Tsuna rubbed his eyes and yawned as the cover fell off of his head. The last thing he remembered was seeing Mukuro's Flame and deciding that he had to fix it. Then he'd realized how tired that he'd become. He'd went from his normal energy levels to completely drained within a few minutes.

"Finally awake, Tsunayoshi?" The Ninth said with amusement in his voice. Tsuna looked over his shoulder at the room behind him and blushed. Not only was the Ninth present, but so was a woman that he recognized all too well. With a yelp, he grabbed his covers and threw it back over his shoulders while silently giving gratitude to whoever had left his pants on. That person had also seen fit to put his eye-patch back on, as well. "Come. Eat," the Ninth ordered with a laugh. "You need your strength before Lilith gets to work."

"Work?" Tsuna repeated in askance. A loud grumble erupted from his stomach before he got an answer, making him blush even harder. "H-How long was I out?" He asked instead, reaching over to grab his robe from beside the bed. He slipped it on with yet another blush, even though he knew that White had already seen him without a shirt on.

"A day and a half," he answered with a smile while Tsuna made his way over to his sitting area. His stomach grumbled once more at the sight of the feast that the Ninth had laid out for him. Despite the hollow feeling in his stomach, he ignored the food at the man's reply.

"Then Ryohei...?!" He prompted.

"He's fine," the Ninth answered with a knowing grin. "He's already been treated and about cleaned the Headquarters out of food. The Chef wasn't sure whether to be pleased or upset over his enthusiastic eating."

"Thank goodness," Tsuna sighed, collapsing into an empty seat beside White. Without wasting more time than it took to give a belated greeting, Tsuna began to dig in while only sparing a few moments to completely forget about table manners. The empty hole inside him wanted to be filled and filled right now.

"From what we could figure out while you were unconscious," the Ninth explained while Tsuna continued to inhale the food in front of him. "Mukuro incidentally destroyed a gateway inside your mind."

"You don't seem surprised," Tsuna mumbled between bites. He paused with his fork held midair and shot the Ninth a knowing look. "You can see like that, can't you?"

"On occasion," he admitted with a small smile. "For me, the Sight is like a second aura I see around people if their Flame is strong. That's how I knew of your strength from a young age, Tsunayoshi." Tsuna grunted and returned to his meal, trying not to think too hard about the man's words. "There are many gates within the human mind," he continued as he absently sipped his tea. "Most of them are never opened within a normal person. This gate that Mukuro has torn down is one that only we Vongola hold within us. It was a gate created so that we could see and come to understand the link between this world and the next. Not all of our ancestors ever even touched this gate within themselves, but nearly all those who went through the Reckoning ended up being able to use it. Perhaps..." The Ninth shook his head at whatever train of though he'd had and smiled. "Who knows? I, myself, passed the Trial and didn't have to go through such a painful ordeal."

"Be grateful," Tsuna grumbled, trying not to let the memories be summoned by the man's words.

"You never told us what--"

"And I never will," he interrupted, pausing in his meal to give the Ninth a hard look. "You've served Vongola well without knowing and there's no reason for you to know now. Chalk it up as another mystery of the universe and be done with it."

"Very well," the Ninth agreed quietly, understanding that it wasn't something that Tsuna wanted to delve into.

"There's one thing I never understood," Tsuna mumbled, sitting back from his now-empty plates with a cup of tea in his hands. "Why were you able to pass the Trial and I wasn't?"

"The Trial is started once one has been pushed to the brink of death," he answered. "When I was pushed there, I was resolute in my determination not to follow the path my ancestors took. My resolution was accepted."

"But you do kill and do things that our predecessors did," Tsuna replied. "And you're the one that gave me orders to do so time and time again."

"Ah," the Ninth agreed with a mournful look on his face. "Yet my resolution stays firm. I bear those sins without regret, but it has never shaken my resolution. I do not need to walk the same path as those that came before me. If I sin, it is my own path that has determined that it was needed."

"That's one hell of a loophole," Tsuna grumbled.

"Resolution is a tricky thing, Tsunayoshi," the Ninth chuckled warmly. "At times it can be as fragile as glass while at other times it can be as strong as steel. As long as you stay firm in your beliefs, then your Flame will stay bright with it."

"Heh," he sighed in thought, "Maybe that's Mukuro's problem. Everything was straight-forward for him before, but he's lost his way now that he's tied to humanity. He has no resolve anymore."

"It will be up to you to give it to him," the Ninth replied. "Well now," he prompted, turning to their quietly listening guest. "Now that Tsunayoshi has been properly fed and strengthened, let us get to work." Tsuna turned to look at Lilith, as well, with no little trepidation in his eyes.

"Don't worry, Tsuna," she chuckled, setting down her own tea. "You're actually the one that's going to be doing the work. We can't leave your ability wide open like it is or it will sap your energy every time you open that eye. I'm just going to take you inside your head and let you figure out how you want to control it on your own." At her cue, Tsuna put down his own drink and unbelted his robe so that she could work. With a sigh of resignation, he watched as two fingers lit with Delving Flames were pressed into his forehead and chest respectively.

"What the hell...?" Tsuna murmured when his eyes reopened. He could tell from the sudden change in scenery that he was inside his own mind. Yet, it was so much different than last time White had brought him here.

"One's mind evolves over time," White explained, flicking into view beside him. "It looks like you've reordered your thoughts since last time I was here." Tsuna nodded without giving comment, too busy looking around at how his own mind was working.

If he was a spider, he would be in spiderweb heaven. The very place he stood was a wide, glittering strand of web between two broad platforms. Each platform held a cocoon of ice that was brightly lit in Flames. He could see the webs and the platforms spiraling high into the air above him, far into the depths below him, and in every other direction he could see. Needless to say, the cavern of his mind was a broad expanse. It wasn't dark, however. The Flames on every platform dotted the world like stars and reflected off of the cocoons of memories as if they were prisms.

Curious, Tsuna walked down the wide ramp he was standing on in wonder. He began to laugh at the image of Ryohei's grinning face that appeared on the ground when his foot touched the platform. Reaching out, Tsuna's eyes flickered before his hand ever fully came in touch with the Flames roaring over the cocoon of ice. Pulling his hand back, he smiled at all the memories that had flooded into his mind. Even more interesting was how warm it made him.

"From the looks of it," White called from the next platform over, "Each of these are your memories of a different person. The good and the bad aren't separated. Rather, you see those around you as the sum of their parts rather than looking at events including those people as separate entities. There's no heat from this fire, so I assume that it's someone you either don't like or someone that hurt you." Curious, Tsuna walked over to the platform she was standing on and felt himself grow cold.

"You might say that," Tsuna groaned. "Hiko isn't someone that I could ever feel warmed by. The world is better off without him."

"Well, this is a dead end," she sighed, looking around to find no other platforms connecting to the one they were on, other than the one that went back to his memories of Ryohei. "That's fine though. Where we need to go is definitely off the beaten path. We just need to find a trail of some sort or we'll never find it."

"Maybe..." Tsuna mumbled in thought. "Maybe if we find Mukuro's cocoon, we might get a lead. I'm sure that he was probably curious when he dug around in here."

"It's worth a shot," she replied warmly. "Any thoughts on which direction it might be in?"

"Let me think," Tsuna murmured, biting his lips while he got everything settled in his mind. "Ryohei probably connects to Yamamoto and Gokudera and...um...probably Kyoko and a few others. If there's a path from one of them to Hotaru, then we should be able to find him from there. Either directly or through Ken."

"So you have some idea how people are connected to each other," White smiled.

"No," Tsuna corrected sadly as he gestured for White to follow him. "I just know that Hotaru is the center of everything in me."

Gokudera paced worriedly outside Tsuna's room. He wasn't alone, either. Yamamoto relaxed against a wall while Ryohei shadowboxed beside him, having not stopped for an instant once he was treated and recharged. He had four days of enforced stillness to make up for, after all. They had all wanted to wait in Tsuna's room for him to wake, but the Ninth had ordered them outside. Then, they'd tried to wait in their rooms, but somehow they'd all ended up back in front of Tsuna's door together.

"AGG!" Gokudera finally grumbled. "How much longer?! They've been in there--" He broke off at a cry from within the room and he wasn't the only one that stiffened in worry. The three didn't even bother to trade looks before they ran toward the door in unison.

"What happened?!" Yamamoto exclaimed upon seeing Tsuna laying unconscious on the floor. The Ninth was in the middle of kneeling down to check on him and White sat in her seat in a daze. The Ninth ignored him in effort to get Tsuna rolled over. When he did, it didn't look good. Tsuna's eyes were locked wide open and a small waft of Flame rose from his chest. That was enough for the three Guardians.

With the Ninth's permission, they stretched Tsuna out to check him over. Physically he seemed okay, but...

"He's not breathing!" Yamamoto yelled in panic. Without further ado, he and Gokudera began CPR in effort to correct the all-too-often occurrence. The only difference in this occurrence was Tsuna's reaction upon Yamamoto pressing his lips over Tsuna's open mouth. Namely, the fact that he had one. In surprise, Yamamoto let out the breath he'd been holding in which only made Tsuna choke further since the swordsman didn't think to pull back first. When he remembered to, Tsuna sat up in a rush, coughing and spluttering.

"What did you kiss me for?!" Tsuna finally shouted with a bright red face.

"Um..." Yamamoto mumbled while sheepishly scratching his head.

"You weren't breathing, Boss," Gokudera answered worriedly.

"Yes, I was!" He squealed in return. "White got startled and hit me with a little too much of her Blue Flame! It took me a minute to shake it off, but I was definitely breathing!"

"Calm down, Tsunayoshi," the Ninth chuckled. "They were only thinking of helping you. You shouldn't be angry."

"Say that when you wake up to Yamamoto kissing you!" Tsuna exclaimed with his face turning even more red. Then his face paled and his attention when to White. Before anyone else could even get a glimpse, he was already scrambling forward. "White!" He called worriedly, gently shaking her by her shoulders. "White! Wake up! You're back!"

"Hunh..ah...eh?" White blinked a few times and shook her head to clear it from whatever shock had hit her. "Tsu-na...?"

"It's me, White," he confirmed. "Are you okay? I didn't mean to scare you like that."

"I-It wasn't you," she murmured in a daze. "Well, I mean, it was you...but it wasn't you you... I mean the you that... nevermind..." Once more she shook her head in effort to clear her lingering shock. "Did you finish?"

"Ah," he confirmed quietly. "I did right before that beast appeared. I'll have to work harder to keep that leashed. They say memories can take on a life of their own... but that was..."

"That was one hell of a memory," she finished with wide eyes.

"I was never one to take rejection well," Tsuna replied with a sad chuckle. "Sometimes it eats at me, but I never expected it to look quite like that."

"From how your mind was ordered, I didn't expect to see anything roaming around," White murmured. "I've went into minds that were full of creatures and beasts before. That's actually the norm rather than the quiet I always find in your mind. I just wasn't prepared for it, I guess."

"Sorry," Tsuna mumbled sheepishly. "I guess I'm not all that special after all."

"That's not such a bad thing," she replied with a small, secretive smile. Tsuna found himself blushing once more at her words while his friends merely raised their eyebrows in near unison. This, of course, only had the effect of making him blush even deeper.

"Um... eh... "

"Did you find the gate, Tsunayoshi?" The Ninth prompted. Tsuna turned to him with an open sigh of relief, grateful for the distraction.

"Yes," he answered. "Mukuro left a trail for us to follow and we found it not far from the collection of memories about the Vendiche. It took a while because we had to keep backtracking through my mind. Mukuro took quite a walk from the looks of it and I'm going to have to knock the hell out of him for it later. The important thing, though, is that I was able to build another faucet. My sight should be normal now, if I did it right, and I should be able to see the Flames at will. From the size of the hole that was ripped through the gate, I can see why I passed out so quickly, too. My Flames were probably sucked through it whenever my mind said 'my eye is in use'."

"Test it out," the Ninth ordered quietly. Tsuna nodded and fearlessly reached up to pull off his eye-patch. With a smile, he looked around with a set of eyes which looked to be permanently lit in soft Flames.

"The color is back, Boss," Gokudera exclaimed in open happiness.

"It's still kind of blurry," Tsuna replied, biting his lip. "But nothing is on fire this time."

"You're eye probably just needs to be strengthened," the Ninth soothed. "We'll get you something to correct the problem until you can get used to using it again." Tsuna nodded in agreement and made nearly everyone in the room jump as the Dying Will Flame burst out on his head.

"Sorry," he mumbled sheepishly, once more letting it falter back down. "Just testing it out to make sure that it wouldn't be affected by me using my Flame."

"Any other tests you want to do, Tsuna?" Yamamoto chuckled.

"One," he admitted. Before anyone could reply, Tsuna gave himself the mental twist needed to summon his new sight. His left eye began to shine brighter than the other but otherwise no one could tell that he was looking deeper than mere surface level. That is, until he looked at the Ninth and flinched away.

"Be careful you don't blind yourself," the Ninth said knowingly.

"It's fine," Tsuna mumbled, looking back at him after a moment. "I just need to learn where to turn this on to so I can use it without seeing everyone as pure Flame. I think I got it now."

"Don't use it unless you must," the Ninth warned. "It can be used to judge strength and even personality, but don't assume that it will tell you anything more. A person can have a bright Flame and still be your complete enemy."

"I'll remember that, Timoteo," Tsuna agreed as the light in his eyes died down to a normal intensity. "I won't say I'll never use it, but I can think of a few places it could come in handy."

"Very well," he replied. "I will see to it that Lilith is returned to her keepers. I'll take care of business for the rest of the weekend. You and your Guardians are free from work so that you and your Sun Guardian might recover. However, expect to work hard come Monday morning."

"Thank you, Ninth," Tsuna replied, barely restraining his happiness over the gift. His Guardians bowed with him, knowing how huge a boon that the man had just given them. A full weekend to run free in Italy. They hadn't had that in what seemed like ages.

Tsuna traded matching grins with his friends for a single moment once the Ninth was gone. Then, with a cry of excitement, they all darted in different directions with Tsuna darting for his closet in order to find clothes that weren't a button down shirt and slacks.

They weren't going to waste a minute.