Contritum Caelum
Author : 27x18
Warnings : Some language.
~.~
It was startling how little changed after that, Tsuna and her siblings came back to school, but the Vongola had backed off for now, probably thanks to Giotto fighting for Tsuna on their side of things to keep her with her chosen family.
Tsuna went back to working with the student council while Byakuran caused as much trouble as he could for and on the council.
It was maybe a week after they returned that Byakuran began to notice something was wrong, it was small at first, they would be working on paperwork, or Tsuna would be crocheting when all of a sudden she'd look up in question.
"Hmm?" Byakuran tilted his head at her
"Tsu-hime?"
"Did you say something?" Tsuna asked while Byakuran shook his head at her, no he hadn't said anything, there was only them in the room currently too, so there had been nothing said to Tsuna. Tsuna frowned slightly before shaking her head with a sigh.
"Sorry, just tired I guess, I thought you said something." Byakuran petted her head gently at that with a wry smile
"You're worrying too much about Yuni-chan again aren't you?" the white haired teen noted, she always did this, spent so much of her time worrying about their frail little sister that she ended up not sleeping or hardly eating.
Something small, something so small that he didn't even notice in the beginning. Byakuran knew now that he was a fool for ever dismissing anything. Tsuna worried over Yuni, she always did, but this was different, this wasn't tired. This was something new, again, something he hadn't suspected or seen before in another world, this was new, and he blamed himself for not seeing it earlier.
Byakuran only noticed something was very wrong when he came into a room one day and Tsuna was holding a conversation with an empty room, her eyes widening when she saw him, flicking her eyes from the empty space then back to him
"How did you move that fast?" Tsuna asked confused while Byakuran studied his sister carefully.
"Tsu-hime, I just got here." Byakuran assured while her face pressed into a frown her eyes flicking back to the space she had been talking to,
"Not funny Byaku-nii." Tsuna sighed pushing to her feet and coming over to flick his forehead, "I'm going to cook with Yuni." Byakuran watched her with a frown while his sister walked down the hallway, quickly following after her to watch as she and Yuni cooked, worried about her sudden changes in behaviour.
Yuni could see something too, the girl kept watching Tsuna carefully, the older female Gesso every now and then just stopping and staring blankly at nothing, it was sending red flags high with Byakuran, whom swiftly kidnapped his littlest sister from the kitchen.
"Yuni you need to tell me what you see." Byakuran ordered softly while Yuni frowned deeply shaking her head,
"I can't Byaku-nii, it's all fuzzy lately, I just….I know something is wrong with Tsu-nee." Yuni whispered, "Something is wrong and it's not natural." Yuni assured her small face twisted into a worried frown while she watched her sister space out completely just staring at nothing. "Byaku-nii what do we do?"
"Don't worry Yuni-chan, I won't let anything happen to her." Yuni nodded in reply and hurried back into the kitchen to try and snap Tsuna from her daze, the eggs on the stove were close to burning.
"Tsu-nee, I think the eggs are done." Yuni noted walking back over to her side, Tsuna snapping from her daze her eyes flicking around
"Sorry Yuni-chan." Tsuna sighed taking the eggs from the heat "I think I zoned out." Yuni smiled in return to her sister and just hugged her from behind her eyes closed Please be okay Tsu-nee.
~.~
Giotto was torn, he was really torn, he had been thinking over the issue of the Vongola Ring for 2 weeks now. Giotto wanted to give it to Tsuna, he believed she would give it back, but if he didn't have a damn good argument for that thinking then Reborn was going to tell his grandfather all about this, and Giotto knew that conversation would not end well. Timoteo wanted to get Tsuna back into the Vongola, not hand her over the Sky Ring and let her continue to be affiliated with then only via the Gesso.
However he was not going to stand by and let Yuni die just because his grandfather was stubborn. Maybe if he could get the ring passed to him officially, then he could lend it to Tsuna for a week or two, once again the problem with that was that Reborn would lose his mind if he did that, there was no guarantee that Tsuna would give the ring back once they broke the curse on the Arcobaleno, if that was even possible.
Giotto's intuition could tell him it was the truth they were speaking, but that only told him that they believed it was the truth, it still didn't tell them if this was actually true. Byakuran had passed his intuition test in regards to being able to see into other dimensions, but that didn't mean that every single dimension was the same, so what if in this world, this reality, the reality from those other worlds wasn't true, what if there was no way to break this curse in this world.
Byakuran and Tsuna had said that this Checkerface had already waited much longer then the other realities, maybe he was dead here, or had just decided that he didn't want new Arocbaleno.
What if he gave the ring to Tsuna and then this Checkerface never appeared before them, Yuni would still die and he would have given the ring to someone outside the Vongola famiglia, handing them a powerful relic and medium to manipulate their Flames, Tsunahime was a Sky as well, so she would be able to use the ring.
Giotto really wished he could talk about this with someone other then Reborn, he wanted to talk to G about it, but he had given his word that he wouldn't tell anyone, so he had to figure this out on his own, though bouncing ideas off G had always helped before, this time he was alone, it was time for him to man up and make a decision like the adult he was meant to be becoming.
Whatever he did he couldn't make this decision solely of his emotions, he needed to make sure the Vongola was protected, he was the heir of the Vongola, it was the very least he could do.
~.~
He had never noticed it before, he had been connected to the Tri-ni-sette for as long as it had existed, but never before had such strong Sky Flames been in one place. Two of the strong Flames held two of the three artifacts, maybe, just maybe there would be enough Flames there to pass onto a new generation, the current Sky in control of the pacifier would die soon, there needed to be another strong Sky in place before that happened.
He would set up shop in this town, the town that had all three Sky items within its border, another strange occurrence that had never happened before. Maybe, just maybe there was another Sky there able to take on the pacifier before the current bearer died, if he was lucky there would be an unburdened Sky there to transfer the curse to.
~.~
The garden at the Italian mansion, Tsuna often dreamt this same dream, sitting in the garden watching as Yuni played in the flowers, Byakuran was stuffing himself with marshmallows as always to one side while they just existed.
Not on any job, not worrying about Yuni's decline in health, not worrying about anything, just being there and existing in the moment. Tsuna loved this dream, she loved seeing Yuni still completely healthy and happy, the way the child spun in the flowers and the calm conversations they shared as a family, nothing could ever shatter this memory.
"Pretty scene for a mafioso." Tsuna refused to look, there was never anyone there, she kept looking and there was never anyone there, so she had to ignore it, it was only making Byakuran worried about her, it was annoying though to think that not even her dreams were safe anymore. "You're really going to ignore me? And to think I came all this way to meet the big scary Gesso assassin." Tsuna couldn't help but glance to the side, blinking startled when she saw there was in fact someone there.
Maybe because in her dreams she could give a face to the whispers that she still wanted to pretend were not a problem.
"Hello there~" it was a blue haired teen around her age with heterochromia, though she had never seen a case like that, one of his eyes was red and seemed to have a Japanese character for a number in it instead of a pupil. "You're not what I expected of the Gesso's famed assassin."
"Sorry to disappoint you Mr. Not really there." Tsuna rolled her eyes at him and looked back at the memory of Yuni playing,
"How cold." the teen sighed while sitting himself down on her other side, the memory of Byakuran still prattling on as if nothing was amiss. "Ah, so this is a memory, not a standard dream."
"You can tell a difference?" Tsuna asked while flicking her brown eyes to the teen again, he was smiling at her, but she felt something cold behind his smile, he wasn't smiling with his eyes.
"When you're in a dream the characters interact with you, in a memory they continue on as set by the memory in question."
"You often invade the dreams of innocent teenage girls?" the young man let out a guffaw at that,
"We both know you're anything but innocent, you're famous in the underworld. Though the running rumour seems to be that you're male, probably thinking of your dear brother here." he mused while Tsuna finally turned her full attention to this invader.
"Can I help you with something?" he smiled at her again then, though it seemed just as cold as the last one, Tsuna didn't like his smiles at all, if he didn't feel like smiling he shouldn't be faking it, it was annoying as hell to her intuition.
"Actually, yes." Tsuna cocked an eyebrow at him "But before that, I guess introductions are in order~" Tsuna just stared at him blankly while he smiled back at her in return "My name is Mukurou, and yourself?"
"You've somehow invaded my dreams….but you don't know my name?"
"It took a lot of dream hopping to find the Gesso's most treasured assassin." he chuckled "None of the names they had for you are very polite."
"Tsu-nee!" Tsuna blinked back over to Yuni as the girl tackled her, Tsuna smiling softly while petting her head "I love Tsu-nee."
"Tsu-nee huh." Tsuna looked over at the man but he was gone.
"Get a grip Tsuna, come on, get a grip." Tsuna closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes she was back in her bed in the mansion, looking to one side to see Yuni fast asleep beside her, curling into her.
Tsuna smiled softly and snuggled back into the blankets, hugging Yuni close Tsuna smiled softly and let herself drift off again.
~.~
"So….going to tell me your name? Or am I going to keep calling you Tsu-nee~" Tsuna glanced over at the young man leaning against the wall near the door in the student council office. Glancing around to check no one was reacting to him she went back to her work ignoring him, he was definitely in her head. Tsuna knew as well that if she told Byakuran he would freak out, so she was ignoring him with a passion.
Tsuna had decided to think of him as annoying background sound, she would ignore him and refuse to look at him and get on with her day without letting her brother know that whatever was wrong with her was getting worse.
Tsuna wasn't stupid, she knew she had been worrying them, she hadn't even noticed it really, and still didn't notice most of the things they worried about, but seeing things that were not there was not making it onto the list of shit that Byakuran was worried about.
"You can't ignore me forever, I'm not going to go away." Tsuna just kept concentrating on her work while the hallucination frowned at her from across the room. "I'm not leaving until I get what I came for Tsu-nee." Tsuna's eye twitched at that, she did not like this bastard using the nickname Yuni had for her, it just sounded creepy coming from someone her age that she didn't know, hell it was weird coming from someone that didn't exist.
Gritting her teeth to stop herself from telling him to fuck off Tsuna just filtered him out and kept working on her papers, sorting them into piles to make Giotto work on later.
Tsuna flinched one hand slashing up to hit someone when they touched her, blinking startled when she saw her brother holding her wrist, looking at her in worry while she relaxed "Sorry Byaku-nii." Tsuna sighed rubbing at her temples, she was really losing it, not noticing that her brother was by her side until he touched her, she had been concentrating so hard on ignoring Mukurou that she had blocked out everything "I got so absorbed in these papers….sorry." Byakuran petted her gently on the head, his lilac eyes still showing his worry, but he wasn't about to call it out in front of the Vongola in the office, their issues were a private affair.
"I said are you ready for us to go? It's late." Tsuna nodded with a half smile, setting the last few papers aside. Glancing over to where Mukurou had been she sighed in relief to see him gone for now, turning her attention back to Byakuran she frowned slightly seeing him looking in the same direction a question in his eyes that she just ignored.
"Yeah, let's head home, Yuni-chan has probably finished making dinner for us." Tsuna agreed while Byakuran reluctantly nodded, setting aside her strange behaviours as something to talk about later.
"Mmm, good night all, we'll be leaving now." Byakuran bowed to the Vongola in the student council office with a flourish, leading Tsuna out while she glanced back to frown at Reborn, the Arcobaleno toddler watching her closely. Looks like even he was noticing something was wrong, Tsuna had to be more careful, she was showing weakness to the Vongola, and that could not be allowed.
"Tsu-hime." Byakuran breathed when they sat in the car on the way home, finally away from watching eyes of anyone but one another and one of her brothers most trusted, his Funeral Wreaths. "Please….you need to tell me what's going on, I can't help if you keep it from me." Tsuna sighed and reached out to ruffle his hair with a smile,
"I'm alright Byaku-nii, I promise, I'll tell you if anything happens. I think I'm just not reacting well to all the stress….Yuni-chan doesn't have much time left….I can't lose her." Byakuran nodded in agreement while he tugged her into a hug and held her tight,
"I'm worried about her too, just….talk to your big brother more, I worry about my little Tsu-hime." Tsuna snuggled into his hold for a moment before chuckling and pulling away to poke his stomach
"You're getting pudgy from all those marshmallows." Tsuna noted while Byakuran pouted at her,
"How cruel, my fragile self esteem….Tsu-hime's calling me fat~" Tsuna giggled and poked his middle again while Byakuran puffed out his cheeks and pouted at her making her burst into laughter,
"You're beginning to look like a giant marshmallow Byaku-nii." Byakuran burst into giggles himself while he petted her head gently,
"Don't worry, I still love you even though you're mean to me." Tsuna flicked his forehead in response "Even if you are the unwanted bitch of the Sawada family." Tsuna blinked startled looking at Byakuran in confusion while he stared back, his head tilting while he studied her "Tsu-hime?" Tsuna shook her head forcing a small laugh, no, Byakuran wouldn't have said that, he never would, this was all in her head again.
"Nothing Byaku-nii, ne what was Yuni-chan making for dinner?"
"Hmm, she said it was a surprise, that sounds dangerous doesn't it." Tsuna chuckled in response while rolling her eyes at her brother,
"Only for you, it probably means no marshmallows allowed." Byakuran sniffled while pouting at her again, pulling his dreaded kicked puppy look "Oh don't start, you stole that look from me, I'm immune." Byakuran sniffled again his eye watering while Tsuna looked anywhere but at him, while she said she was immune to it….it was another thing to be faced with it again, Byakuran just looked so hurt.
"T-Tsu-hime's b-being mean."
"That's me, the mean sister."
"I do love my weird grumpy little sister." Byakuran sighed while pulling Tsuna into another hug, tightening his hold on her for a moment before letting her go. He was still worried, Tsuna made excuses, but whatever was happening it was getting worse. Byakuran had his suspicions about how far this had really gone, but there was not much he could do without getting some sort of confirmation from Tsuna. One of his biggest worries though, was that this was a side effect of the Flame prison in her weakening, or being tested too often, what if he was the cause of this.
~.~
Reborn was not happy, and when Reborn was not happy it tended to spill over to his students, in this case said student was the reason he was unhappy in the first place so he was only too happy to take it out on the most annoying student he had ever had to date.
Natsu had been annoying him for years, but now he was not just annoyed but he was curious too, and not in a good way.
Every morning the girl that had to be electrocuted, frozen, beaten or her blankets set on fire before she would even begin to rouse, every morning Natsu had been getting up without his assistance, and not only that but she was disappearing to school as early as possible without being pulled up by Alaude and his little squad of loyal members for being on grounds too early.
So Reborn had followed her, and what he saw confused him even more, she was leaving early every morning to apply varnish to Tsunahime's desk? That made no sense unless there was more to this, and Reborn knew there had to be. There had been a noticeable decline in Tsuna recently that she was hiding very effectively, and if he had to think about it, it slowly started about two weeks go.
As soon as Natsu had painted the desk over she sprayed something above the desk, probably to dispel the smell of varnish and slid out of the room again heading off to probably hide away the varnish back in her locker.
Reborn slid into the class and headed straight for the desk to scrape off a sample he could send to some people he knew, they needed to know what was in the varnish, then they could start to see how they could fix whatever was going on with Tsunahime, because as of right now it appeared she was slowly declining into some sort of induced schizophrenia. Reborn had never heard of a drug that could do that, so maybe this was a side effect of whatever else the drug was, either way they needed to know what was in the varnish, and if it could be reversed.
Until he knew more he had to do nothing, he didn't know what effect it would have if all of a sudden the varnish disappeared from her desk, he had to wait on the results, as frustrating as that was, he had to wait, another day or two at the most until he had the results.
However while he waited he was going to triple Natsu's training.
~.~
Tsuna had to get out of the house, the worried glances from both Yuni and Byakuran were sending her insane, so she had made an excuse and headed out to Namimori to just wander the shopping district, she needed to get out of the house and away from those looks.
So her she was walking the shopping district, window shopping while she wasted some time, she just needed to be out of the house for a few hours where Byakuran and Yuni won't both looking at her in worry every five seconds, Tsuna couldn't stand people staring at her like that, it was making her paranoid, feeling eyes on her all the time was sending her intuition insane, with her coming close behind.
"Might I interest you in some antiques?" Tsuna blinked turning to look at a white haired man, though he didn't seem to be so old that his hair was natural, then again strange hair colours surrounded her, Byakuran was proof of that.
"I'm just window shopping." Tsuna apologised with a smile, the man smiled brightly at her in response,
"Of course, might I trouble you to just have a look inside?" Tsuna studied him carefully, he was being pretty insistent on getting her in the store. Tsuna frowned slightly while studying him, he seemed familiar too, but if he had been a client of the Gesso then she would recognise him, she never forgot a face, so him being familiar meant that they had never met but he had been described to her.
White hair, round glasses, green kimono, why the hell was that so familiar?
While Tsuna was wracking her memories she let him guide her into his antiques store, her eyes flicking around for any extra information that would help her, Tsuna's eyes fell on a clear pacifier he was holding as he approached her, a huge smile on his face.
Tsuna's eyes widened, this was Checkerface. Turning she fled from the store making a beeline for home, she had to tell Byakuran, finally Checkerface had finally shown up.
Tsuna ran all the way home, darting around maids and staff in the mansion to finally reach Byakuran's office, he was doing some of his paperwork for once, after being persuaded by both Tsuna and Yuni.
"He's here." Tsuna all but yelled, Byakuran blinking at her for a moment before he realised what she was talking about
"Kawahira? You saw him?!" Tsuna nodded grabbing his hand and dragging him back towards town, Byakuran all but bouncing with joy, finally, finally they had their chance to talk to him, at least if they could talk to him about the other options, then they could save Yuni now and wouldn't need the Vongola Ring.
"Weird white haired guy was doing everything he could to get me into an antiques store and then tried to shove a pacifier in my hand, yes I saw the guy." Tsuna called back while continuing to tug him along, eyes searching out the store that had been there not long ago in the middle of the shopping district "The hell…" Tsuna mumbled coming to a stop while looking around "It was here, not even a half hour ago." Tsuna could feel Byakuran looking at her, she could feel the worry and panic as well.
"Tsu-hime…." Tsuna whirled on him with a glare
"Don't you dare, it was here Byaku-nii, I'm not seeing things, it was right here!"
"Tsu-hime, I believe you, really." Byakuran assured while she glared at him,
"I can tell when you lie Byaku-nii, don't treat me like a moron." Byakuran sighed softly and reached out to ruffle her hair gently, but Tsuna pushed his hand away, too annoyed with him to let him touch her right now "It was here."
"Tsu-hime….alright, let's think about this. The store was here when you were alone, but now it's gone when we're here together." Byakuran reasoned "A store doesn't just diss...oh hell, he's an illusionist." Byakuran whispered recalling that one little detail "Alright, I'm sorry Tsu-hime, I'm sorry I didn't believe you." Tsuna frowned at him for a few moments before nodding, he had passed her intuition check this time. Tsuna hated him treating her like she was losing her mind.
"So he's hiding….why is he making this so difficult." Tsuna groaned while Byakuran chuckled, petting her head gently, Tsuna allowing it this time.
"Becuase he's a bastard, plain and simple." Byakuran sighed, he was making this so much harder then it had to be. Though at least they knew he was in town now, at least, as long as Tsuna actually had seen him. Byakuran didn't like doubting Tsuna, but she had been getting worse lately, he had caught her talking to herself most days now, her mood was all over the place, she would forget things only seconds after talking about them, having lost herself in another topic. Byakuran was worried, but he would believe her, what else could he do, Tsuna wouldn't lie to him, he knew that, but….it was hard to put his faith in her words since she had been alone at the time, it could have been another….whatever was happening to her.
Had Tsuna had any history of mental illness he would have thought she was schizophrenic, but she had never shown even an inkling of that in every single reality he had ever know her/him. Which is what left him with the conclusion that he had caused this with the Flame Prison in her.
What could he do however? Break it down? Tsuna wouldn't live through that. He had tried to add more Flames to it while she slept, but that hadn't made any difference, she was going downhill, and it had been small at first, but she was getting worse and worse by the hour now.
"I'm going to stick around here for a bit, see if he pops back out." Tsuna noted "I won't run off this time." Byakuran ruffled her hair gently again with a smile,
"Alright, shall I wait with you?" Tsuna shook her head at his offer, he had hidden when she came back with Byakuran, so maybe he wanted to see her on her own, or could sense the Mare Ring or something, Tsuna would wait on her own.
"I'll be fine, thanks Byaku-nii." Byakuran nodded reluctantly and finally headed back home to finish off his paperwork. He didn't like leaving Tsuna alone, especially with how she was at the moment, but he knew she would kick his ass to hell and back if he didn't leave her alone. While she may be off from her normal self, she was just as scary when she wanted to be.
"Don't worry Byaku-nii~ I'll stay with the lovely Tsu-nee~" Tsuna shot Mukurou a glare when he appeared again, he kept coming and bugging her from nowhere, still calling her Tsu-nee and creeping her out. He insisted until she admitted he was real he wasn't going to leave her alone, or even tell her why he was bugging her. Tsuna however was not about to go an admit that her imaginary annoying idiot was real. The minute she started admitting that invisible assholes no one else could see were real was when she was going to admit herself. Tsuna wasn't that far gone yet, she knew he wasn't real, that meant she was still sane. When she could no longer tell reality from….whatever, that was when she would know she had completely lost her mind.
"You can fuck off too Mukurou." Tsuna hissed to him as soon as Byakuran was out of hearing range,
"Aw, I'm hurt~ I thought we were becoming such good friends~" Tsuna glowered at the smirking teen while clenching her fists, however she knew from experience she couldn't slap, smack or kick him.
"If I could kill you I would."
"That would be such a waste of your talents." Mukurou sighed "If you would just believe me already then we could get to that too~"
"We've been over this asshole, you're not real." Mukurou sighed again looking at her evenly, this is why he kept having to put off his request, she kept telling him he wasn't real, having been stalking her for a week now he understood why she would think that with the noticeable decline in her reality. However, as he had tried to convince her, he was real, and he really did need her help.
The longer this was taking was the longer that Vendicare had her.
"I really am running out of time Tsunahime, I don't know how many other ways I can tell you this, I need your help, so please, just believe me already."
"He really is being sincere dear." Tsuna jumped when someone spoke in her ear, darting back her wide eyes on Kawahira, how the hell had he managed to sneak up on her?
"Excuse me?" Tsuna asked with a suspicious frown, this guy was so dodgy it wasn't funny.
"The blue haired chap, he's being sincere." Tsuna glanced between Kawahira and Mukurou before deflating, if Kawahira could see Mukurou that mean Byakuran had been right, he wasn't real, it was yet another annoying asshole come to harass her without anyone else able to see.
"Great….another one." Tsuna muttered glaring at Kawahira "And what's your deal? Just here to bug the shit out of me like him?" Tsuna jerked her thumb at Mukurou whom was pouting at her again,
"How about you both come in for some tea and we'll talk about it?" Tsuna glared at him for a few moments before she just gave up, fine, if he wanted her to sit around in some shop and drink tea pretending to have two others with her, fine, she didn't care anymore today, she just wanted the day to be over.
~.~
Reborn had finally gotten the results back from the tests and he was anything but amused, his young charge had been drugging Tsuna through her desk for weeks now, and the drug was something that was outlawed in the Vongola, as soon as he told Timoteo the old man was going to lose it, from what he had read in the report from one of his contacts the drug was under CEDEF care, they were meant to be working on an antidote in case another famiglia ever managed to get a hold of it, however the samples were meant to be under the strictest lock and key, only Iemitsu was meant to have access to allow the scientists in, the drug was supposed to be secure under his control.
For some of it to have somehow made its way to Namimori and into his daughter's hands, that was not looking good for the CEDEF commander.
Nono was going to be furious as soon as he told him, and he was on his way to do just that in fact.
Hopefully, while Iemitsu had gone against the orders of the Vongola in his handling of the drug, hopefully there was an antidote made, because otherwise it would appear from his research that the effects were permanent.
~.~
It is so hard to write when you have a giant huntsman spider staring at you.
Finally another chapter! Yay! The new put time aside for writing has actually paid off in a real chapter~
Even if it only grew by a few paragraphs a day it was better then nothing, so, enjoy~
Thanks to everyone as always for the continued support on all the random things I have going on, I'm refusing to let myself start another one until I finish something off first. Otherwise I'll never get anything done.
Huge thanks to the lovely reviewers. More to come as soon as I'm able~
xxxlovelovekaichilovelovexxx , Littlest1 , lightningclaire , Nicole NightLock , Natsu Yuuki , AFanFreak (Guest) , Lacie (Guest) , FANactic Writer , Chris (Guest) , lovleydragonfly , Yukoo (Guest) , FallenBird , Lerya-chan , Hinatauchiha1 , Louis2000 , zaylo267 , Kademe , Skull1412 , Kichou , EndlessChains , n1ghtdr34m3r , Giotto27 x3, lilmymyshem
Ciao~
