Reborn was the next to awaken. Like Fon, he found his Flames at a dangerously low level and was as limp as an overcooked noodle if he tried to do more than sit up. He didn't like the feeling. Seeing Fon semi-mobile eased a little of his paranoia, but not much.
"How long?" he asked.
"You've been out at least four to five days. I only woke up a day or so ago," said Fon. "He hasn't woken up yet, though if the pattern holds true he might wake up soon."
"The kids?"
"Alive, but they've opted to wait until we were at least mobile before they considered going into the town proper save for sending Kyouya out for supplies."
"What do we know?" asked Reborn.
"We're on a parallel Earth, the land to water ratios have been flipped, the language is close enough to Japanese to be understood, and the food is similar enough with a few variations to test. They've been using Sora to determine if food is safe to eat or not, since out of the dragons she's the one most familiar with human food," said Fon dryly.
If Sora could eat it, then odds were they could as well. She had been around human food long enough to tell the difference between 'edible' or not.
Reborn noticed something missing, though he was glad to see Leon was still with him.
"Our pacifiers..."
"Gone. They haven't seen them and Hayato and the others did go to look after. I think the curse has been lifted, though how I have no idea. Something tells me our low Flames are because the pacifiers drained them before the connection was abruptly cut off."
Reborn thought that one over. It made the most sense and explained why they were so exhausted.
Fon had a rather strange expression in his eyes.
"The kids have come to the agreement that they aren't inclined to go looking for a way back home unless they hear something that looks promising."
Reborn blinked.
"What?"
"They're fine if it turns out we're stuck here permanently," clarified Fon.
Reborn stared.
"You're kidding."
"Ryuu-hime was living alone for months and her relationship with her parents was practically nonexistent before this. Hayato happily left Italy behind to stay with his Sky without a second thought, Lambo was more or less abandoned by the Bovino, and I-Pin's only connection is through me. As for Kyouya, the only thing he'd want to take is his right hand and possibly a few items of personal value, but he'd live without them," said Fon. "Especially since odds are that Ryuu-hime would stay close to him regardless of where he set up shop, which meant he wouldn't have to live without his Sky within reach."
"And they all agreed to this?" said Reborn in disbelief.
"Hayato and Lambo will go wherever Kiseki is, because she's the closest thing to a family they have. And I-Pin would be content so long as she was nearby. You can't say you have much to hold you to Earth, save for the Cavallone boy," said Fon dryly.
Reborn thought that one over, and admitted to himself that he didn't have much to keep him on Earth either. The only one who might have a reason to go back was Colonello, and that was a complete toss up.
Said blond woke up sometime around dinner, completely ravenous. Like the other two, he couldn't really move much at all and had to work to keep his arms from shaking. He wasn't complaining about the fact Kiseki made a simple soup and decided to avoid that problem by feeding him and Reborn by hand. Nope, not one bit.
With the three adults, there was a sense of open relief...especially since Fon was up and moving within three days of waking up. Just having one of them able to move around properly (and in Fon's case, up to at least fifteen percent combat ability) relieved a lot of anxiety in case of attack.
Kiseki was nothing if not cautious, something Kyouya approved of. Her years of being bullied and harassed were holding the group in good stead, because she was hyper aware of how quickly things could turn against them. Even if it saddened the three adults that she even had to develop such instincts in the first place.
Fon, Colonello and Reborn were all looking through the dragon cards. Mostly so they had an extra advantage in case they entered a fight.
They could kill on their own easily enough, but in this world it was better to keep such skills on the down-low as much as possible for any sort of advantage. Even if they were all going to be riding one of the other dragons instead when they could get away with it.
The adults were almost back to a level they considered acceptable for an unknown situation like this, and as Kiseki pointed out their departure had been so unexpected that it was unlikely that any search parties would know where to look.
If Colonello (and at this point he had come to terms with the fact he was the lone person with the most reason to go back to Earth) was to have any chance of getting back, they'd do better in larger cities or well known areas. Kiseki would once again hide as Ryuu-hime, since that face was the most well known in Dragon Drive for anyone looking for them.
Kyouya would stay close to her as well, both for protection and because despite being new he was almost as well known, but not as much as "Ryuu" was.
Reborn wouldn't admit it to the brats, but he was openly impressed with how easily Kiseki had come up with a viable plan of action that took into account invalids, small children and two combat-worthy boys that kept the group as a whole safe without hesitation.
It wasn't until they were flying to find a bigger city, with Gyudon and Stormheart in card form (how Kiseki did that, no one was really sure), that he got an answer how she was able to create a plan so easily.
"I've been planning to leave home the day I turned eighteen since that idiot took Mama on a year-long cruise. I realized that there was no way I could possibly stand living in Namimori once I was considered a legal adult, so it would be better to make a plan now so I had time to prepare. Then when Hayato and Lambo came into the equation, I started making plans that automatically included them. It was just a small step up from there."
"Is it really that bad?" asked Reborn.
"I was completely alone long before Mama left on that cruise. She was there, but in the same way she wasn't there at all. It came as a hard shock realizing that the only difference between before and now was that I didn't have someone to help make the meals or say hello when I came home," she said sadly. "The moment I realized my house hadn't felt like 'home' for a very long time, I cried for a full week. It really didn't help that it was around that time that the other kids found out I had been left alone in the house for months on end by my own mother, who went on a trip without me. Honestly, if not for Kyouya keeping the school so safe I wouldn't have bothered to go to class at all."
She leaned into his hug. It was clear that the girl hadn't been properly cared for in far too long, and the adults around her were all idiots.
On Hibird (with Fon and Kyouya listening to the conversation...I-Pin was napping in Fon's lap, while Lambo was already asleep against Kiseki's leg) the two shared a look.
It seemed Kiseki had far less reason to return than most. In fact this was just accelerating a schedule that they hadn't been aware existed.
Kyouya made a note that if they did return, his first priority (outside of making her wear the correct uniform for once) was to make it clear she was off limits to the idiotic herbivores that had made her life difficult, on top of relocating her to his house. He could tolerate having to deal with Fon, his apprentice, the annoying little cow and the loud-mouthed silverette. Mostly because he knew she would keep them from annoying him too much.
When they found a larger city, they hovered a bit above the clouds, to avoid being seen.
"So who goes down first?" asked Reborn.
"Hayato and Colonello," said Kiseki without hesitation. "I have a bad feeling about sending Hibird down, and a really weird one if Sora was seen in her full form."
"Weird how?"
"Weird in that I'm almost positive that it will bring a total headache down on us, even if we did get an explanation," she said dryly. "Besides, do any of you want to deal with the chaos Lambo could cause if something did happen?"
"So Bomber boy and the gun nut," said Reborn, wincing at the mere idea of that internally.
The plan made, Hayato and Colonello flew down on Uri, who stayed outside town since it was too big to walk the streets normally.
Two hours later they came back up, with somewhat constipated expressions.
"Good call on not sending Hime down," said Hayato.
"What happened?"
"Sora is famous is what happened," said Colonello.
"...Famous?" said Reborn. Suddenly Kiseki's feeling made a lot more sense.
"Yin Senkoukura-sama is what they call her. I'd recognize Sora pretty quick, though it seems there's a male Yang half out there somewhere," said Hayato.
"According to local folklore, Yin Senkoukura-sama has the ability to summon dragons, and their partner can speak and control them. They can also absorb useful abilities into themselves or pass them to their subordinates. If she, and the Yin is always female, is summoned then it means that there's a grave imbalance in the universe that needs to be corrected and that the Yang half will soon be summoned," said Colonello. "If they see her at all they're going to flip, though apparently they're pissed with something called Ri-On because some of the people they've sent through have been causing a lot of problems."
"So Ri-On has a way to get back," said Reborn. That was good to know.
"But there's no telling if the curse being removed is permanent, or if it would reassert itself the second you get back," Kiseki pointed out. Colonello deflated at that. "So what do you think? Is it worth revealing ourselves or not?"
Fon, Reborn and Colonello looked at each other.
"We can handle almost anything that's thrown at us. It's really up to you, Principessa," said Reborn. If her Hyper Intuition said it was safe, then it was probably a good place to at least get grounded with the locals.
It was pretty clear Kiseki had inherited a healthy dose of the famed Vongola Hyper Intuition, and it was as close to a warning as they were likely to get at this point. If and when they went home, they could switch who the 'leader' was, but for now it was Kiseki by default. Not that she had picked up on that fact quite yet.
She tilted her head.
"Principessa?"
"Italian equivalent for 'hime'," said Hayato helpfully. The blush she gave at that was adorable, but not worth mentioning.
"Well... I think if we switch Hibird to his smaller form and switch to Stormheart we should be fine. But it would mean the three of us would fly in on Uri and Stormheart, since I don't want to reveal Sora just yet. I have the feeling they'd recognize her in her 'baby' form just as fast."
Hibari didn't like the idea of switching Hibird to his 'canary' form.
"Why switch out for Stormheart?" asked Fon, frowning.
"Because I know for a fact he's not the only person with that sort of dragon that plays Dragon Drive," said Kiseki. "And if Ri-On has been causing trouble here already to the point they know the name of the group..."
"You think someone else with a similar dragon has been here and caused trouble," said Fon.
"I would rather avoid it if it's possible," admitted Kiseki.
With a bit of awkward rearranging, and putting Sora into the box, the group landed close to town and went in. Thanks to Reborn's quick hands, they had enough to get a few rooms for the night and approach whoever was supposed to be town leader in the morning, if news of such unusual strangers didn't bring them out.
Though room arrangements made things a little awkward.
"Kiseki gets the kids," said Reborn immediately. "Fon and Kyouya can share a room, and I'll room with Colonello and Hayato."
Kiseki frowned.
"I highly doubt the kids will share a bed, and will likely bunk with me. Wouldn't it be easier for me to share a room with an extra so no one sleeps on the floor?"
Everyone save the kids turned to look at her incredulous. It didn't take much for her to guess why, and she openly rolled her eyes.
"Don't you dare turn sexist on me. In case you haven't noticed, I've been disguising myself as a boy for years to the point I barely have any overt feminine qualities at all. It makes no sense not to give the bed to someone who can use it since the kids generally pile up on me anyway. Unless one of you can't keep your hands to yourself?" she said, raising an eyebrow pointedly.
The adults shared a look between them.
"Fine. Colonello can share with Hayato and I'll share with Hime. I'm the lightest sleeper of the three of us," said Reborn after a moment.
With the sleeping arrangements fixed, the group dispersed to wander around town until nightfall.
