( 31/05/2015 )

Salve ~ This is L. writing. Thanks for keeping up with this amazing story Y. wrote :) I don't have much to say, this week, though.


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Disclaimer

Katekyo Hitman Reborn belongs to Akira Amano

The Solitude's Flame ( La Flamme de la Solitude ) belongs to Y. ( Yukiche )

L. ( Lokiitama ) was given the rights to translate.

This chapter hasn't been corrected, if you see any errors, feel free to warn.

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Next chapter should be up around the ( 7/06/2015 )

(: Enjoy :)


He had felt after the ritual. When the Arcobaleno had left him off, by himself, to get away one after the other, he already knew that. He had waited, however, to be sure, afraid. He had waited, trembling.

Later, way later, in the middle of the night and the solitude, the confirmation had come.

His flame was extinct.

He had tried everything, applied every advice he was given during his training – nothing. Not even a sparkle.

Nevertheless, this time, he didn't want to open to despair. He had never been so close to his goal to give up now. The small setbacks he was confronted against didn't seem impossible to pass through, after all.

He already had broken his seal once. If his flame went back behind it, he would simply call it back. As for Mukuro… He had brought him back once. And magisterially. He would do it again, and all the banishments in the world would never stop him.

He felt himself burn with a new flame, and a powerful now. It had made some sparkles before, but rarely got lit up so violently, it made his heart clench with pain. As soon as he thought of the cursed day that saw his flame and his ghost disappear, his every muscles clenched, anger made his blood vibrate, and his hands became fists. He didn't know himself to be spiteful but, if he had the occasion to put his executioner in front of their monumental mistake they made him feel, and he wouldn't be ashamed of it. And he was hoping that, just like Fon said, they would remember it, of his warnings, when he'd bring back the subject to them.

Because he was still persuaded that what had happened was still an error, something wrong, even with all the pertinent speeches against it they could tell him. He could feel it, he had felt it since the beginning, the will to keep Mukuro by his side wasn't in any way linked to an egotistical whim of teenager discovering the world of the occult. He was still lucid enough to feel that the only reason why he took a liking into that world was because of the reasons that brought him there. Sure, as he expected it, it was weird to feel normal after such an adventure, but without the ashes taste in his mouth, everything had come back to what it was, in the end, and he would have survived. Probably.

But the bitterness he felt was too strong. To leave that world as he should have, he had to finish what he had begun.

He had to go back.

That's why he was in front of Reborn of all people, the reason why he was feeling that way.

A potential help.

Indeed, he knew himself disadvantaged, and probably unable, actually, to come back into it by hiw own mean. If his relations with his 'teacher', never stop degrading lately, that, ever since the banishment, he felt more like a supervisor than a teacher, he stayed the best to help him out. Dino couldn't help him all the way, and Gokudera had certified his sister wouldn't make a single move without the baby's approval.

Thus, he only had to speak to his tutor face to face, to reset everything and go back on better bases.

… An idea so simple, when he thought about it. Even a child could've done so.

Actually, in reality, it was a mountain to move away.

Tsuna often saw the Arcobaleno in sight, he never left his side – though he was hidden – since the ritual got done. He didn't try to hide, most of the time, acting more as a mobile camera than a spy, but his glances were practically the only contacts he managed to have with him lately. Too little words had been exchanged to make a natural conversation between the two of them.

"So?" Reborn pressed, waiting for the small brunet to tell him the reason of this meeting.

The later had noticed his taskmaster was inspecting regularly his house, and he only had to leave a note in the middle of his desk to convince the other not to approach the house in a shorter perimeter than 20 meters. Naively, he thought that if Reborn had consented to come, he was ready to listen to him, this time, at least a little, even though his facial expression was quite closed up, with his tight lips, scornful.

He breathed in deeply. He had to find the arguments that would convince him, from that point to the end of the conversation, that was under the small patience of his interlocutor. But there, he already had his small idea.

"Reborn… Become my teacher once again, please."

"Why?"

Even though he prepared himself for that question, he still got surprised.

"Do I need a reason?" He clumsily stuttered. Of course, the real reason was still the same thing, he wanted to save Mukuro, keep his promise to him, but telling him that way made him fear a clear refusal from the other party.

He was sure that, anyway, Reborn was more than conscious of that, and it wasn't even useful to insist on that sensible point. It wouldn't save him, on the contrary.

Indeed, the scornful look of the cherub made itself even clearer.

"No, since you'll stop being officially my student only at the end of your formation, for reasons I don't want to explain today. In any case, you're still a beginner, so I can't throw you away like that, even if I'd like it."

Tsuna didn't get wrong, he had something to grab onto in that speech pretty much reassuring. He was sure he could, in a way or another, refuse the trainings he had to give him because of his status as teacher. Reborn didn't open up that easily – and if he did, it wasn't because it was weak points, but traps in which it'd have been better not to fall into.

"However", he continued, "you, you have one reason, a really precise reason. And I won't make the choice whether I continue your training or not without having heard it from your mouth."

This, however, was a reason to hope. The young man was ready to bet on the fact that his master had only accepted to listen to him because he already had planned all of this conversation. That he was waiting something from his student before according his help to him, and that all of this was only a new lesson that was begun in a precise goal.

The small brunet felt a smile tickle the corner of his mouth in front of that proof that, in the end, not much had changed between them. It was time for him to show his cards, with trust.

"Well… I thought a lot, and since quite a time, I've got an idea that could help me with my goal…"

The expression of the other didn't move at all, but yet, he knew he was listened to with interest. Because he was waiting something out of him, he was waiting for his words with impatience and avidity. He continued then, feeling lighter and lighter as he almost felt everything setting back into place. The problem was solving itself a bit.

"Well, of course, to manage that, I have to reuse my flame again, and since I don't have any idea of how to awaken it by myself… Well."

He breathed in deeply to get straight to the fact, resisting to the temptation to get lost in a confused and stuttering speech. He didn't want to take the risk to be interrupted, when he had right there a golden opportunity he just couldn't let go of.

"I want to invoke directly my father. This time, I'll wait till I'm ready, and I won't do anything by myself, no matter how much time it'll take. It's the best solution left to understand this whole story so… There."

He closed his mouth, relieved he could tell everything from A to Z, but he was quite nervous, waiting for the reply. On the other side, Reborn didn't move a centimetre, he didn't even open his mouth for few minutes. The teen felt like he was suffocating during that silence, especially since he knew, still and ever, that his master's pause were rarely reflexive ones, and that he only needed few seconds to judge a situation and take a decision.

"Not a good reason," He said, breaking his interlocutor free from his uneasiness. To plunge him in deep incomprehension.

"W-What? Why?" He protested, confused.

He, of course, wondered if the factor 'Mukuro' didn't made him a bad point, but still, wasn't his promise not to try anything against his master's will enough? Plus, he didn't lie about wanting to invoke his father. But even that, Reborn didn't want to let him do? What did he want in the end?

"Well, you could still try," The small teacher continued, "if you like to lose your time. You couldn't invoke your father or even Mukuro, and it's not because of your current state."

"Huh?"

Okay, there, Tsuna wouldn't have even imagined such a reply. He had just thought that, once again, his project hadn't been deemed worthy enough. But in the end, the only problem was because of the difficulty it could have?

He wanted to ask why, but he was interrupted by the smile of the Arcobaleno. The first in weeks.

"There, let's do this," He said with a once again childish voice, malicious and not dark anymore. "I defy you to find why I say this."

His smile widened. It was confirmed, the ordinary Reborn, with his crazy ideas, his mysteries and his enigmas, was back. Even though it meant better things, Tsuna surprised himself to wonder if it wouldn't be even more complicated to deal with every day.

"… And if you find why, I'll think back on your request."

However, the return of the infernal behaviour of his tutor stayed a huge step toward his goal, whatever he could say or think. Tsuna was already feeling like his student again.


Far, far over Namimori grounds, a small creature was flying, without any problem. When it came back to a more human height, it was only to flap its small fluffy wings near someone, as it chirped happy tunes.

The figure below it stood up, and it landed on a mass of soft dark hair – his one and only roost. A hand came to caress its small head. It replied with small chirps of happiness.

Hibari Kyoya nodded to his companion's chirps, and stood up. He went to the roof's door – finally reconquered! – to be on time for his patrol.

As soon as he appeared through the hallways, the feverishness possessed the building. Silence was made when he came, a way was made in front of his steps. Some even liked to join back their classrooms, afraid their pause would be spoiled because of the terrible prefect's tonfas. On most of the faces, fear could still be seen; the bad mood he had had had left some scars in his potential victims' mind. Hibari memorized each one of those wincing faces; if they thought they had reasons to be scared of him, they couldn't be as pure as white – the discipline committee would take a glance on their lives.

Thus he followed his path, slowly, calmly, till a certain classroom. In front of the open door was standing the person with a detestable aura, Sawada Tsunayoshi. But, nevertheless, he still was surprised to feel the radical change in the atmosphere around him. At their last meeting, some nauseous waves meaning from his had immediately triggered a tsunami of violence from him. Now, that impression was thinner, but also warmer, almost attractive. It was almost deceiving, that speed to get back into the rows as soon as he got bitten. However, as a prefect, that result was gratifying, satisfying. The order had been respected.

Thus, when he was about to pass in front of the brunet, he stopped for one second to judge him. The concerned, as for him, when he noticed the other, gulped down in the most noisy and inelegant way.

"Hn. I see you understood your lesson," The head of discipline concluded as he saw that reaction.

But, instead of understanding, Tsuna was frowning. Right now, he thought Hibari would begin to hit him again without any reason or whatsoever, so all he said didn't find any memory to trigger. No, he didn't understand – well, not to his knowledge.

He opened his mouth, looking like a stupid fish suddenly out of water, still hesitating on whether to ask an explanation about that to the prefect of Nami-chu.

Right at that moment burst out of class a Gokudera half bowed to the ground, probably following Uri, considering the yells he never stopped to scream, calling out the cat, and considering the many, many red marks decorating his arms under his rolled up sleeves.

The witnesses of that scene thus observed him run in circle in the hallway, trying to catch nothing, and Tsuna just like the other couldn't see anything more. After few minutes however, the silver head froze, face-to-face with Hibari, who was still present. It looked like he just had noticed his presence, and just realized what was coming his way to have made such a mess in the college's hallway. But, if the first point was true, the small brunet knew his friend didn't fear the second, as he always retorted to the prefect's sentences with willingly insolence. So, when he saw him make few steps back, mouth frozen in a distorted smile, he approached him to ask what was wrong. Gokudera seemed the most embarrassed man in the world at that time, replying to him with a tiny voice:

"H-He… Uri was running after Hibird…"

And then again, Tsuna felt himself frown. Hibird was a kind of yellow canary they recently had had identified as the companion of the aloof Hibari Kyoya, but he couldn't see the ball of fluff. Just like he couldn't see Uri.

His throat tightened up. He knew what that meant.

"I don't see anything, me," He simply said to his friend, trying to hide his deception.

Gokudera turned to him, profoundly shocked. From his point of view, his cat was right at the brunet's feet, stalking every little gestures of the canary on his shoulder. He was afraid of what the feline spirit could do if he did decide to attack. It wouldn't be nice to see. He had never touched to living creatures except for his master.

And then, as he watched the saddened face of his friend, he understood. The shock was so great he let an exclamation tear up the silence of the hallway:

"What?! Hibird is an entity too? We didn't see anything!"

His companion, guessing it wasn't such a good idea to scream that at the top of his lungs right in the middle of civilians, gave him a jab in the sides. It made the silver head concentrate back on the master – invocator? – of the bird, fixing them with dark eyes.

"A-ah…" He said, "so it means that… Can you see Uri?"

He pointed to his creature, who hissed at that gesture he probably judged respectful. The dark haired boy quickly looked down and… when he looked up again, looked like he was about to spread his anger on them. But he didn't, however, as he turned around to quit that assembly of crazy men. He was fed up with all those ineptitudes.

And as soon as he turned his back to them, Tsuna felt a powerful shiver down his spine, followed shut by the feeling someone just had poured down an ice bucket on his head.

"Hiiiiiiie!"

His scream brought glances to him, which made him regret it instantly, but he was even more perturbed when Gokudera and Hibari's eyes were darting toward the top of his head. If the carnivore went back to his occupations with a simple, disinterested shrug, Gokudera had a hard time to get back up.

"Hum… Gokudera-kun?" Tsuna asked, trying to appear as relaxed. He wasn't. "What's wrong? Did I just lose all my hair or what?"

"No, you didn't." The other replied, getting out of his trance. But not so much. "But I think Hibird decided to nest himself there."

"Ah…"

He couldn't say more. For a reason he had the hardest of times to accept, and there was only bitterness and regret within him.


"Tsuna!"

"Hello… Dino-san. Hum, Gokudera-kun told me you had a bit of time before your service… Can we speak about something together?"

When he was mentioned, the silver head nodded as a hello, and went away, leaving the two other by themselves. The blond was staring at the younger, surprised by such a demand, and also by the dark face and the hanging head he had.

"Of course," He replied, taken by surprise and worried.

He made the small brunet enter and followed him in the stairs leading to his apartment, wondering what could've happened. Tsuna, as for him, was already preparing himself to speak up. He had followed his friend to work after class, only to speak with his best counsellor in case of problems about the occult. After all, he was in a situation similar to his'.

Except that Dino, him, had chosen that situation.

"So?" The blond asked, once he sat in front of him, on the couch. "What's wrong?"

Tsuna only held back for one second before letting the whole story go. He forgot nothing, not even one detail, from the pain of the banishing's ritual – which he talked about for the first time in such precise terms – till the mortal solitude he had felt that morning, in the hall of the college, the ghostly bird on his head. He didn't even imagine he could speak so much about that to someone. He sure had spoken a bit about it to his friends, but didn't speak too much about it; he only managed to have a sincere compassion, but useless in front of what he had to endure.

However, in front of Dino, he was facing a haver of comprehension that was pushing him to continue to speak. He knew he wouldn't manage to shut up only once he had explained every single thought that haunted his mind these last few days.

When he finally stopped, he found his interlocutor in deep reflexion. As usual, he was trying to analyse everything before replying to him. To envisage everything in all the possible ways. And then only, he spoke.

"You know…" He didn't leave his deep thinking pose, as if he was trailed down by old memories. "Even me, I had some difficulties to get away from all of that. It's still a part of his life that goes away in ashes, after all. It feels weird."

That was it. That was exactly it! Even though they had different choices to be where they were, they both had felt the same thing. Tsuna begun to feel relieved. He didn't often have the good idea to come to speak up to Dino, when the later had already proved himself more than a good counsellor.

"However," The blond continued, "Are you sure you want to go back a second time in that world? I mean, even though you have all these signs, all these impressions that tell you to go back, it's only some mermaids desperately chasing you. Is it really a good idea? The decision must come from yourself, not from the exterior."

Ah. As always, he was asking the good questions. However, this time, Tsuna already had his reply. He was decided. And already moving on.

"I think it's a really bad idea," He admitted. "This world brought to me more bad than good. My friends got implied into it because of me… But there's still some things I have to do. I can't give that up."

Facing that affirmation, the other admitted himself defeated. He didn't want to push the younger toward his own ideas, which weren't objective at all. Not if he already had chosen his path. If he already knew where he was going, and to what he was registering.

"Even though, once you'll finish what you have to do, you'll find yourself unable to go back to normal?"

"Yes."

"Alright. You have an idea on how to continue, then?"

When the discussion took that more concrete turn, the brunet's determined expression faded, and he became once again the clumsy teen he was.

"Well… Reborn is more or less okay with beginning once again my training… as long as I find why I can't invoke my father."

"Your father?"

"Yes. I proposed that instead of directly saving Mukuro, but he said it was impossible. As he compared the two, I guess that my father's ghost was banned too, maybe, but I don't know much more."

"I see…"

Dino was thoughtful a bit more, and then asked this question:

"So, as Reborn is in, my help will be useless concerning your flame. He'll know how to manage that."

"Yeah. Even though I never know where he tries to lead me with his enigmas and his hellish trainings."

"Oh, don't worry about that. You'll understand one day. Reborn never do anything without a good reason."

"Included a banishing that only favoured him."

The elder frowned. Tsuna became suddenly more aggressive, in his tone, and his face had clenched shut in a wince of rejection.

"Nothing favoured him, Tsuna" He defended. "When he possessed you, Mukuro had an easy access to the powerful awakened flame in you. It was a huge risk, to put that power into the hands of a ghost, whichever ghost he was. Plus, possession is not good for long period of time, because it drains the bearer's flame. That's why yours went back to sleep once Mukuro was gone. Without that, it couldn't have regenerated and you'd be dying slowly."

"But with Chrome…"

"With Chrome, we didn't have to hurry, because if she's got a huge passive power, it has the particularity to be used without awakening her flame. Her energy was safe."

The young man found nothing to reply back. He was blown, anyway, by the blind trust Dino seemed to give to his ex-teacher, when he had flown away and hid for years from him. Sure, the context of that retreat wasn't the same as his, but seeing their still quite explosive relationship, it was really surprising to see him defending Reborn, even in his shadier decisions.

"After that, the way he did that wasn't really fair play. Even me, I don't understand what pushed him to do so."

… Well, in most of his shadier decisions.

"But I can tell you there was nothing personal in it. He's one of the rare person that leave no opening to his feelings when he make choices."

"Hum…" Tsuna wasn't listening anymore. No matter what were the reasons, he found the Arcobaleno's behaviour inexcusable, and if he could forget that while trying to get things up again, nothing and no one would make him change his point of view concerning the events.

Dino noticed that quite quickly, and got clever enough not to insist. He sent a small smile to the brunet, telling him the subject was closed.

"So, I was saying… Even though I won't have much use in your future trainings, there's probably something I can do to help you check your theory."

"How?"

Seeing he had once again his attention, the elder got a malicious, accomplice face.

"If your father really was banished, it's without a doubt written somewhere. Well, as long as he got banished by a clan or by an Arcobaleno. But even if it wasn't one of them, someone must have an information."

Tsuna opened wide his eyes.

"You keep track of all the banished entities?" He exclaimed, surprised. He didn't expect that.

"You have no idea of all the papers you have to deal with, with each occult ritual," The other deplored with a sigh. "Especially banished entities, on one hand because they become more or less invisible to the invocators we are, and that we like to keep track of them, still, and on another hand for no one to invoke again the banished entity, since it can be a dangerous spirit."

There again, surprise. The young man felt like he could never understand all the rules and exceptions to those rules making the law of the occult world. Why was it that complicated? Plus, why had he that impression that the exceptions ruled way more on this universe's reality than the rules themselves?

"Wait, because we still can invoke a banished entity?"

He had asked that innocently, worried he'd get lost in a myriad of convoluted explanations, but Dino seemed suddenly embarrassed, as if he said too much. But he was forced to continue, since he had begun.

"Yes. There's many way, usually quite simple, but which have requirement quite complicated to reach. It also depends from the kind of banishing it is, and from an awful lot of other parameters, so we consider, to be simple, that invoking a banished is impossible. Which is the first reason why the entity got banished, by the way, so you understand we never really tried to learn how to get around the banishment seal.

"Yeah… I feel like there's a lot of impossible things that can still be done," The small brunet grunted, jaded, as he thought back on the 'impossibility' to invoke a human spirit under a physical aspect. Which he did without realising it.

"Let's say those things are considered impossible for an ordinary flame alone. But there's so much different skills, entities and way of invoking that everything get a bit blurry and messed up."

"Alright. So you think you can find my father?"

It was time to go back onto the principal matter of this discussion. The theoretical consideration could wait a bit.

"If he was banished as a ghost, we should find him somewhere, yeah. With Romario, with still have some friends in the business to whom we can ask some favours without having to get it back to them in the end."

Tsuna didn't really want to know what it implied. The way families worked seemed even more blurry than the random rules in their world.

"Alright. Thank you, Dino."

He was sincere. The blond's help really was golden, especially when he knew he had only one goal in life: stay civilian and not get bothered with spirits anymore. And even more now, since the boy had the impression that the result of those research would be determining in the following of his quest.

"You'll thank me when we'll find something~ However, if it's not done yet, you could ask some help from Gokudera. His family's got a web of information and allies' way more huge than mine. I'm sure Bianchi could find in few hours what I can find in few weeks."

"Ah err… Okay. I didn't think about it."

Dino had seemingly guessed that, since he pulled out his most sunny smile and the best advice Tsuna would ever heard:

"Never forget your friend, Tsuna. Count on them as much as you want, they're your best quality and usually your only support, in this world. Take the time to choose them, judge what each of them can do, and always keep an open heart to them. For those you already know, you better not let them go."