Chapter Twenty Five

The cloud battle was tonight and the wolf demon, from what Reborn could see, was entirely unconcerned about the whole thing. For the most part, the discipline committee leader napped, laying out on the back porch in the sun like a cat would. Hibari chirping softly on the prefect's head in its sleep. Reborn didn't know if Hibari was being arrogant or that he simply didn't care until the time to fight came around. With his personality, it could be both. Tsuna didn't seemed surprised about her cloud element's behaviour though, so he decided that it wasn't something he needed to worry about or act on.

At any rate, Reborn doubted that Hibari would lose (his clumsy student called, not even a full day into the wolf's training, and said he couldn't teach Hibari anything all the while sounding like he was in deep pain. Reborn might have to up Dino's training when he got a moment, he was clearly slipping and that was unacceptable), though the lack of information about the Gola Mosca guardian was worrying. He knew it was a robotic suit of some kind but he had no idea who was within it.

"This way, please, Master Fon." spoke one of the servants that the mansion held. Reborn raised an eyebrow as Fon revealed himself by turning the corner. He was in his usual red cheongsam-style shirt with white sleeve cuffs, that was copied by his pupil, I-Pin, with white baggy trousers and black flats. He had a long black braid with his fringe being similar to Hibari's and almost gentle reddish-brown eyes. Lichi, Fon's animal partner, was a red faced, white monkey, balancing on his head which was where the animal usually sat. Fon held his usual serene, peaceful smile. Now that Reborn thought about it, Fon and Hibari looked way too much alike and with their personalities being so different, thinking about them as relatives was just plain weird.

Tsunahime, besides him, looked up before blinking in surprise and bowing slightly in respect, "Welcome, Fon-san. Can I get you something to drink? Some tea, perhaps?" Reborn nodded in greeting to the man and wondered about how she know who Fon was before reminding himself that Hibari was her element and so the carnivorous boy had probably told her.

Fon's smile seemed to widen into something more genuine, "Oolong tea please, if you have any, Tsunahime-san. I hope I haven't come at an unwelcome time."

Tsuna smiled back, seemingly pleased (Reborn knew he should have kept them apart. Their smiles were practically identical. He really didn't like the thought of Fon being anywhere near his bambina. And that wasn't jealousy talking… Really, it wasn't.) with him, "Of course not. This is your home and I am merely a guest here. Please, wait for a moment and I'll prepare your tea." With that, Tsunahime stood up and wondered out of the room to get the tea. Reborn watched her go before turning his attention to his fellow Arcobaleno. While he knew the Strongest Storm was around the area, Reborn didn't think that Fon would just turn up completely unannounced. Or, at least, not so openly.

Fon sat down in front of him with his arms resting in his sleeves and Reborn took that as his que to start questioning the Chinese man, "How do you know Tsuna?" because that greeting, while formal, didn't sound like they were complete strangers.

Fon wasn't offended that Reborn had barely even said hello. He was more than amused by the almost possessive tone his fellow Arcobaleno's voice had taken though. He wondered how much blackmail he could collect from the hitman from this development (Fon may be the most counted as the most peaceful of the Arcobaleno but that didn't mean he couldn't be a troll when he wanted to be. He was just more… subtle than Reborn, preferring to use his legendary calm to make people sweat instead of Reborn's preferred mind games. Of course, Reborn knew about his personality but he also knew that nobody suspected the polite Chinese man. Especially not when Reborn was in the same area.) Fon voiced none of this though, best not tip off his almost friend about his future as Fon's amusement, "Well, I haven't met her officially until today but Kyoya did tell me she was his sky. I can see why Kyoya would pick her as his sky." And he could. Her flames were drifting around the entire house. It wasn't an aggressive claiming but more like a warning to others that the people within the house was protected. It was a calming atmosphere to be in. She also had manners, which was a welcome change. The mafia and the triads only used them when they wanted something and they got thrown out of the window at the first sign of violence. Not that Kyoya was the only reason why he knew about Tsunahime. She was well talked about in some circles.

The mere fact that she was sitting with Reborn in comfortable silence, with the hitman, who wasn't even attempting to make chaos at the moment spoke volumes of her character. The silence was one that equals would sit in and Reborn was only that calm when he was around someone he respected. If Reborn who, much like all the Strongest, hadn't had the best experiences with skies (even if you exclude Luce) was able to be that comfortable in the presence of a sky... It was clear to Fon, the moment he had caught the sight of the scene that Tsuna respected boundaries (which was good because Fon doubted he could take any more of skies trying to forcefully pull him in. Luckily, most knew better to even think about that nowadays after he had made some examples out of a few of them). Reborn wasn't even that comfortable with Dino, who had been the sun's student for awhile now. Not that Fon knew why Reborn would want to teach an inexperienced sky in the first place. Oh, he knew Reborn had a secret love for teaching (not that Fon could say anything as he quite enjoyed it as well) but young skies who didn't have any guardians tended to try and pull in any element near them without thinking. It must have been hell on Reborn's flames, it would have been on Fon's.

Tsuna walked back in the living room with a tray of drinks. She had some green tea for herself and had gotten Reborn a cup of espresso as well as Fon's oolong tea as requested (she was glad she was entertaining someone who seemed to appreciate tea. Reborn swore by coffee only and refused to even attempt to drink some tea). Setting out the drinks on the coffee table, Tsuna retook her spot next to Reborn, "If you don't mind me asking, Fon-san, may I ask why you are here?" Because while this was technically his house (the mansion belonged to all Hibaris and Fon's little sister married into the family so he was a Hibari, if only by extension. When the Hibaris saw how strong Fon was, they had no problem welcoming him into the family, even with his cursed form), from what Kyoya said about the 'annoying carnivore' they didn't have the best relationship. Plus Fon tended to stay over in China, from what she had heard.

"I heard Kyoya was taking part in the ring battles and wanted to watch the outcome." Which was true but she sensed that was only a half-truth, still it was a good enough reason to be here and she couldn't just kick him out, "I also heard I-Pin was living with you." Again, not the full truth, but she couldn't sense anything malicious.

Still, Tsuna nodded, accepting the reasons, "Kyoya hopes that his opponent will be up to his standards. While they are strong people in town, he has 'bitten to death' all of them by now and attacking the same people all the time can get boring." Fon smiled in amusement, hearing Tsunahime's silent sympathy. It seemed Kyoya's sky also liked to fight. How delightful. "I-Pin did mention a master Fon. She has spoken quite highly of you."

"Thank you for taking her under your wing." Fon bowed, dipping his head a little more than needed, showing how just how grateful he was. Before I-Pin left for her last mission, he had heard rumours of the triad wanting to see how the child would respond when her mission was an assassination without Fon being there to watch over her. To say the least, Fon was… displeased with that and had made his opinion known. Needless to say, the triads won't be looking from I-Pin anymore. Not that they had any right in the first place. I-Pin was only his apprentice, and had nothing to do with the triads other than his association with them. With the example he made before coming to Namimori, Fon couldn't imagine they'll over step their boundaries again for awhile.

"Its been my pleasure. I-Pin is very well behaved and has been a good friend for Lambo." Fon's smiled widened at the fact that his student now has a friend her age. I-Pin always had trouble with that in China. Civilians were too strange for her to relax around and the children in the triads tended to stay away from her because of him being her master (or they took advantage of her pure desire for friendship and tried to use her to get to him). "She's currently in the garden if you want to see her. Kyoya is taking a nap outside, as well."

Fon smiled once again before bowing, "Thank you again, I'll go do that." He stood up, picked up his tea and left for the garden with a simple nod to Reborn. Tsuna tilted her head in thought as she watched the small chinese man disappear around the corner.

"Bambina?"

"Ah, it's nothing, I'm just wondering what else he's here for." replied Tsuna. Reborn narrowed his eyes, was her hyper intuition acting up? Surely Fon should know that Tsuna was his student and he wouldn't let any harm come to her, plus she was Hibari's sky. Fon probably wasn't here to cause intentional harm, he was one of the most honourable Arcobaleno barring the two military ones (and maybe Skull because he was a civilian before the curse) and wouldn't attack without someone provoking him. The triads probably didn't even care about Tsuna (they might not even know about her) because she was mafia so he couldn't be here on a job… Besides if he was on a job, he would outright say he was here to kill her instead of trying to hide it. It was one of the things Reborn liked about Fon, you could trust trust him to stab you in the front instead of the back.

Reborn resolved himself to keeping a close eye on the martial artist.

In the back of her head, Tsuna felt the pull of a flame...

While her cloud was self assured of his victory for the upcoming battle, Tsunahime wasn't so sure. It wasn't that she thought Kyoya could lose (Kyoya was probably one of her strongest elements and her other elements had been able to deal with their opponents pretty well) but Tsuna's intuition went off, screaming at her, everytime she even thought about the battle and its outcome. She didn't know what was going to happen but it just wouldn't stop and was giving her a rather nasty headache.

Said headache wasn't being helped by the battle that was currently going on outside. Kyoya had seen Fon and, quite predictably, launched himself at the cursed being with his tonfa. They weren't going all out, Kyoya, for all his blood lust, gave his word that he'd win his ring battle and he wouldn't injure himself before that. Demons took their word seriously and once given it couldn't be broken. Well, it could, Tsuna supposed, it wasn't magically binding or anything like that but demons tended to have very loose morals and so they made sure to stick to the ones they did have. Giving their word and keeping it was one of their morals. To break their word was to bring shame to themselves and their family. Kyoya was very loyal to the rules he did care enough about to follow and so it went without saying that Kyoya wouldn't be losing his fight.

Still, despite the fact that they weren't going all out, it didn't stop the phoenix from wincing every time they made a sound that was too loud. It echoed in her head, and did she mention that her head just wouldn't stop banging? It got so bad that she had to bring her hand to her head and start massaging her temple, hoping for some relief. At least the tea she was having was soothing to drink.

This, of course, brought her Reborn's attention (he seemed to be very in tune with her, maybe it was because their flames were always around each other? Tsuna had started to feel anxious if she couldn't feel Reborn's soul-flame near her, thankfully it hadn't happened often because Reborn went out of his way to stay close to her. She wondered if the hitman felt the same when she was too far away from him), who was watching the fight outside with glee through the window.

At some point, Kyoya had released his half-demon form and was now sporting black wolf ears and tail. His eyes seemed a lot more beast like, his canines were sharper and longer than normal, appearing almost like fangs if he bared his teeth, and he was growling more than he usual did too (this made Reborn wonder if Fon was supernatural too, considering Hibari was his nephew and the boy was a full demon. Though Reborn couldn't really see Fon as a wolf. The martial artists was really good at hiding it if Reborn didn't even suspect that something was off before he knew about the existence of the supernatural). Fon also seemed to be enjoying himself. The smile he wore held a more predatory edge and something close to excitement as he traded blows with his nephew. It was probably good for Fon to fight someone challenging. When she fought with Reborn the first time, he fought with the desperation of a starved man. From what Tsuna could infer, it had been a long time since someone had allowed them to feel the thrill of battle. It was probably why she had seen Reborn in the arena every so often. He would get Tsuna to come and spar with him during the same day so Tsuna just stuck around while he had his fun. After the others got over the fact that Reborn was, in fact, a normal (which really was no way to describe Reborn) human, abet cursed, they were quite happy to fight him. It probably helped when they heard Reborn was close to her and when they did fight him they found he wasn't quite as helpless as they first thought he would be. Meaning they ended up losing and their pride battered and beaten on the ground with Reborn smirking at them tauntingly. Luckily, not many kicked up a fuss. Reborn did lose a couple of fights (and seemed even more excited when he did) in the beginning and everyone there was there to get a good fight. Anyone who made too much of a fuss was quickly taught not to. Whether it was by Reborn himself, or by one of the others fighters.

(Reborn had a harder time winning a fight but it was improving his skills drastically. His reflexes and strength was pretty much supernatural now, having forced his body to improve under the new opponents he'd found, despite his curse. What was more supernatural however, in Tsuna's mind, was his learning curve. He soaked everything up with startling ease. Having a title like 'World's Greatest Hitman' made more sense when she thought about that. If he didn't have such strong sun flames, Tsuna didn't know if his body could keep up with what Reborn was demanding it to do, especially with the cursed form he was walking around in. Tsuna would have gotten Ryohei to check if she didn't already know that it would not be appreciated. Besides, Reborn couldn't have gotten as strong as he was without knowing his own limits and he was a tutor with his own sun flames so he should be alright. At least, that was what Tsuna was telling herself.)

Reborn gave her searching look, his interest in the ongoing fight forgotten once he saw that his bambina was in pain, "What's wrong, bambina?"

Tsuna smiled softly at the concerned tone the man's voice had taken, however, she soon frowned again once her head began throbbing once more, "My intuition just won't stop screaming at me. I don't know what's wrong but something about this next fight is worrying me." Her intuition lead her to believe that it probably wasn't a danger to her family (or at least not too much of a danger that they couldn't handle it) directly but whatever it was, Tsuna could tell it would be on Iemitsu's level of annoying. At least.

"Do you think Hibari will lose?" he asked, jumping up to her shoulder and using some of his own flames to help the ease the pain. Because it was her own intuition, Tsuna's flames didn't recognise it as something that needed healing. He couldn't do much, his sun flame trapped by the curse but with some concentration he could use enough of his flames to complete the task. It helped that his flames were so in tune with his emotions nowadays that he only needed to give a vague direction before they did most of the work for him.

Tsuna sighed in relief and smiled brightly in thanks, Reborn's lips twitched up into a smile before going back into his usual smirk in response, "Gods, no!" Tsuna nearly laughed at the thought before deciding it probably wasn't best to risk it, "Maybe it's something to do with what will happen after the outcome?" she asked herself and smiled when her intuition gave a happy hum. "Okay, something to do with what will happen after."

"Should we up the security around the arena?" Reborn asked. He knew that the vongola hyper intuition usually hinted when something was wrong or correct and Tsuna had mentioned that it could sometimes almost summon images when it ran strong in someone. Regardless, it wasn't very good with precise answers and usually asking 'yes' or 'no' questions helped narrow it down to an answer they could figure out.

Tsuna frowned and held back a finch as it suddenly started up again, "That's a 'no'." Given Reborn's look, she wasn't able to hide her pain very well.

"So we should loosen it instead?" Asked the hitman with a raised eye and a slightly sarcastic tone, his patience short when he saw the amount of pain Tsuna was going through. His sun flames clearly didn't hold it off very well and Reborn did not like that fact. He hadn't thought about it before but having a voice (could it be even counted as a voice?) inside your head constantly shouting at you when it is so strong had got to be painful once it hit a certain level.

Surprisingly, she nodded, "Apparently." Tsuna hummed faintly, thinking about how she could loosen the security without potentially endangering them if something went wrong (or at least even more wrong than what her intuition was suggesting), "Maybe I could lower some of the charms around the area?"

"Which ones?"

"Maybe the ones that stops your average person from finding the place if they weren't invited?" Tsuna's shoulders dropped in relief once the pain finally stopped, nearly dislodging Reborn in the process.

Regaining his footing and grabbing Tsuna's neck tighter than he needed to do in slight retribution as her head was in pain before and he didn't want to start it up again (even if he knew that thought was pretty illogical), "I'll take that as a 'yes'." he offered drily.

Tsuna chuckled, "My apologies." she said, wrapping her flames around him in hopes of being forgiven though knowing Reborn wasn't really that upset about it, "I'll go call Tsuki to let her know." Tsuna tilted her head, "I'll also tell the others to expect some more people than usual. I'm guessing with the charms down they'll find the arena so they can watch the battles. I think Basil was supposed to watch us for the CEFED." she mused.

"They might have given up." Reborn shrugged, "It has been four days now." He knew Dino was busy trying to deal with something famiglia related at the moment. It had something to do with Iemitsu, his student had said, but by that point Reborn didn't care. He knew Dino was getting more than a little annoyed about being treated like he was a lackey of the Vongola when he was the boss of an allied family, even if he didn't really show it. And Dino should be annoyed, Reborn thought, Dino was his student and deserved to be treated with more respect. It was almost like the Vongola was indirectly insulting him and Reborn would not let that stand.

The group hadn't even entered the building before the Gola Mosca dropped in, quite literally. It stood up, emitting smoke, ominously. Fon was on Takeshi's shoulder, smiling as he always made quite the image, the two perpetually smiling as if they were trying to 'out-smile' the other. Tsuna lips twitched with effort to restrain a laugh when she imagined the two in a smiling contest instead of a staring one.

Stretching her senses a little, she could sense some of Dino's men around the area watching from afar. They were being watched by her mists, who was also watching from afar. Dino probably wanted to see how Kyoya would fare against someone of Varia Quality (Reborn said that the whole Varia Quality thing meant a lot in the mafia) given that he didn't end up very well against Kyoya, from what her cloud said (which was very little, the battle hadn't held much interest for the wolf, apart from wanting to put the 'herbivore' in his place). Though why he sent his men instead of going himself, Tsuna couldn't say. She was missing some information it seemed. Though, Reborn hadn't told her anything to it probably wasn't immediately important.

Kyoya, who was walking as far in front of the group as was possible while still being considered apart of said group turned to look at the machine, "So, that's the one…" he smirked, already feeling his blood raise in anticipation. Fighting with the annoying carnivore this morning was a good workout. He hoped his opponent was as good as the rest of his pack got as they all seemed to like their battle (baring Hayato who had lost, and despite their sky's easy acceptance of this, was still feeling quite touchy about it. The wolf figured the dog needed some time of gather his pride again, Kyoya hated to lose as well), "I'll bite you to death."

Ryohei sighed, sounding both confused and exasperated, "That guy still says crazy things..." The exorcist was imagining Hibari literally biting someone to death. At least when Tsuki said things like that, she could actually do it. Tsuki was extreme like that!

Fon's smile widened in his amusement.

The cervello intervened before Kyoya could decide he'd rather have his fight there than wait till they arrived at the actual battle ground. They led everyone to the the roof once again, where barbed wire marked out a large area to fight in. Within the circle the wire had marked out, were several gatling guns around the edge. It looked like something out of a military camp.

"This is the field for the cloud guardians' battle. The cloud ground." Tsuna blinked at the name of the battleground. That didn't sound as exciting as the others and it wasn't in Italian either. Kyoya didn't seem very fazed by the area he was going to fight in and easily went to his marked area, Mocsa was standing opposite him.

"G-gatling guns?" shouted Hayato, surprised.

"The mission of the cloud guardian is to be the aloof, drifting cloud who protects the family from an independant standpoint, and whom nobody can bind." started the cervello, "Therefore, we have prepared the most extreme field for them. The field is surrounded on all sides by barbed wire and gatling guns that attack anything within a 30 meter radius." Tsuna tilted her head as she attempted to measure the size of the field, if she was right then that would only leave the middle of the area to be free of gun fire, "Furthermore, there are pressure-sensitive mines buried under the ground. Once activated, an alarm will sound followed immediately by an explosion."

...

It was silent as each group processed that information (how did this battle ground represent a cloud apart from the fact that most liked to attack things?) but Kyoya easily broke it, speaking cooly, "Don't call me that."

The cervello blinked, confused, it was one of the only emotion they had seen pass through their face, "Pardon?"

"I am not something as herbivorous as a guardian." he growled. Tsuna gave a startled laughed, it figured Kyoya got hung up on that part of the explanation despite everything else that was said after.

"Only guardians can fight in these battles. Are you saying you are not Tsunahime's guardian?"

Kyoya bared his teeth, the growl becoming deeper and more threatening at the perceived insult to his Alpha's pride, "Alpha has no need for bodyguards. I am a bonded element, not a guardian." He paused for a moment before turning a vicious glare at the judges, "Call me that herbivorous title again and I'll bite you to death."

The cervello, who were obviously still very confused despite Kyoya's explanation, turned to the cloud's sky for something that made more sense, not wanting to anger the clearly impatient cloud anymore. The Varia and Fon doing the same, ever since the Primo people had always called the bonded elements 'guardians', it was strange for someone to deny the title.

Tsuna smiled at them politely, "I'm not very fond of the title as it makes people think that I am too weak to defend myself and need others to do it for me. I just call my bonded 'elements' if I need to. Besides, most of my bonded aren't really the guarding type." They saw no need to guard her if they could merely take out the one threatening her instead. It was quicker that way.

The Varia blinked but nodded in agreement and understanding, that made a lot of sense and they preferred that to the 'guardian' thing when they thought about it like that. Fon stared at Tsuna for a moment and then Reborn (who seemed very comfortable on the sky's shoulder, he noticed), considering, before pulling his attention back to the fight about to take place, not wanting to be seen staring.

"Ah, wait!" shouted Ryohei, "Hibari is all the way over there so we can't do the extreme circle!" Tsuna got the distinct impression that the wolf was smirking as he stood still in the middle of the battleground, not even glancing in their direction. The barbed wire separating him from the rest of the group.

"Haha. I'm sure Hibari-senpai is here with us in spirit." and with that Tsuna's rain dragged everyone around to make a circle and shouting the chant once more. Kyoya growled at them, annoyed by his packs behaviour (even if he might not completely mind that they had included him in their little ritual, not that he'd admit that on pain of death), even more so when Fon willingly joined in, who glanced in his direction with a smile. Annoying carnivore.

"Then we'll begin." started the cervello, jumping out of the way to announce, "The cloud ring - Gola Mosca vs Hibari Kyoya. Begin the battle!"

The Mocsa wasted no time and turned on the thrusters he had on his feet, launching himself at Kyoya, flying, fire at its feet. The machine lifted his hands, charging his attack…

Kyoya struck, as fast and as ferocious as his demon type would suggest. The cloud's tonfa didn't even struggle as it tore through the machine's arm as easily as ripping paper. The arm dropped to the ground, with a dull thud, wires sparking randomly as the Mocsa followed, collapsing onto the ground.

Kyoya landed on the other side, clicking the two halves of the vongola cloud ring and pocketing it.

Silence rung out.

So what do you think?

Fon got introduced this chapter! Fon has always been one of my favourite out of the Arcobaleno because of his completely serene expression even when Chaos was happening around him. We've got some foreshadowing for the later chapters that Fon has something to do with as well.

Kyoya's battle (if you could call it that) was short. I apologise but I can't imagine him dragging it out for any reason. But that's the cloud battle completed so there is only the sky battle before I'm done with this arc. I can't wait for the future arc! I've got so many ideas!

Thanks for the reviews and I hope you enjoyed it!