It was strange that day, the colors were especially bright. Even the sound of rattling chains could not disturb the air of the faerie's midmorning festival. It was the eve of a day of games, the kind that left the poorer sort stumbling on the ground and moaning in pain.

Shadows withered at a girl's feet, climbing their way past her ankles and up her legs, wrapping themselves around her throat like a rope dragging her to her death.

(They had done so before, but never so extreme. They marked her dying day, he supposed, and perhaps one day she would be wrapped in naught but shadow and would become lost among the nightly ways. Or perhaps she would come see them as he could. She would see them and take control of them, taming them to obey her whim. She would be immortal then, in spirit at least. Such a strange thing that would be)

"Danger is chasing at your heels today," Sawada Tsunayoshi told Sasagawa Kyoko in the morning when he saw her. Tsuna saw her and he couldn't help but stare. How could it be? Such danger that lay down the path the shades were dragging her towards, the path filled with a great many yokai's tricks and troubles. And it seemed that those darker dwellers loved a samurai, the one who had once stood so very tall, the one who had ignored his warning just as all the other's did, just a bit too much for Tsuna's liking, "I would watch out for the samurai, lest he cut off your head."

She paled at those words and looked nervous. Her grip on her bag shifted as she fiddled with her fingers.

"Do you mind if I walk to school with you?" She asked after a moment. The shadows shrank back as if struck and there was a pause in the laughter in the air, an apprehension that appeared among unseen creatures who sensed their game had a new player.

"Sure!" Tsuna chirped, "I'd love to walk with you, dear burning star. I do hope you don't mind chaos, though. We'll no doubt run into the General, and he doesn't like people who don't have battle in their blood all too much."

(The shadowy figure who so followed the child around raised a brow at the nickname for the girl, "Burning star?" He asked, curious to the phrasing, "she's a star?")

"That's fine," Kyoko said, albeit a little nervously, "I'll leave when he shows up if it's too much trouble. I just…"

"It's alright! I understand. There are none who do not fear death, not unless they have seen her and her companions."

(It was then Kyoko wondered if she should have just kept walking. But she had seen truth in Tsuna's warnings before, she had born witness to his ability to know what he shouldn't be able too. She would believe him, if only because she wasn't willing to take a chance)

(And if as she walked alongside the boy who seemed mad, she brought a hand to her throat, rubbing the phantom pain lingering there, then she chose not to think it was because she was scared)

…

Reborn had spent the morning observing Sawada Tsunayoshi and his actions. He seemed relatively normal on the surface, if not a bit absent minded. He had a tendency to stare at nothing, at blank spaces on the wall or on the ground, watching something Reborn now knew was there and just couldn't be seen.

The comments Tsuna had given to Sasagawa were curious and Reborn wondered on their meaning. Stars? Samurai? Chaos? Reborn knew from the reports he had gotten that the General was a nickname Tsuna often used for Hibari Kyoya, but there had never been any mention of the other terms Tsuna had used.

(He was starting to wonder if he shouldn't just start taking notes in an attempt to organize all the different phrases Sawada Tsunayoshi said. Perhaps doing so would make things a bit less confusing)

They walked to the school gates mostly in silence. Kyoko clearly had no knowledge of Reborn observing them, for he stayed hidden as to watch the situation play out without his interference, but Tsuna kept glancing in his direction, eyes flashing orange whenever he did so.

Reborn already knew he was shadowed by the figure of his past self, that there was a distinctive sound and smell following him around. It wasn't surprising then that Sawada Tsunayoshi would be able to find him with relative ease given Reborn had no means to hide these tells from the boy. But the orange… That was interesting. Was it possible the blood of Vongola was somehow tied to the ability Tsuna had inherited from his mother?

(The ability to intuitively know everything granted by the Vongola Hyper Intuition and the ability to see things unseen that revealed hidden knowledge about the world… Those two abilities combining into one- What a terrifying thought)

The gates to the school were free from any perfects, the ones who often patrolled the gates to catch students running late and those with obvious breaks in dress code regulations. Tsuna didn't seem surprised by this- instead his gaze seemed to linger on a boy who leaned against the gates. Reborn knew the boy to be Mochida Kensuke, captain of the kendo club and a known troublemaker at the school.

(He stood there with shadows in his eyes, the weight of a thousand worries settled on his back and across his shoulders a spirit lay restlessly, scratching at the dragon scale armor that he wore with long sharp claws)

Reborn watched dispassionately as Mochida stalked forward with a casual lazy smirk on his face the moment he saw the Sasagawa girl. He sauntered up to both his student and the girl (He seemed nervous about Tsuna. Was there a past between them? Or was it merely the result of Tsuna's association with Hibari?) and spoke to the girl.

"Kyoko!" he called out, moving in close and setting his hand upon her shoulder, "Glad to see you here today. How about we hang out later?" The girl clearly looked uncomfortable about the closeness. Her hand, the same one that had rubbed her throat earlier, seemed to twitch as if to reach up and do something. Her expression pinched and she opened her mouth to say something, perhaps stop Mochida as he continued to insist they go on a date later on in the day, when Tsuna spoke up.

"Mochida-san," Tsuna had a strange expression in his eyes, almost glowing orange at this point, as he spoke. He put his hands behind his back and rolled back and forth on his feet, "A samurai shouldn't be so callous when dealing with stars."

Mochida flinched.

(Oh? So there is indeed a history between them. Did it involve Hibari? No it seemed the fear was aimed at Tsuna, based off the subtle angling of Mochida's body away from Tsuna. He moved away, twisting just a bit so his back was not exposed to Tsuna. Why? Just what had happened?)

He recovered, something flashing in his eyes. (Laughter? It carried on the wind, cheering and urging Mochida forth. Tsuna watched the poor samurai, so deeply entrenched in the faerie's influence as he seemed to be) He glared at Tsuna, grinding his teeth and stiffening his shoulders, "Oh yeah? And how do you know that? Why are you even walking with Kyoko, anyways? The only person who likes you is Hibari."

"Mochida!" Kyoko exclaimed, "That was uncalled for! I was the one who asked him to walk with me!"

"You did, didn't you? And why did you do that?" Mochida snapped. There was something jerky in his movements, as if a cloud had settled over his mind and was causing him to act out. Reborn narrowed his eyes as he watched the scene play out. Obviously, Mochida wasn't thinking straight. Was it a mist user affecting him? But that didn't make sense. There shouldn't have been anyone who knew about Tsuna yet. An idiot Iemitsu may be, but he was excellent at his job and protecting his family had always been one of his top priorities. Few people outside of the CEDEF's inner circle and the top brass among Vongola even knew Iemitsu was married.

(Why am I acting this way? Mochida thought through the haze that had settled over his mind. Hibari's going to kill me for this.)

Mochida turned to Tsuna, something feral in the way he looked at the boy, "You! You're trying to steal her from me, aren't you? I challenge you to a kendo match! The winner gets to keep Kyoko!"

Tsuna sighed, looking as if the weight of the world rested on his back. His eyes drifted to Mochida's shoulders (Is there something there?) and he frowned, looking resigned.

"Okay."

(Hibari quietly gazed down at the scene from where he watched at the window of the room he had claimed as his office. What was Tsunayoshi doing now?)

AN: Next update here! Yay! I want to let you know about something. I recently posted a one-shot titled "Write My Life So I May Be Free" that follows Mukuro as he grows up, learns how to read, and eventually becomes an author. In that one shot I used my own explanation for how Mukuro's Six Paths ability works. The way it works is closely connected to the same things that Tsuna can see in this story. Although the one-shot is not in anyway connected to this story, you can read it if you'd like to get a good idea of what he will be like in this story. I also posted something called "Behind the Scenes of In Which Mukuro Becomes an Author" on my tumblr, metronomeihear, where I have attempted to describe in detail exactly what I did for his Six Paths ability and how it affects him. The way the supernatural works in that one-shot and the behind the scenes short I wrote is exactly the same as in this story, so if you'd like to get a clearer explanation on what Tsuna is talking about when he is speaking about Faeries and Spirits feel free to check it out. It could be considered a bit spoilery for this story, as I intent to eventually explain the supernatural in detail in a later chapter, so be warned if you do go and read it.