A/N: I intend on changing the rating to M, the further we go along in the story. As of right now, the only warnings I have would be for swearing but it will get significantly darker as we progress through Luculia's life but have no fear, it won't get to that point until several chapters into the story.
I will put warnings on the individual chapters that require more warnings outside of just swearing and, of course, spoilers. This is a fanfiction after all.
If you have any questions regarding anything from plot holes I might accidentally leave open to suggestions for omake's feel free to leave me a review or a pm. I do have a filler/omake section lined up for after the story goes into the depths of darkness and back out.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy~
Enquiry answers:
Q: Does Tsuna exist in this world? (- Vivi Neferatari)
A: Yes! Tsuna exists in this world, however, he won't be introduced for quite awhile. Right now we are several years before Canon actually begins. I can make a more precise timeline if requested but as a rough one, for now, Tsuna would be about 4-years-old at the current moment.
(I've had this written already for awhile but I resolved myself to finish my discrete mathematics assignment first - much soz)
A few weeks had passed, Fon had already left for Mafia land by this time and the other residents of the household worked hard on Lu's technique in the training room.
"Like this?"
"Muu... nope"
"How bout this?" The mist stuck a hand through the translucent wall in front of him.
"Almost, it feels more like jelly. Make it more obstructive."
Lu tried again. "Any better?"
"A little. If it's difficult, try imagine something more solid than what you intend it to be."
"hmm alright..."
The 150th or so wall momentarily appeared in front of the two, her lighting and sun had long returned back to their offices leaving the pair to train alone together.
Viper reached a small hand out to feel the wall and nodded in satisfaction.
"Now this can be considered a wall, a little flimsy but still progress. It's definitely a good start to your barriers. I assume you're wanting this barrier to be nearly impenetrable if possible?" Lu nodded, "I want it to be as strong as possible."
"Muu... The strongest of barriers will always be made by lightings, that is in comparison to the amount of effort placed in. You can make strong barriers with mist flames but it will be a lot more difficult to achieve than it is for lightnings." Lu nodded again with understanding and determination flaring in her eyes.
Viper cleared his throat, "Considering how you wish to kidnap Fon's niece and grandnephew from the triads asap, I would suggest you borrow some lighting flames to reinforce the strength of your barriers temporarily so we can progress further in our own time."
That sounded perfect to her, the sooner they could go rescue them, the better.
Lu clapped, "Sounds like a plan! What's next on the agenda?"
"More walls" Viper deadpanned
"Oh"
"Yeah, 'Oh' is right. Now move on before I charge you for wasting time."
The walls were slowly progressing from walls to walls to finally a step up, a wall box.
You may be asking, what on earth is a wall box.
Well, it's like a shield prison thing, like a box made of walls that's intended use it so trap others or isolate threats such as explosions.
Viper thought that it would be a good place to begin as an in-and-out mission such as this rescue mission would go plenty more smooth if the girl could just block off oncoming chasers. It would also be a good mechanism for air combat.
He floated up into the air once more before dropping his almost non-existent weight of 4kg onto the box's floor. If it couldn't hold his weight, it wouldn't stop anything.
In the midst of the weight training, Lu felt Watari's sun flames wrap gently around her waist, coaxing her towards the doors.
"Another one..." Viper droned on for the millionth time before Lu stood up, picking up Viper as she rose.
"Muu, where are we going?" Viper asked, noticeably tired and bored, not resisting her hold at all.
Lu stretched her back and one arm out letting out a nice groan or relief, "Watari called for dinner" she informed her new-ish mist.
Viper made a noise in question. "His flames told me."
Viper never doubted the odd nature or uses of flames so he just accepted it and grunted in acceptance.
The dysfunctional family, minus Fon (whom had already left) gathered around the kitchen to grab their meals. Small plates were also sitting on the kitchen bench for the animal partners that were present.
"Verde, do you have a way of storing flames?" Lu asked as the group walked towards the bar per standard routine.
Verde raised an eyebrow at her, "You'd be better off asking Watari, brat. That's his current project, not mine."
Lu turned Watari the question clearly implied, "I do have a way little lady but it has yet to be optimised. I will run the project through Verde before you can use it though. What is the purpose of your question?"
"She wishes to grab Fon's wards as soon as possible. I suggested borrowing lighting flames temporarily for the mission. " Viper answered in her stead, "It has been almost four weeks since we started on this and at the rate we are going now, it would take at least another two. "
"Ahh" Watari replied. "You should continue in your training. I will refer my progress to Verde tonight. "
"It will be optimised as soon as possible" her lighting spoke up, "at the very latest, the end of the week. You should have made decent progress by then and we will contact Fon once you know how to manipulate my flames. "
Lu nodded, determined to succeed, her eyes shining a slight orange.
Ring, ring, ring!
click.
"Who is this?"
"Ah! Fon, hi!"
"Ah, hello Luculia. How are you this morning?"
On Lu's side of the phone, there were three others present that were not-so-discreetly eavesdropping.
"Is he really not going to ask how she got that number in the first place?" Verde questioned.
"Unlikely" Watari replied, "Viper is known as a very good informant, its reasonable that he makes that assumption"
"I'm great!" She replied with clear enthusiasm.
"That's good to hear. Is the reason for your call because you have completed your technique?"
"Mn!" she confirmed, "Viper and I worked super hard on it too! We were wondering where about we should meet you?"
"Namimori, Japan. I'm on my way there. Mei's husband is situated there as well, and we will discuss further."
"Okay~"
Watari had already pulled out his phone begun booking flights when she glanced back at him. "We'll be there tomorrow evening?"
Watari tilted his head slightly, giving her the affirmative. "Yeah, tomorrow evening." She relayed to the storm.
"I'll see you then, have a safe flight."
The tone went flat, and Lu put the phone down.
"Time to get packing," Watari announced with a delightful smile on his face, "our weapons are being transported over to Fon right now. We are taking public transport."
Verde and Viper looked slightly flabbergasted "What, why?"
"For the experience" Watari shrugged and chuckled, "it'll be fun"
The arcobaleno groaned, "'Fun' my ass" Verde snarked back.
Lu smiled innocently, "You must have a very entertaining ass, Verde."
The three men gave her slightly disturbed looks, Watari sighed, exasperated. Oh, the glory of innocence.
"I'll pay you to never say that again, Hime."
"May I have your passport please?" The nice looking lady requested.
Lu smiled brightly at her as Watari handed over the four passports over. Mammon sat comfortably on her head whilst Verde took the chance to bask in the comfort of his sky's flames and take a small nap.
The staff on shift, both guys and gals, were fangirling to the max.
'Awww they're so cute, she's taking such good care of her little brothers for her grandfather!'
'What a good girl she is! The children are so well behaved.'
Obviously hearing this, Lu giggled and Viper muu'd in protest. He had decades on the girl, only to be recognised as her little brother, how sad.
"Thank you very much," The lady said, "Please make your way to gate 13 for your flight to Namimori Japan. Have a safe trip!"
Watari nodded thanks to the lady and picked up the two bags by his feet. "Lead the way, little lady"
Mock saluting him, keeping a firm yet gentle hold of Verde and Viper with her flames. "Yessir!"
Watari chuckled, it was like a family trip, adorable really.
The wait for boarding was slightly longer than anticipated, there was some sort of a delay occurring.
Lu felt Viper's flames start to waver slightly, Lu picked him from her head and held him against her neck whilst Verde napped against her opposite shoulder. Viper just took advantage of the over comforting nature of his sky and welcomed likely the best nap he's had to date.
He nodded absentmindedly in thanks and allowed himself to doze off in the safety of his sky's firm hold.
Lu slowed her pace to walk alongside Watari. He glanced over the state of his fellow elements in amusement, adults in spirit they may be, yet children physically and mentally in the hold of their sky.
The gate call began a long while later and the noise racked up to a disturbing level. The two in her arms shifted uncomfortably. Lu frowned, unhappy that she couldn't do anything to help them. Watari, noticing this, petted her on the head before standing up and gesturing her to do the same.
"Come now, we have premium seating as well as children, so we get to board first. " Lu nodded as she stood up to follow her Sun. Lu reached her flames out to comfort their distressed flames as they walked into the plane, away from the crowd, lulling them back to sleep, their stars settling to a comfortable state of hibernation.
Watari smiled at the trio. "Window seat little lady?"
"Yes please," she whispered back, getting the two in her arms comfortable. She shuffled over to her seat and buckled herself in. They were in for a long flight.
As they reached the optimum height, the seatbelt sign turned off. Verde decided to take that moment to wake up, slightly groggy and rubbing his eyes, he asked for his glasses.
Watari picked them up gently off the side table and slipped it to him to which he nodded in thanks, still trying to shake the sleepiness out of his system.
"Good morning, sunshine" Lu said with a teasing tone. Verde half glared at her, visibly still exhausted, from his position on her left thigh and half-heartedly pointed at Watari, "I believe your sun is over there, brat".
Lu giggled, "Smooth"
Before the group had actually left the house, Verde had offered to pay for his own flight as a responsible adult he told his sky. This ended up causing Viper to begrudgingly offer as well so to not look like an asshole as much as he didn't want to waste money on it, he didn't want to make a bad impression on his new fellow elements nor his sky.
To their surprise though (and Viper's absolute delight), they were informed that their flights were actually free as the airline didn't charge for lap babies aged two or under. Whilst they were somewhat offended by the 'lap babies' part, the fact that they got a free flight was a good enough reason for them to brush it off.
The premium first-class portion of the aircraft, where the quartet was currently situated, was in a 2-2 formation. Two seats on the left, two on the right to provide optimum comfort for high paying customers. They were positioned on the second row from the front of the total of 4 rows of guests.
There was a woman and her son who looked to be slightly older than Lu sitting to the right of Watari, directly across the aisle.
Her son looked uncomfortable whilst the woman kept sending the young trio dirty looks over Watari and his newspaper.
'That lady is dangerous...' The voice warned. Lu fully agreed with it, that lady is scary.
This made all four of them obviously uncomfortable. Lu could feel the discomfort vibrating through their flames and she tried her best to comfort them despite her own discomfort.
The adorable attempts and spiritually hugging all of them at the same time were adorable and the three almost forgot about the woman for a split moment.
Verde, however, found the woman oddly familiar. She was an active storm to his absolute irritation, annoying storms were the worst.
He was pulled from his thoughts when the young sky pulled him closer to her for comfort. Viper woke up grumpy and visibly annoyed due to the predatory looks jabbing his instincts, he wanted nothing but to send her into a never-ending nightmare or burn her to ashes, either would work to be honest.
Out of the corner of her eye but not straight up looking at the woman, Lu saw the hag's face scrunch up in anger. The woman somehow noticed that she had been peeking looks at the older woman and reached up to jab violently at the alert attendant button.
She was tapping her foot on the carpet of the aircraft and her long fingernails on the armrest as she waited. The young, asian-looking female attendant that Lu recognised from having greeted her when she entered the plane arrived to tend to the woman's needs.
"Hello, how can I help you?" she said politely with a slight bow in her posture.
"Ah yes." the woman replied sharply as she pointed a rude finger towards Lu, "Those children over there were bothering me. I paid good money for this seat to have a comfortable flight. I demand that they are sent back to economy. I did not pay extra to have to fly with these babies."
Watari closed his newspaper and frowned at the woman, Lu gaped at her in disbelief. Like, really? What a mean move.
Verde was visibly fuming, and Viper was clearly irritated, his anger, however, was better concealed.
The poor flight attendant clearly looked uncomfortable, Lu felt so bad for her.
The scary woman's flames suddenly flared dangerously, an intimidation tactic that worked very effectively on the young and sensitive sky.
Lu flinched, visibly uncomfortable herself, her hands were fidgety, toying at the hem of her shirt. Her flames were also going haywire, trying to barrier her away from the danger but she was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't notice.
A thin layer of yellow coated blue slid over her flames, lightly coaxing its sky back to the safety of her star. She felt instantly calmer and released a quiet breath, her flames relaxing simultaneously at the familiar flame.
The woman from across the aisle was clearly still irritated but now was visibly intrigued by the presence of the young sky. An almost evil intent was felt by any and all onlookers when the corner of her lips stretched an abnormal amount into a smirk.
An active storm, she was. The girl had no present storm guardian too. Oh, how easy it would be to just slip into the harmony of the immature sky. She reached out a flare of storm flames at the rain-sun coating with the aim of breaking it down.
The woman flinched back when another sky suddenly slapped her storm away with what could be described as a slap on the wrist. Lu's guardians were thankful to the unknown sky for warding the woman off, not that she would have been able to touch her anyway. Whilst the arcobaleno pair would have been able to swat the woman's flames away easily, it was much more difficult to do so within a commercial aircraft without risking damaging something.
"None of mine have made a noise above a whisper since this flight took off," Watari stated loudly with a frown apparent on his face and an air of authority hovering around him, the storm's attention was successfully caught and dragged towards him. "Whilst you are making false claims, do note that I as well have paid equally as much money as you have for a comfortable flight with my family, that, in which you have now disturbed."
The woman's face began to darken in fury and embarrassment, her mouth opening to snap back at the elderly man. Lu tightened her hold on the two in her lap instinctively causing both to look up at her. Verde stayed silent but patted her knee in comfort.
"I'm sure this is all a misunderstanding." The flight attendant tried, "perhaps you may have overheard a child from economy."
The woman huffed, "I did no such thing! This man is clearly only trying to save his own hide from the truth." she hissed out, her flames flaring in rage, advertising her terrible control. To think this imbecile had the audacity to try and trigger a bond with their sky.
"Watari... " Lu whimpered, pulling her to the attention of her guardians. Light hints of pink started to appear on the skin of her open forearms. Burn marks, her lightning hissed. Verde fed his own flames into the rain coating her skin to create a barrier effect. Whilst Lu knew how to create physical barriers, her prowess was far from achieving flame protection.
"There have been no disturbing noises in the duration of this flight until this argument arose" noted a female voice from the seat directly in front of Watari. The girl speaking poked her head out into the aisle, gave Verde and Viper a cheeky smile and Lu a comforting one before turning back to the flight attendant. "I do not believe there is anything bothering occurring in this cabin, we are quite alright here, thank you miss".
Verde and Viper openly gaped at the green haired teen causing Lu to give them questioning looks and Watari to chuckle, lightening the heavy mood instantaneously.
"Indeed" he confirmed, tilting his head slightly to dismiss the girl. The flight attendant nodded and dipped her head in respect before leaving. The accusing woman glared at Watari and the green-haired teen before angrily crossing her arms in a fit. "This is ridiculous!" she complained to the blond boy next to her, throwing her back roughly against her seat, "We should be getting better service than this for my money, right Shuan~?"
The boy looked visibly uncomfortable and unimpressed with the woman's singsong tone alongside her actions. He frowned, "They didn't do anything wro-" he was cut off by a loud slap across his face. "Wrong answer!" she hissed. The boy's face turned grim in resignation and he turned to look out the window, leaning his chin on one hand, the other holding his bruised face.
Everyone in the first-class cabin sent her frowns and disapproving looks. Lu trembled in fury, she was horrified at the woman's treatment of the boy. Lu knew better than anyone what a life without a decent mother was like and boy, was she furious.
She wasn't about to let the boy get stomped all over as she did.
Her flames were always good for comforting her family, she could help them calm down and help them sleep. Maybe she could comfort him too?
When Lu sent her flames out to the blond boy, Shuan she recalled, both arcobaleno and Watari felt some of her flames moving away from them and sent her a worried look. They almost wanted to demand the girl to retract her harmony, but they knew that she didn't have the heart to not try.
Shaun's flames weren't very accepting of the interaction. They pulled away and tried to shoo her away. Her flames attempted to coax him out of his bubble, trying to tell him that it was okay and that she wasn't going to hurt him.
The woman fumed silently after being sent the evil eyes by their surrounding passengers. She flared her storm dangerously to ward the young sky off. A bad move to do, especially on a commercial plane. Her storm caused a sudden burst of violet turbulence making Luculia flinch and pull her flames back to hold her family safe.
The hag stopped her flames once she retracted and sent the girl a smug look. Viper watched as Verde bristled in anger. It was almost amusing, Verde was acting like a protective cat.
The boy, being a flame active himself, witnessed the whole exchange. Whilst he was sceptical before, he hesitantly started to accept and appreciate the younger girl's efforts. The blonde wasn't one to just wait for a rescue, if he was going to get out, he was going to get out.
Just as he was about to slip wisps of flames past the raging storm that sat beside him, he felt a predatory gaze on him that sent a shiver down spine. Something lodged in the back of his throat, oh God he hoped that it wasn't the woman.
Slowly and discretely, he turned his eyes to check on the woman, she didn't even glance at him. It was… the baby? That hooded, kid didn't feel like a baby at all.
Viper frowned at the blonde, sending waves of 'don't you freaking dare do it' looks at him. Verde had it worse than him with his flames having the characteristics to potentially mess up the motor circuits and send them flying to their deaths but mists still had it bad. Viper could see that the boy had mist flames from a mile away, it was clearly within an illusionist's job description to be able to detect and break other illusionists. He wasn't about to let this child cast unruly potent mist flames within the aircraft and potentially mess up navigations or worse, create real illusions and cause chaos among the passengers.
The boy silently sighed and resigned himself to wait it out. Not that he had to wait long at all because as soon as the woman opened a magazine, Lu flat out shot a rope, a rope, of sky flames right past the woman and poked his star in the side causing him to jump in shock and wince. It was like getting jabbed in the side, you know… like zapped.
Either way, he was relieved and took a moment to just bask in the comfort of a sky. Be it this brash, idiot of a sky that jabbed him in the side to let him in, but still a sky, his sky.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see him starting to relax and she smiled to herself, silently clapping at her own achievement. Her older guardians staring at her, some in disbelief, Watari in understanding. Viper just sighed, resigned and Verde's face twisted into a look that shot her a clear "wait really?"
Her comfortable content state was forced out of her system so suddenly she got winded and started finding it hard to breathe. Shuan was panicking, he was downright freaking out and she could feel it.
She doubled over and Watari ran comforting circles on her back. Lu forced her eyes up to see what caused the panic and her eyes widened, her guardians followed her line of sight and grimaced.
The woman had definitely noticed their harmonisation and was, for the lack of better words, furious.
Her hair shadowed over her eyes, "Now now baby, it's time for your medication okay?" the woman smiled, a terrifying and intimidating smile towards Shuan. He whimpered, terrified enough to forget any form of shame he usually would have felt by making such a weak sound.
She pulled out a syringe full of strange liquid. Exactly how she got that on board a commercial flight was beyond Lu's comprehension. Verde eyed the liquid with disturbed interest, he didn't know what it was, a mixture of chemicals with particles bubbling within it, if anything it looked boiling hot. No medicine would look like that not medicine for a seemingly not fatally wounded child at least.
Shuans flames were flickering in despair, Lu's sky flames were trying to calm it down, but it wasn't working.
The woman roughly pulled his sleeve up above his elbow, prepared to shove the liquid straight up his veins that laid on the inner side of his elbow.
Shaun's eyes were wide in fear, his unimpressed ashamed look was temporarily forgotten in the fear. The needle approached slowly, it got closer and closer and "U-um excuse me?"
Lu had unbuckled her seatbelt, gathered the two on her lap and gently placed them on the chair she had previously occupied at a neck breaking speed.
The needle pulled back a safe distance and was quickly stuffed back into its case as if to hide its existence. The woman turned her head from Shuan to the girl in question, a strained and obviously forced (to her at least) smile on her face, "Yes, what is it, my dear?"
Lu slid past Watari and into the aisle, Watari's arm sitting slightly over the edge of the armrest, ready to pull Lu's form back to safety if necessary.
Having spoken up on a whim to save the boy, Lu made something up on the spot that everyone in attendance mentally applauded her for.
"I couldn't help but overhear that he was taking medicine, I um need to take some as well for my uh plane sickness. The head flight attendant has all the medicine for passengers, do you want to go with me? We can do it together. "
The woman was quick to refuse. "Oh no it's quite alright, I will take him myself. I'm sure he's more comfortable with his mother. "
Lie.
Scared but not stupid, Shuan unbuckled his seatbelt and stood up before his 'mother' ruined all chance of escape. Clearing his throat, he spoke, "I'd appreciate that, thanks." Lu stepped back, closer to Watari to give the boy space to move. The woman's face scrunched up in anger before smoothing out as she moved her body to let her 'son' through, she had no choice in the matter due to the audience they had watching over them.
"Take Viper with you, Lu. He needs to get a drink anyway. Grab it whilst you're up. " Watari demanded lightly, Viper rolled his eyes as she nodded and hopped onto Watari's armrest for easy access.
"I think it's this way," Lu said as she gestured to the front area, scooping her mist up as she walked past. This was the place where they initially entered the aircraft, it was mostly quiet with the pilots' control room down the hall. Shuan nodded and walked forward first, the pair not far behind. They stopped around the corridor between the shelves of food and the pilots operating area
"Ah speaking of medicine, I should go get mine in case my allergies return during meal time. I will be back shortly Gamma" the teen said, smiling at him before following the group of children.
Her lightning spluttered a protest before sighing in defeat and slumping back into his chair.
Verde gave Watari a look and Watari sighed before ushering him along, resulting in a little green head toddling down the aisle to join them.
Watari mentally sighed again. A magnet, he swears. Lu is just a magnet for trouble especially with that over caring and concerned heart. He pulled out his laptop and continued to busy himself until they returned.
"So" Lu started as the group of three suddenly extended to five. "I'm Luculia, you can call me Lu or whatever nickname you come up with." She smiled warmly at the boy, she's always wanted a friend her age.
She picked Verde up with her other arm to bring him up to a comfortable height to talk and let Viper situate himself comfortably on her head. She bounced Verde in her hold slightly then pointed to the one on her head. "This one is Verde and that one is Viper."
The teen present smiled at the group of youngsters, "I'm Aria. I'm the current sky arcobaleno."
Lu stared at her for a long while before gasping in realisation, "Ohh! that's why you guys gaped at her."
"We do not gape," they both protested, simultaneously.
"Jinx" Viper called in, "You owe me $100"
"...no"
"I'll charge you for disobedience"
The other three bystanders let out a sweat drop.
"Aren't your pacifiers meant to glow when you're near each other?" Lu asked.
Verde had told her about the pacifiers when she asked about it a long time ago. She had always wondered how they linked in with the state of their stars. That was an ongoing personal investigation of hers.
"They do initially for a while" Aria clarified, "I believe they were asleep thus missed it."
Luculia pouted, "I can't believe I missed it and I was awake too!"
Shuan remained silent, standing the furthest away from the group. It was understandable that he was wary, being the newest of the bunch.
Lu wrapped her flames around his own in comfort. Coaxing him forward towards the group but he stayed vigilant.
Lu sent him a sad look. He attempted to remedy it when he suddenly explained himself in her mind
'I prefer to be in the least crowded place possible' He spoke.
"Oh, that's okay!" Lu replied with a warm smile. Verde sent her another of his weird questioning looks, Aria and Viper observed her curiously. "Brat, who are you talking to?"
"...Shuan?" Verde sent her an unbelieving look.
"Muu... he hasn't spoken a word, Hime" Viper explained to the clueless girl.
"Oh..."
Leaning on the wall of the corridor Shuan took this opportunity to save her from her own predicament, "I spoke to her mind" he clarified.
"A mist?" Aria questioned.
"Cloud"
"Clouds have the ability of propagation though… Are you psychic?" Verde questioned
"Forced" he replied with a grimace. His answers remained short and straight to the point. Honestly, Verde was just happy that he hadn't fallen to monosyllables.
"The liquid then, I presume."
Shuan nodded stiffly. "What famiglia is she from?" Aria asked, curiosity laced in her tone.
"Estraneo. They were looking to transfer me to the Japan facility."
Aria hummed. The Estraneo were doing some dodgy stuff…
She sighed, the poor boy. "We still have at least 10 hours of flight left and we'll need to go back soon, or she'll get suspicious"
Shuan paled significantly.
Aria held a finger up in front of his face to regain his attention, "I'll get Gamma to swap seats with our little sky here, since we're at the front we have a significant amount of leg room to account for the attendants. I'll say that we're now friends and want to hang out together and I'll see if we can borrow one of the attendant's chairs temporarily for you"
"But I'll have to go back for landing or turbulence?"
"There's a chance that there are enough other seats for attendants, or they would be willing to take your original seat but yes, there is the chance you will have to return."
Next Chapter: Ch 8 - Lu and the squad land in Namimori momentarily before I ship them off to China. It's almost time to meet little Kyoya!
