Natsume was not in a happy mood. She had been minding her own business when she stumbled across a scene straight out of a horror movie...or one of Mukuro's illusions.

The thing that pissed her off the most though? This time it wasn't an ayakashi causing the trouble, but a human.

There was no way she would mistake that shadow for anything less. Not with such dark and cruel Storm flames.

At least they weren't in Discord, which was about the ONLY good thing about them.

"Natsume?" said Natori in surprise.

"There's a problem. A human has been going around stirring up the ayakashi in the area and I don't even want to know what they need this much blood for."

"...Have you seen the woman from the gathering, or a man wearing long hair and an eyepatch recently?" asked Natori.

"I haven't seen her, though I did see a shadow that felt human."

"Human?" repeated Natori.

Natsume shuddered.

"I don't know who they were...but their aura felt vile. And despite evidence to the contrary I can tell the difference between someone with spiritual powers and an ayakashi."

Mostly because she had NEVER met and ayakashi with flames, latent or inactive, which all exorcists or spiritually aware had.

"...It might have been Matoba. I heard he was in the area and he's already expressed an interest in my 'cute apprentice'," said Natori.

"Of all the times for Fon to be visiting his grandson... at least I-Pin went with him," said Natsume in irritation. Then she remembered something... the retainers of her great-grandmother's clan that had started to filter in to the town and were already setting up shop.

"You're thinking of doing something troublesome, aren't you?" asked Natori smiling.

"Yeah, I am," admitted Natsume. She looked in the general area of those foul Storm flames. "And I have the worst feeling a lot of things are going to come to light after this."

Natori smiled at her.

"You know if you're ever troubled by something, I will always listen."

"In this case it's less something troubling me and more something that would have come out eventually. Especially if our relationship progresses past where we have it now," said Natsume tiredly.

She knew it had to happen, but that didn't make it any less difficult to explain and pray that Natori didn't leave.

She had a few calls to make.

Mukuro and Chrome were waiting for her, partly out of support but also to help cover in case Natori took things badly. While she got the tea ready, Reborn showed up as well, though in his case it was likely to explain about the Arcobaleno curse which would hopefully be broken before Christmas. They were having a bit of difficulty convincing Mammon, formerly Viper, that the cure was for real.

"You wanted to tell me something?" asked Natori.

Natsume decided to start off with something he likely had heard of, since Flames were a bit of a Western term.

"Have you heard of Soul Fire?" asked Natsume.

Natori blinked, the lizard under his skin moving around his face.

"You mean the force that certain exorcists can use that look like flames of varying colors?" he asked carefully. "I've heard rumors about it, but never seen it."

Natsume looked to Mukuro, who smirked. His trident blazed with indigo colored flame.

"The technical term is Dying Will Flames, though to civilians it's also called Soul Fire," he said smiling. "It's strictly limited to humans though."

Natsume kept eye contact with Natori as she explained what Dying Will Flames were, how they were very useful against ayakashi so long as you never showed it around humans who didn't already know (and a very thorough warning about the Vindice), and the background of where they came from.

Then came the part she was dreading. Natori believed her about flames, but it was the part about the curse that she had been openly dreading.

Reborn went into a factual account of what the Arcobaleno were, what the curse actually did (having gotten it from Kawahira at one point and backed it up with trusted historical evidence), and the fact that there were almost always seven of them.

The only reason that there was an abnormal amount of cursed this time around could be attributed to Colonello's abrupt interference at the last second. No one anticipated that his resonance with Lal would have lead to him being chosen or for her flames to be warped.

So you could imagine the shock Natsume got when, upon hearing she had the Sky pacifier which Reborn openly admitted rarely lasted long because they often chose to retain their true ages and thus died rather young, Natori's hands started blazing with golden flames.

He stared at his own hands in shock.

"What..."

Reborn snorted.

"Of course your interest in Natsume and hearing about the curse she's under would push you towards Activating your flames."

Natori looked at him in surprise.

"What do you mean?"

"You're like Reborn... a Sun. I could tell right away you were on the verge of going Active, but I didn't want to drag you into the underworld without any reason to. Once you awaken your flames, you're automatically placed under the watch of the Vindice who take keeping them secret from the normal people very seriously. Never mind the fact that the criminal underworld has it in their heads that anyone who activates their flames is automatically fair game to being dragged into their groups," said Natsume tiredly.

Seeing the look in his eyes, Mukuro smirked.

"Natsume has already staked her claim on you, which means you're under the protection of the Giglio Nero famiglia. Once they find out you're already attached to a family they'll leave you alone for the most part. So long as you don't use your flames overtly, you should be fine," said Mukuro.

"What about this curse you mentioned?"

"It should be broken by Christmas. The only reason I didn't bother removing it before was partly because I didn't have access to the necessary people or materials, and because I didn't think it was important enough to alert certain factions of my existence again," said Natsume.

That calmed Natori down.

"On an unrelated note, Fon did confirm that those with Active flames have a stronger affinity towards certain spells...and the propery of a Sun is 'activation', which means that your spells should get a power boost after this," said Natsume.

"You never did say which flame you had, just that it was very rare and orange."

"Natsume has the 'royal' flame, which is Sky. It's a composite of the other six and those with it are considered 'nobility' among the underworld. They're often found in leadership positions, though recent bad habits result in fake guardian bonds because they shove Elements onto Skies with no regard towards Harmony at all," said Reborn. "Her flames allow her to draw in the other six into a whole, almost like a spiritual glue...which is the only reason that pineapple haired brat isn't more homicidal than he already is."

"Oya, I heard something rude just now," said Mukuro, eye twitching with annoyance.

Reborn merely smirked at him.

"There is one thing I don't get... you speak as if you've known them for years, but as far as I've been able to find out you've been with relatives and dealing with ayakashi on the sidelines."

Natsume thought of how to phrase this. Then she thought of a believable way to explain things without going into too much detail.

"I came into an artifact that stores imprints of it's owners when I was a child. The man who had it tried to seal my powers, but as a result my Sight awakened at full blast rather than gradually, which is part of the reason my mother sent me away. The problem is that I was one of the owners in another time, so I got hit with several memories of my other self. Though I wasn't expecting Reborn or the others to somehow be dragged along with me."

All perfectly true without going into far too much detail about the Tri-Ni-Sette or how the Vongola were the 'caretakers' of the linear time-space axis.

Natsume suspected the main reason Byakuran lost his mind was because he stole the Mare rings from the Giglio Nero, who were the rightful owners and didn't have the required bloodline to handle the information overload. That and a natural predisposition.

Either way she was rather happy when Natori didn't try to leave, and harmonized with her within hours of going active. Reborn was her official Sun Guardian, but at least now she wouldn't have to hide as much from Natori.

She had been through enough crap in her life that she wanted to be selfish for once.

She could only hope Natori felt the same way, but she wasn't about to press her luck.

Feeling Natori's arm wrap around her waist and pulling her away from the attack that came from her left, she looked up at him.

"Thanks."

"Careful," he said with a light smile, before he frowned at the ayakashi. "I didn't take you to be the sort to attack humans."

"He's a new servant. You're rather attached to your apprentice," said Matoba. His long hair barely covered an odd eyepatch that had spells written on it.

"She's not my apprentice. She's my girlfriend," said Natori flatly.

"Oh?" said Matoba, looking at her with dark interest now. "A bit young, isn't she?"

Natsume's smile was full of dark intent.

"What kind of idiot comments on a girl's age so blatantly? Are you trying to get slapped?" she shot back.

Natori couldn't help the snort of amusement that escaped him.

He would also never forget how catty Natsume suddenly became or the way she had Matoba cringe by the end of their first proper meeting.

It was absolutely hilarious and he would treasure that particular memory for a while.

Natsume squeaked, as the second the irritating exorcist was out of their sight Natori kissed her on the cheek.

"That was entirely too amusing and makes me wonder how much fun you would have at the boring gatherings I keep having to go to for my career."

"Were you serious? About me being your girlfriend?"

Natori smiled.

"Did you really think I would joke about something like that? Besides, it took me forever to shut my manager up about it, since everyone thought you were an up-and-coming actress or some fan girl that managed to trick me into a date," said Natori. "He didn't actually believe me about the fact you wouldn't broadcast details about our date to the amusement park until he realized that there wasn't a single interview with the usual sources for a full month after it, or anyone claiming to be the 'mystery girl'."

At least none that could be proven anyway.

"That being said, I have a sneaking suspicion the recent attacks are all his fault, either because he's behind it or he's the one that they're targeting," said Natsume.

It was clear she had a very ill opinion of the other exorcist. It was a good thing she had started hiding the Book of Friends inside her Mist pocket, because that man was the worst sort of person to learn of it's existence.

The thought of what he would do should he ever get his hands on it would give her nightmares for some time.

Natsume felt rather vindicated when her suspicion was confirmed after hearing the entire mess was caused by a former exorcist pissed at the jerk who commented on her age because one of his 'servants' had eaten the woman's shiki.

If one of those broken ayakashi had eaten Rin or any of her friends, she would have been pissed as hell too!

Natsume stared down the big ayakashi, who Natori was planning to seal again, and glared.

She began to pour flames into her special rosary beads until they began to glow white hot from the heat. Then they began to shine brightly from an internal light and changed right before her eyes and the eyes of everyone there.

They looked like tear drops with daggers at the end, and were a rusty color that fortunately didn't look too much like blood.

"That's the first evolution of the divine beads!" said Nyanko in shock. He never expected them to unlock at a time like this!

The youkai that had been looming towards them in order to devour them and free itself properly shied away from the light that the beads were giving off.

Natsume's hands flew into a series of signs that had been drilled into her by the family retainers (three of which were chosen specifically to insure the heir or heirress knew how to cast the family spells properly and were sworn with special oaths before being taught themselves) and began to cast the strongest binding spell she knew that wouldn't require a lethal sacrifice in order to be placed.

Combined with the newly upgraded beads, and the fact she had the power to back it up, the ayakashi didn't stand a chance.

Unfortunately, that little showing had the side effect of making the Matoba clan very interested in her. And not because she was able to gain the allegiance of a powerful youkai like Nyanko-sensei without binding him.

On the bright side, she could at least tell her teachers that she had managed to successfully cast one of the more difficult seals on her first try.

They already approved of her relationship with Natori, mostly because he came from a line of exorcists, even if the main line was mostly in dormancy save for him. The fact he wasn't trying to bed her at the first chance he had despite the fact she was of marrying age spoke well of his personality.