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Title: Ayakashi

Summary: Tsuna is half-youkai, but that's not going to stop him from becoming Vongola Decimo. At least, not if Reborn has anything to say about it. Still, something he really wishes his student wasn't quite so weird.

Notes: Originally posted on my tumblr as just something to keep me writing when inspiration waned. I'm gathering the short chapters and posting them here for posterity.

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Chapter 23 The darkest night of the year

Reborn had been half expecting it, when Tsuna invited Gokudera over to spent the night of December 21 at his house. With all the other nature and astronomy related phenomena affecting youkai, why not winter solstice too?

But to his surprise, Tsuna did nothing more than set out the spare futon for Gokudera and settle into bed.

"Isn't something going to happen?" Reborn finally gave in and asked.

Tsuna nodded sleepily, pulling his covers up. "Mm, yeah. They're gonna ring the bell at the temple. It'll," he yawned, "release the malevolent thoughts of the earthbound spirits… But we don't need to do anything. So let's just go to sleep. Maybe we'll have a special first dream of the new year. I heard you can see the last or the future or another world…"

Gokudera whispered a question, something concerning whether Tsuna had ever had this mythical special first dream, but Tsuna's answer was barely discernible mumbling. The two of them soon drifted off, leaving only Reborn awake.

He felt almost disappointed. After the ayakashi festival, he had expected something… more, something new and crazy and frustrating. Something he could grumble to himself about.

He really did sound like an old man.

Somewhere, in the far off darkness, a bell began to ring. Each deep tone resonated down to his bones, almost beyond the range of hearing and into something that was felt in the core.

One… two… three…

Twenty-two… twenty-three…

Losing count, Reborn felt himself drifting off as well.

It was dark, and the bell was tolling.

He was standing beside a plain black coffin, unmarked except for the large X upon the lid. No, it wasn't an X. It was a "10" — Decimo.

The realization was like a shot through the heart, and only the sheer numbness that permeated his body kept Reborn from stumbling under the sudden, sharp pain.

This was all wrong. It wasn't supposed to be like this. Why was he, the one doomed to die, always left to watch others perish?

A soft hand rested on his shoulder. "Our lives are short," Luce said, looking just as she had so long ago. "We give them freely, for the sake of others. That is our fate."

The distant, detached part of Reborn's mind that never truly slept or dreamt, only coldly calculating everything around him, felt a sudden, terrible sense of wrongness at the connection Luce drew between herself and Tsuna. They were both Sky, but surely they were not the same. Surely Tsuna had nothing to do with that.

"Our fate was determined long ago, by the origin of our blood," Luce told him. "Even if the gods that sleep within us engulf us in flames, we will not waver in our resolve."

Reborn looked away.

Across from them, Vongola Primo watched with inhuman glowing eyes, a Flame shining upon his forehead. What was the vaunted Vongola blood? Not youkai. Not demon. But not human either. That power was not human.

Primo held one hand over his heart and bowed deeply. The ring on his finger burned with the same pure Flame.

Then, suddenly, the flames went out, and Reborn was left in darkness. In the distance, the bell was ringing. How many more times would it toll?

"One hundred and eight all together. One for every human sin, according to certain beliefs," someone said, in a tone that might have been amused, if it hadn't been so detached. "Greed, wrath, hatred… Humans have many sins."

Reborn turned slowly, but he could see nothing in the darkness.

"Tell me, do you hate me?" that same someone asked. "It does not matter. There is no choice. A living Will is necessary to light a Flame."

One hundred six… One hundred seven… One hundred eight.

Reborn woke up with a profound sense of unease. He couldn't remember his dream, but he was left with a grating knowledge of contradiction.

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Chapter 24 The cycle of the world

Although Reborn had seen Namimori Shrine back in August, during the Obon festival, he found the small temple and its grounds almost unrecognizable on New Year's Day.

The shrine was packed with people, and a line stretched past the ceremonial gate and down the long staircase. It seemed like every resident of the town had turned up to pray and pay their respects.

"It's the busiest time of the year," Tsuna said. "Kyoko and her brother are helping out the caretaker, actually." He blushed a little, imagining Kyoko in a miko's red and white outfit.

The line advanced steadily, up the stairs and onto the shrine grounds. Eventually, it was Tsuna's turn. Stepping up to the shrine, he clapped his hands twice and pulled the heavy rope. Overhead, the large bells clanged.

Reflexively, Reborn twitched.

Moving away to allow the next party to step up, Tsuna drifted toward the souvenir stand, manned by Kyoko. She smiled at Tsuna cheerfully, making him blush.

The repetitive ringing of the shrine bell was grating on Reborn's nerves. It seemed to echo somewhere in Reborn's memories, putting him constantly on edge. The press of people around them was distracting, with his senses in overdrive. Each innocent visitor seemed like a potential assassin.

Hopping off Tsuna's shoulder, Reborn dodged between the moving forest of legs and quickly made his way out of the crowd.

He took refuge behind the shrine, where visitors did not normally venture. The voices and bell were muted, letting Reborn relax a little. He hadn't reacted so badly in a long time, not since he was a completely green rookie on his first assignment. Worse, he couldn't even pin down what had made him so unsettled.

Just to compound his embarrassment, a voice behind him made Reborn jump.

"Oh? Do you need help, okyaku-sama?"

Reborn spun around, Leon already shifting into a gun as he took aim at the intruder — a man of indeterminable age, dressed in traditional clothing. Reborn hadn't noticed his approach at all; he couldn't be a normal human.

Seemingly unbothered by the gun — but many people weren't, assuming it was a toy — or Reborn's killing intent, the man smiled, his round glasses glinting a little.

He had addressed Reborn as "customer," which meant he worked at the shrine.

"Are you the caretaker?" Reborn asked, keeping his tone unreadable.

"At this time," the man said, his smiled unwavering. "I am Kawahira."

The silence between them felt entirely too heavy.

"Reborn?" Tsuna called out, peering around the side of the shrine. "Oh, Kawahira-san, hello. Reborn, I'm heading home. Are you coming?"

"I was just waiting for you to finish flirting," Reborn said dismissively, jumping back onto Tsuna's shoulder. "A good hitman knows when to step aside and let someone else take the stage."

As Tsuna blushed and sputtered, Kawahira regarded them with the same strange smile. "Make sure to have a good year," he called out to them. "Don't leave any regrets."

When Reborn glanced back, he was gone. Again, he hadn't sensed it.

"Tsuna," Reborn said, keeping his tone even, "what is he?"

"Kawahira-ojisan? I don't know," Tsuna replied. "He's not like us. He's something else."

It wasn't, Reborn realized with a sudden chill, that Tsuna didn't recognize Kawahira's exact species. It was that Kawahira's existence was beyond the scope of Tsuna's knowledge.

That man was not ayakashi. Not youkai. Not a demon, as they were called in Europe, or a supernatural being.

But he was not a human.

So what was he?

And why did something about him feel so familiar to Reborn, in the deepest part of his mind?

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Chapter 25 A happy year

Tsuna collapsed on the bed face first, sighing into his pillow. "So tired," he muttered.

"Dame-Tsuna, dry off first," Reborn instructed. "You're getting the sheets wet." He ignored the way he sounded like a nagging parent. It was part of his duty as a tutor. If Tsuna got sick, they would be forced to take entire days off training.

"'S your fault," Tsuna mumbled. "I got snow down my shirt an' in my shoes…"

Indeed, the snowball fight had turned rather intense at points, with the unexpected team switches, new teams entering the battle and rule changes. Well, the Vongola famiglia was supposed to be like that. Reborn had perhaps gotten a bit carried away himself. He hadn't intended to go through all those costumes.

"But," Tsuna said, turning on his side to look at Reborn, "it was fun, just like the New Year's competition. Thanks, Reborn."

"Humph. A strong bond, both with your Guardians and the Boss of one of Vongola's top allies, will be important for you in the future, Decimo," he said.

"… Do you think I can have that? Many strong bonds?" Tsuna wondered quietly. "Will there be many more days like this — hectic and crazy and tiring, but so much fun?"

"It won't always be like that," Reborn said. He didn't want to lie, but… he didn't want to tell Tsuna the truth either. He didn't want Tsuna to think of only the blood and darkness that was such a prevalent, pervasive part of the mafia. "It's not always like that," he repeated, "but your famiglia will always be with you."

"That's good enough for me. It's more than enough," Tsuna said, smiling softly. "If even one day a year can be like this, I think I can be happy."

It didn't matter, of course, whether he agreed to it or not, whether he was happy or not. Reborn had accepted the mission of making Tsuna into Timoteo's successor, and he would not fail. But all the same…

"It's good that you've come to terms with your future, Dame-Tsuna," Reborn said, keeping his voice light. "Now that you understand, I can increase your training menu. If you whine, I'll have to punish you."

Tsuna groaned, only to end up laughing, his mood too good to be ruined even by promises of future torture.

"Thank you, Reborn," he said again. "For the last half year. It's been the happiest part of my life. I made friends and met so many new people. I learned so much. And…" his voice grew soft as he hid his face again, "for the first time I was able to feel like I am truly glad to be alive."

His earnest feelings made even Reborn feel like hiding his face. Tilting his fedora down, the hitman grumbled, "Go to sleep, Dame-Tsuna. You're going to have a long day tomorrow. And don't forget to get dry sheets."

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A/N: The creepy dream special seems to have caused some confusion, so I will attempt to explain to the… two of you who are reading.

It's supposed to be confusing, so feel free to interpret differently, but this is the "official" interpretation.

The entire dream is mostly just Reborn's subconsciousness acting up. Reborn dreams about the coffin because that's become his biggest fear — that Tsuna will die. The fact that he's come to care so much for Tsuna is what actually links Tsuna to Luce in Reborn's mind.

She died because it was her "fate" as Sky Arcobaleno. Reborn connects this to Tsuna's "fate" of becoming Vongola Decimo. That fate was handed down to Tsuna because of Primo, hence his appearance. (Reborn may or may not know the connection between the Pacifiers and the Vongola Rings.)

However, underpinning all this is something that Reborn has been subconsciously pondering and has yet to realize on the conscious level. The dream drops large hints toward this point, but it all gets twisted up in Reborn's emotional concerns. It concerns the nature of Flames.

Reborn and Gokudera have said that Flames can only be used by humans. That power is different from ayakashi/youkai/demons/"the supernatural." However, Reborn notes that Primo's lineage is "not human." And it is from Primo's bloodline that strong Flames come.

So what does that mean?

On some level, there is a reason why Luce is equivalent-ed to Primo. There are "gods that sleep within them." And then, of course, guest appearance by Kawahira as a creepy disembodied voice. He may or may not actually be inside Reborn's dream. It might be some kind of memory that got lost under all the trauma of becoming an Arcobaleno.

But hey, all this is totally not relevant for like, another eighty chapters, which I wouldn't count on getting actually written.

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