"What do you mean Judaime and I will be in separate cars!?" Gokudera shouted as Sella had declared the parties for travel.

"Girls in one car, boys in the other. Those are the rules." Sella said crossing her arms and glaring down at the boy with enough force to make him back down. "And before you even think about it, the same goes for rooming at the hotel. Natsumi-chan and Illya-chan will be with me and Leysritt-sensei, and you four boys and Reborn will be in a second room."

"And Iris and Kiri will have one to themselves as well." Leysritt snickered.

After a practice that went extremely well, they all went home to gather their things and see their families before gathering together again in front of the Emiya house to load up.

With one car that could seat five for the girls, and a van that could hold seven for the boys, the arrangement seemed obvious, though Gokudera kept saying he should be with Natsumi at all times.

It was only going to be a two hour drive, but she would still rather not be sitting next to him throughout it.

"So, is everyone ready?" Sella asked as they all started to pack their bags into the cars. There were confirmations all around, but before they could get into the cars, someone drove up and parked in front of the house.

They were also someone surprised when Yamamoto and his dad got out of the car. "Yamamoto-kun? What are you doing here?" Natsumi asked, a little uncomfortable. It had only been a few hours since she had seen him trying to jump off a building.

"Even if I can't be there to help, I still wanted to see you all off and wish you the best of luck." Yamamoto said as he walked up.

"Um… thanks." Natsumi said, looking away from him. The visible misery from before was gone, but there was still red in the boy's eyes from crying.

"Hahaha! Hey don't worry! I'm sure you'll all do great!" Yamamoto laughed, throwing an arm around Natsumi's shoulder.

A shiver went up the girl's spin as she pushed the arm away from her, and before she even registered what she was doing, she drew back her hand and slapped Yamamoto across the face. Everyone froze as the sound echoed around them, a large red mark being left on the boy's cheek.

"Stop it. Just stop it!" Natsumi screamed at him. "That laugh, that smile. You're not fooling anyone you know!"

Natsumi's anger melted slightly as she saw Yamamoto's mask peeled back a little, to show the still broken man underneath. "S...sorry."

Natsumi couldn't think of anything to say, so she just turned and went to the car, trying to ignore all the eyes that were on her.

Things became awkward as Yamamoto struggled to give his encouragement before leaving with his father. Then everyone piled into their cars and they started to drive off.

"Reborn, do you know what Natsumi's reaction earlier was about?" Shirou asked as they drove along. He and Reborn were in the middle two seats of the van, while Gokudera was sitting shotgun and Ryohei and Kusakabe were in the back. It had been clear to everyone that Gokudera and Ryohei needed to be kept separate if they wanted to have any kind of peace.

Reborn was in Illya's old baby seat, not seeming embarrassed by it at all, and claiming it was quite comfortable.

"During lunch break at school, Natsumi caught Yamamoto tried to commit suicide." Reborn reported, his head tilted down.

"He what?" Shirou said, eyes widened in shock. Others in the van also shouted in disbelief.

"He felt as though his injury was a betrayal of everyone who counted on him, and so he tried to take his own life to escape the shame."

"That moron!"

"Pretty much."

"I guess Natsumi's reaction makes sense then. I'm surprised she only gave him the one hit." Shirou nodded. If it had been Rin or Sakura, they would have… The thought depressed Shirou.

"I'm afraid it might be something a little deeper than that." Reborn said with a shake of his head.

"Deeper?" Shirou asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah." Reborn replied with a nod of his head. "Tell me, how much do you know about the Sky Flames?"

Shirou blinked before looking in the back of the car. "Is that something that is okay to talk about here?"

"Kusakabe-kun had some training underneath one of Hibari's relatives, a man with connections to the Triad, a former world's martial arts champion and the world's strongest Storm Flame user. So you don't need to see him as just some civilian. As for Ryohei, you know as well as I do that he is different. Not that he would understand anything you say anyways." Reborn said with a chuckle. "You can speak freely here."

"...Most of what I know about the Flames is based on my own studies, so I can't say it is a complete understanding. I know that each of the seven flame types is generated with its only unique wavelength and color and that these colors correspond to the colors assigned to the different Chakras in Hindu Philosophy, which it had adopted from the all but forgotten Indo European Philosophy. Meaning that the Sky Flames are generated within the Svadhisthana Chakra, located at the root of the sexual organ." Shirou explained. "The Svadhisthana Chakra is connected to the element of water and the concepts of one's sense of self, sexuality, and their ability to form connections with others.

"Counter to what you would expect given its location and purpose, having a healthy flow of energy in this Chakra is supposed to be good for eyesight and insight. Though insight might be the wrong word as the knowledge comes from the flow of energy rather than experience. Instinct would be a better way to describe it. I suppose that if having Sky Flames is a result of having an unusually active Svadhisthana Chakra, then it would suggest that the person is either very empathetic, something of a narcissist, a fetishist of some kind, or some mixture of the three."

"Yep. That sounds about right." Reborn said through a small fit of chuckles as he thought back to Daniela. She fit all three of those categories to a 't', being an incredibly compassionate person, one of the most self-confident people around, and one of the kinkiest women he had ever met. Reborn could personally attest to that last one.

Perhaps if Timoteo had never found out about Reborn having sex with his mother, Reborn would have ended up becoming the man's Sun Guardian instead of going down the road he now walks. It took Timoteo a few years before he got over it.

Reborn regretted nothing. She might have been pushing sixty at the time, but she had been one hell of a MILF and gave Reborn a few nights he'd never forget.

Given the small, 'hm' that Kiritsugu gave, he was probably comparing the list to his own wife and daughter… Well, at least the pair weren't narcissists. Not to Reborn's knowledge, anyways.

"I'm impressed you managed to figure out so much." Reborn said, making a note to look more into this later.

While he had heard about the connection between the flames, the rainbow and the Chakra system before from Fon, he hadn't been aware that the system had originated in Indo European Myth, instead of Hinduism or Buddhism. He'd also not made the connection between the Sky Flame's Chakra and the famous intuition that strong Sky Flame users tend to have. Maybe there was something they had overlooked there.

He'd pass the information along to Fon, to see if he knew anything.

"My perverted master gave me a rather long lecture about the Svadhisthana Chakra and its uses in forming extremely powerful magic bonds." Shirou said with a nostalgic look on his face. "Honestly, I'm pretty sure she is the only person to ever take 'sex magic' that serously."

"What?" Kiritsugu said from the driver's seat, not quite sure he had heard his son right.

"Did you say… sex magic?" Gokudera said in disbelief.

"I'm surprised a magic like that wouldn't be more popular." Reborn couldn't help but laugh.

"I assure you, it's a real thing. Very powerful and very dangerous." Shirou said with a chuckle weakly. "Once you reach orgasm, all of the natural defenses of the souls come tumbling down and you can form any bond that you wish… or inflict any curse."

"I'm not listening! LALALALALA!" Ryohei started to shout, holding his hands over his ears. His face was flushing a bright red color. Unfortunately for him, this quickly got on Reborn's nerves.

*BANG!*

"Reborn!?" Shirou shouted as the 'baby' shot Ryohei in the head.

"It's just a sleeping round." Reborn said calmly as Ryohei began to snore. Kusakabe gulped slightly as he quietly watched the events unfold before him. "Anyways, you are right about the Sky Flames having a connection to the Svadhisthana Chakra, and about its basic nature. The Sky Flames unique quality is referred to as 'Harmony' which allows it to form bonds with the flames of others much easier than the other kinds of flames." Reborn explained. "Not only that, but after a connection is made between the two individuals, the Sky Flame will ease the emotional trauma of the other person. Because of that, I had suggested that Natsumi attempt to form a bond with Yamamoto-kun… only it didn't go well. The moment she tried, her own flames rebounded on her."

"...Rebounded?" Shirou said, frowning as he thought over what Reborn had described. "I've never come across anything like that before, but the flow of energy in the Svadhisthana Chakra is said to be blocked by 'fear'. Perhaps that could have caused a sort of rebound."

"Are you saying that Natsumi is afraid of Yamamoto?"

"It isn't necessarily a fear of being physically harmed. Fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of loss, fear of rejection... fear of betrayal." Shirou listed them off. "Any of them could cause the Svadhisthana Chakra to close itself off. That's why it is considered to be one of the most subconscious Chakras. If Yamamoto triggered some kind of deep seated fear inside of her, then it could cause the energy to clamp down."

"... 'You're not fooling anyone', huh." Reborn said, thinking back to Natsumi's words when she slapped Yamamoto. "Is she afraid of being deceived?"

She had just recently found out that most of the people around her were part of a shadow world. Then there was her finding out about the seal and how someone she had only ever met once and had pretended to be her grandfather had purposely crippled her. It wouldn't be surprising to find out that she was having a hard time trusting anyone at all given her circumstances.

Though Yamamoto himself seemed as ignorant of everything as he really was, his father being so obviously involved, that could have caused the girl to become suspicious of him. Reborn's own subtle push for the connection might not have helped either.

Then again, she didn't seem to have problems with Ryohei, who was flame active, despite being a civilian. While still not strong, she had a fledgling bond starting to form with the hyperactive boxer. She also didn't have a problem with anyone in the Emiya Family, her newly awoken flames bonding with each and every one of them to some extent. So what was it that was different about Yamamoto that made her have such a negative reaction to him?

Gokudera's bond status was still completely one sided, the same as Yamamoto's had been, but that was to be expected, after the way he showed up. Reborn had already taken into account that that particular bond would take time, if it ever worked out. Getting Gokudera to overcome his own sexism had been the first of his concerns when the boy first showed up. So his lack of connection didn't prove anything.

Yamamoto was a single data point, so trying to analyze it was next to impossible.

It was fine if Natsumi only had an allergic reaction to Yamamoto. There were other fish in the sea, even if finding one that big would be a challenge. She didn't have to be able to bond to absolutely everyone she ever met. However, it was still a worrying sign for her psyche.

"Regardless what the problem is, we need a solution, for the sake of her emotional health. Kiri-kun, could you talk to the girls about having some therapy sessions for Natsumi? Give her a chance to talk it out." Reborn suggested. "I'd do it myself, but it would be better if it was a person she felt more comfortable opening up to, without fear of judgment."

Kiritsugu nodded his agreement. "That would probably be for the best."

Reborn nodded back as he looked out the window at the other cars on the road… and promptly fell asleep.

*Zzzzzz.* *Zzzzzz.* *Zzzzzz.*

Curse his cursed baby body.

"I just… need to match the bottom numbers doing that cross multiply thing... right?" Natsumi said, not quite possible as she glanced up from her worksheet at Reborn.

"Yep. That's right." Reborn said with a nod, getting a sigh of relief from Natsumi as Illya gave her a smile of encouragement. Natsumi willed herself not to notice the fact that Illya had already completed that problem on her own paper.

After helping them with their school assignments, Reborn had started working with Illya, helping her get ahead in school. He also gave Natsumi the same work in order to help her review.

The removal of the seals hadn't yet caused all those years of school she had stumbled through like a zombie to suddenly make sense, and so Natsumi was being forced to take the same lessons as Illya in order to catch back up to where she needed to be. She was basically six years behind everyone else and needed to have every single subject gone over for her again.

Luckily, Reborn was an excellent tutor, when he wanted to be, and his instructions made a lot of sense, so Natsumi was picking things up rather quickly. He had even brought a blackboard with him to draw pictures for them with… somehow.

After checking into the hotel, all the kids grouped together into one room in order to do some studying. Kusakabe performed his own studies quietly and diligently from the very start, while Gokudera had immediately jumped on trying to help Natsumi until Illya got him in the eyes with some pepper spray, causing Gokudera to scream bloody murder, until Reborn knocked him out for getting in the way.

Thank god. All the weird terminology he had been using had started to give her a headache.

Off to the side, Shirou was helping Ryohei with an assignment for his science class. As the overcharged boy was writing with one hand, he was doing curls with a weight he had brought in with the other… A rather large weight. Natsumi really wished that the throbbing vein on his head was because of him struggling with that weight.

That said, Shirou had told them that Ryohei actually had some of the best grades in their entire year. The guy might not learn effectively, but he did put ten times as much effort into it. It was actually considered to be inspirational by most of the student body. Ryohei was very good at inspiring people.

Any time a motivating speech had to be given, Ryohei would give it, regardless what it was supposed to be about, or who was supposed to give it.

Thinking back, Natsumi remembered him being the one to give the opening speech on orientation day in the place of the school principal. Some of the new students and parents had been moved to tears by his passionate words. According to Shirou, the 'Valedictorian Speech' he gave at last year's graduation ceremony was one of people's favorites, with the real valedictorian not even minding being pushed aside so that he could give it.

It was weird how the guy could have such a way with words, but couldn't manage to get people to join his boxing club… or so Natsumi THOUGHT. As it turned out, the boxing club had dozens of members, some of them not even going to their school.

...Natsumi still didn't want to join.

"How's everybody doing?" Irisviel asked as she peeked her head in through the doorway.

"Everything good! Reborn-san has been helping us study!" Illya said cheerfully.

"It's good to hear that you all are taking your studying seriously, but make sure you get enough sleep tonight. You're going to have a long day ahead of you tomorrow." Irisviel told them with a wink. "Oh, and Natsumi-chan, would you mind coming with me for a bit. There are a few things I'd like to talk to you about."

"Ah, alright." Natsumi said, getting up and going to follow Irisviel. They moved next door, into the room that had been reserved for Irisviel and Kiritsugu, only the man wasn't there. "Where's Uncle Kiri?"

"He's with Sella and Leysritt, establishing a perimeter around the building." Irisviel said with a giggle.

"Is… that necessary?" Natsumi asked awkwardly.

"Probably not, but you know what they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I'm guessing that Reborn and Shirou will probably join them after Illya goes to bed." Irisviel said.

"Is that so." Natsumi said, remembering the mess that Reborn had made in her room with tripwires everywhere. Hopefully they would show more restraint, or else some poor hotel maid would probably be in for a very bad time. "So what is it that you want to talk about?"

"...I was going to ask you the same thing." Irisviel said with her gentle smile. "With everything that's been going on, I'm guessing you might want a chance to talk to someone about it. It isn't like you could go to your own mother for these kinds of things, and Reborn isn't really easy to talk to."

"I guess I do kind of have some questions." Natsumi admitted, thinking of the multitude of things she didn't know about what was going on.

"And I'd be happy to answer any question you have, though I was thinking more about talking about your feelings." Irisviel said, confusing Natsumi. "Your world's been basically flipped upside down in the last ten days. I'm sure you have a lot of emotions you have yet to work out. I know I'm not a licensed therapist, but I was hoping we could just chat together from time to time about what's been happening. It doesn't even need to be recent events. If there is anything you'd like to get off of your chest, then go ahead."

"Uh..."

"Do you not want to?" Irisviel asked with a slightly sad look.

"It's not that I don't want to… I just have no idea where to begin." Natsumi admitted.

"Well, how about we start with some of the simple things. How's your appetite been lately? Have you been sleeping well? Have you had any problems at home? How have your interactions with your mother been lately?" Irisviel started to list off subjects until she provoked a reaction out of Natsumi.

"With mama?" Natsumi mumbled at the mention of her mother.

While she really wasn't a licenced therapist, that didn't mean she was ignorant of the subject. Understanding human psychiatry had been part of her original preprogramming, as it was believed to be important for the 'Ultimate Sky' to be capable of relating to people in order to harmonize with them better.

It's what had convinced Irisviel that they should not press Shirou for information about his past, as she could sense that it was too much for him to handle, even with help. As much as some people looked down on it, denial and distancing were perfectly healthy forms of coping when the subject matter was simply too extreme to ever be accepted. It had taken the mother completely by surprise when Shirou had willingly opened up to them, even if he only lasted two minutes before completely breaking down.

"...Have you and Nana been having problems?" Irisviel asked.

"No! It's just…" Natsumi stammered, trying to think of what to say. "She's been acting weird recently, with Reborn around. She keeps acting as though I'm strange for making a big deal out of him."

"Ah, I see." Irisviel said with a nod of her head. "In order to be able to live his life comfortably, Reborn has surrounded himself with enchantments that stop people from questioning how someone of his… stature can do the things he does. However, people with either strong Sky or Mist Flames, or special individuals like Shirou, can see through them and know that he is unusual. Though you are the one who is seeing things the way they are, your mother probably sees your behavior as some kind of extreme paranoia."

"I guess…" Natsumi admitted weakly, looking away.

Irisviel could tell that there was more going on. "Your problems with Nana aren't only recent, are they?" Natsumi didn't respond and just curled in on herself. "You don't need to talk about it if you don't want to, but I do want to help you."

"...The thing is…" Natsumi started before going into depth as to her relationship with her mother, the passive and hurtful comments about Natsumi's failing school and social life, how Nana would voice her disappointment about Natsumi's lack of 'femininity' in her day to day life, how Nana would say she was embarrassed when the neighbors spoke about their own children.

Nana probably loved her daughter deep down, but they were all the classic forms of parental abuse… save for one. "And any time I say anything negative about dad, she hits me and refuses to cook for me that night."

"Your father?" Irisviel said, pushing the subject in that direction.

"I don't know how mama stands him." Natsumi said angrily. "He does nothing but lie to us. Everything he says and does is a lie. He says that he loves us, but hardly ever bothers to be around, and even when he is around, he always just drinks and lays about the house like a slob." Tears started to form in Natsumi's eyes. "I hate him. I hate him so much. I hate the way he smiles and laughs all the time when nothing is funny. I hate the way that never listens to a word I say. I hate the way mama goes gaga every time he's around and ignores all the bad stuff he does. I hate the way he pretends that he loves us when he doesn't even care about us enough to be bothered to call home!"

As Natsumi started to cry, Iris put her arms around the little girl, using her own Sky Flames in order to try to comfort her.

Just like Reborn, Iemitsu had used enchantments in order to stop people from asking questions about his behavior, but even as a young child, Natsumi would have been immune to such things. It was easy to see how the disconnect between what Natsumi experienced and what her mother saw would be a source of problems in the young girl's life.

Not only that, but the man was rarely ever even part of her life, resulting in the girl having abandonment issues, and issues of trust.

...Natsumi might even have known or suspected that her father played a part in her seal. She might have been able to sense this fact long before she even knew about the Mafia World.

Her comments about how she hated his smile and laugh were most telling about recent events.

"You're right, Iemitsu really is a bastard." Irisviel said calmly as she held the little girl. "Don't worry Natsumi-chan. Kiri and I will make sure that he never comes back. I promise he will never hurt you ever again."

That night, Natsumi had another dream about Shirou and the purple haired girl. Only this time, someone else was also there, a young woman, barely of drinking age, with short brown hair who was dressed in a long sleeved shirt with yellow and black stripes that reminded Natsumi of a tiger.

While Shirou and the girl were solemn, she was a bubbling spring of energy, shouting and waving her arms about with a smile on her face.

She was childish, more childish than the actual children, but her energy seemed to wash over them, making their troubles seem far away. Natsumi felt herself smile inside as she watched the dream as Shirou exchanged a sort of running banter with the woman, until she got fed up and tackled the boy into a headlock. She liked how they acted almost like siblings and wished she knew more about who the woman was.

Little did Natsumi know she would soon have the chance to meet the tiger for herself.

Most people seem to ignore the level of parental abuse that Tsuna received from his mother, as well as his father. Yeah, Nana wasn't Iemitsu levels of bad parenting, as those levels are difficult to achieve. Being that much of a horrible parent takes a lot of commitment, more than it would take to be a half decent parent. Trying to kill your own son ain't easy. But Nana did a lot of things too.

She pretty constantly insulted Tsuna's masculinity and intelligence, and pretty obviously preferred Lambo and I-Pin over her own son. Her physically abusing Tsuna whenever he said anything negative about his father is also canon.

In some ways, having a parent who is present but constantly putting you down is worse than not having them there at all.

My head canon for why Reborn wasn't Timoteo's guardian of the Sun is that he was caught having sex with the guy's mom around the time of the selection.

We are told that Bianchi is Reborn's Third Lover, so there were two others before her. I'm guessing Daniela and maybe Luce.

If anyone remembers that outline that I posted a while back, the Kendo Tournament was supposed to have started on chapter 11... It seems I greatly underestimated just how long this stuff takes.