look so good.' Alaude frowned as he returned to their apartment when Lorraine never went to school. She's very exhausted.
'Someone summoned me...an untapped Illusionist too. He didn't know but he called me because he was suffering...its horrible.' Lorraine shook her head in utter sorrow. 'He was being experimented on...implanted something heinous and sinister I did all I could to protect him until it was defeated so it can no longer hurt him. He was meant to be a human weapon for his family along with his cousins. They're just my age!' she cried, sobbing. 'Who could do that to children and why?!'
'Lorraine...are you alright?' Alaude asked her softly and worriedly.
'I'm NOT alright! I saw all that, and I killed them all using his body!' his eyes widened at that. 'I went Melee though...the Vindice will never know...they're...free now...'
He stayed with her, helping her get over her first kills. The first is always the hardest no matter what purpose. He phoned the school saying she fell ill and cannot come for a few days.
xxx
At school, three days later...
Lorraine was well enough to come back after committing her first...massacre. What she's done to save someone greatly weighed on her mind, and Alaude stayed with her throughout because he's been there done that as a National Secret Agent in his past to protect his country before he joined Vongola. He too, committed his fair share of necessary kills, but that doesn't mean he liked it. He too, hated it but what can he do and what else could he do? Sometimes, to save, one must kill. And to dark horror, to protect future victims, its best to put down a rabid dog before it can hurt anyone else.
She wasn't happy but she saved a life and more children by putting down monsters.
'If indeed they're creating human weapons out of children...then its good that you killed them.' said Alaude. 'Should that boy die and be labeled a failure, who knows how many children will be taken from their homes or off the streets to be subjugated to the same fate? It will be a vicious cycle if you didn't kill them.'
Its as morbidly terribly simple as that.
So she focused herself in her schooling and training in a bid to forget her trauma.