From the very beginning, Sawada Tsunami had been fighting a losing battle.

First against the Seal, placed so callously on the soul of a child whose only crime was being born with potential. Then against the derision and scorn of her peers, neighbors, and mother (well-hidden as Nana's feeling may have been, the one thing the Seal hadn't taken from Tsuna was her perceptiveness, and Nana had been ever so humiliated by having borne such a 'failure', and subconsciously blamed her only child for the faults and distance of her lying husband).

Then against Reborn, against expectations and demands placed on her broken person by the very people who'd broken her. Against the desires of shallow children who could not see what, exactly, they were trying to accomplish.

Tsuna had never been shy about informing them-all of them-that she was not going to be a mafia boss. Not a puppet, a figurehead, not a way to bring Primo's bloodline back into Vongola hands.

No one listened.

Well, she thought the night before the Sky battle as she ghosted her way out of the house, that's their problem.

Ever since Reborn had shot that first bullet, putting a crack in the Seal, Tsuna had been slowly getting her Flames under absolute control, wearing away at the damned structure that had held her soul prisoner. It had taken almost two years, now, with her being excessively careful so as not to arouse suspicion, but she had many, many tricks devised with the help of her free Hyper Intuition. One she was using now, to Harmonize herself to the very world, becoming little more than a breeze as far as the world was concerned.

It had actually been this trick that had caused her to stumble onto a legacy long forgotten, only stories remaining.

Echoes of Skies and other Elements left behind, fragments of memories floating about the wind that she had painstakingly pieced together into a cohesive hole. She was missing pieces, of course, less than a year was in no way enough time to gather all the sparks of faded gods and spirits in Japan, but it was enough to give her a method of escape.

Skies had once known how to change themselves and their Own, to join a Domain and become conduits for threads in the fabric of reality. Not only Skies, but Earths and Seas, though the last had always been so few... Tsuna had learned of the Fall, where one jealous Sea who had been too quick in choosing her domain had been unsatisfied with her limited power and plotted to steal from the rest. Her machinations and creations for the cause had eventually broken her mind, and then the Sea Lines, followed soon after by the Sky Lines.

Entire domains had shattered, fallen to Chaos, the balance torn apart until the last remaining Sea had begged the Earths and Skies for aid. The Earths, save for a select few, had Unmade themselves in order to anchor the hastily made system for keeping the balance, shaped by the much-strained Earth Lines, now called Ley Lines by those who had even the faintest link. The Skies had vowed to shoulder the burden of powering it, and to someday find a better way.

And in the process, what had once been thriving faded away into obscurity, only leaving legends for the humans left behind. Now only Skies and a single family of the Earth remained.

But the knowledge of how it all began was there. Tsuna knew it, and had weighed her choices carefully. Were she to stay, she would either be forced into the mafia or killed. Running away would only give her so much time before the Vongola caught up and make her suffer for the inconvenience.

Tsuna didn't particularly want to become a spirit or goddess, but if she was to rise to a position of power she was going to do it on her own terms, and with her own dependents in mind. The process of ascension wasn't exactly difficult; the main things it required was someone knowing themselves utterly and completely, not lying to themselves in any way, shape or form, and a Domain in mind. That, and the power levels, but she was well over the eligable threshhold.

For the ease of the short, simple ritual she had decided to make use of the local shrine. Many of the memories and echoes she'd gathered were from the long-faded goddess who had once made it her seat of power. Part of her ritual would be to thank that departed soul for her guidance, and a request to take upon the role of the local deity. It would be horrifically rude otherwise, for starters, not to mention it left a bad taste in her mouth. However that nameless goddess had faded, she had worked hard to ensure the lands and peoples surrounding her shrine had thrived, and to ignore that would be like spitting on her effort.

Tsuna would never meet her soon-to-be predecessor, but she would respect her and her efforts, and do her best to live up to that example.

For all that she was doing this as an escape, she had no intention of shirking the duties she would be taking on as part of joining a Domain.

The midnight trip to the worn shrine was quiet, peaceful, but the air held a slight tension, as if the world knew what was going to happen. From the echoes she'd gathered, that might have been the case. Even the stones of the shrine itself seemed to shudder when she made it up the last set of steps.

Tilting her head back and watching the starry sky, Tsuna let out a slow breath. The thin, plain dress she wore had been chosen more for symbolism than anything, as symbols were important. She didn't know everything about the fate she was choosing, not even a fraction, but the fact that she was making this choice herself, for herself, was more important. On her wrists were orange ribbons she had asked Haru to find for her, claiming that she had decided to take care of herself better and that included letting herself be happy. Her kind-of friend-honestly, the closest thing she had ever had to a true friend, for all her faults and over-eagerness-had been delighted to provide, going so far as to embroider a number of beautiful hummingbirds all along the lengths of both ribbons.

As a nod of thanks for the friendship, support, and kindness she had received from Haru, she was taking on those hummingbirds as her personal regalia.

Her feet were bare save for a set of fine rose-gold chains on her ankles; metal was an important part of channeling her intent for this simple but important ritual, even such a small amount. Plus it was better to have contact with the Earth, the sole remaining life current in the world-if she did this right she might be able to strengthen the Earth Lines.

Clearing her mind from everything except her power and her purpose, Tsuna began the steps of the dance she had memorized, carefully pieced together from hundreds of echoes from different once-men and -women who had chosen to rise above and beyond their mortality. Her Flames rose to saturate the air, visible sparks and wisps of Flame beginning to take shape and weave themselves properly into reality, instead of resting atop as normal humans did.

This was her choice. To join the Domain of Life, of Love, of Guidance and Protection. All the things she had craved growing up, things she'd been denied, things that every child-and indeed, many adults-deserved. To take up the burden of looking after those she'd left behind, even when they could not see her, even if her influence and touch went unrecognized. To Give the Domain her gift of Hyper Intuition, where it would be shared with any of the few who remained or would someday become a part of the Domain she was now becoming.

The sensation of her body unraveling and reshaping was unnerving, but Tsuna wasn't scared. No, she had decided not to be scared of change anymore, to take her fate and turn it until she held the reigns. Almost as in response to that thought, she could have sworn she heard an exasperated but fond sigh, but before she could think farther it was swept away, into the swirling vortex of brilliant fire that was rising up around her.

Echoes of the one who came before her were drawn back, inwards, enough to bring forth a ghost of the past with a smile and a nod to both her thanks and her request. Tsuna felt the shift in ownership of the shrine, felt the grounds and building itself reshape to suit her better, old stones wiped clean of dirt and grime from ages of not-enough care, plants flowering in a matter of moments in the warmth of her Flames.

The ribbons on her wrists set slight, the light hum of many tiny, quickly beating wings spiraling around as her symbols took in the care that went into their birth and used it to catalyze their full incarnations. Like sparks of Tsuna's own Flames, they were a part of her now, messengers, scouts, as well as her weapons, her very first regalia. Trailing fire from their feathers, her hummingbirds darted towards her, colliding and merging with her dress. The fabric rippled and lengthened, a still simple but elegant sleeveless kimono left behind. The fabric shimmered like tiny fires flared up and flickered out along its threads, images of her hummingbirds in constant motion between the sakura blossoms. They would come away when she called, making the shift from two dimensional to three with ease. A flowing gossamer veil flared out from over her hair, volumous but barely there in that ephemereal spirit-quality.

Last came the connection to the Domain, an endless memory and closely tied with humanity in its later stages. It was as if her Flames and soul had been sucked out of her body as it was altered, pulled into the collective where every piece of her was enclosed in its vastness and imprinted with its very essence before pouring her newly refreshed and empowered self back into her new body, woven differently than before though it kept much the same shape.

Her hair was longer, trailing on the ground, and her skin paler. The difference in her senses-so many more than a human could manage-and the very cells in her body. She could be made of light, of fire, of plants and it would make no difference to her new sense of Self.

Her Domain was vast due to necessity, she now knew; there were simply no others left, which had unsettling implications. For Life to have had no active deity meant the balance had farther deteriorated, and the last had faded under the pressure. In other Domains she would find company. Death was constant, as were similar Domains-it was the ones regarding emotions that were the most unbalanced. Hatred, Misery, Disaster... there were a number of those. At least Family, Justice, and Luck had some too.

Tsunami squared her slim shoulders. Clearly she had a lot of work to do, and even now she could feel one of Death's Domain approaching-not the most powerful (and thus the one in charge) but close to, meaning it was considered important but not vital to meet with her. Not offended in the slightest-she now knew that there was no way to tell exactly how far into each of her Domains she leaned without meeting-she instead turned to her shrine. It looked brand new, plant life revived and more vivid than before she ascended.

There was a faint connection with the priest and his family that was waking up, and he would doubtlessly be up here in the morning to see what was causing the odd feeling that would draw him here, but that could wait. A thought and she was inside the shrine, stepping past the mortal boundary into her new seat of power.

Despite having not been used to gather and concentrate the power of her Domain before, her predecessor had left a significant amount of stored power and allowed her the use of it. It meant that she wouldn't need to work quite as hard to get on with her work, and despite only being a local goddess Tsuna had much to do. Being the only active goddess in the Domain of Life and Love in the entire country (the balance was worldwide but also by region according to pantheon, and an unstable region would contribute to the instability of the world) meant that she was now responsible for all the applicable prayers and needs of Japan. Even now she could feel them, hear them, and with experience gained from echoes she let her power do as it must. Her contribution of Hyper Intuition to her Domain meant it didn't need as much individual guidance, though she really did need to learn the ins and outs as quickly as she could.

Her new seat of power had also taken on that aspect, and would let her better control and respond to the needs of those seeking her Domain. It took its physical form as a room full of multi-colored crystals, similar in structure to Zero Point but much less crude in skill. Her connection here, aided by the depth and energy left behind by her predecessor, meant that for a newborn goddess she was quite powerful. Part of that was sheer necessity, the world seeking to balance itself as best it could.

"Welcome, little goddess. It has been centuries since we last gained one of our number."

Tsunami turned to greet the shinigami, taking in his traditional kimono and the sword made of smoke lashed to his waist. His dark hair was tied in a long tail at the nape of his neck, eyes like topaz with no visible pupil or sclera.

"I was able to find the echoes and learn from them. I hadn't realized just how bad the situation was until I was fully formed," she admitted; her Domain gave her knowledge of the world, her duties, and relation to the others of her kind as part of the process, and it was more than a little alarming. It was also daunting, but she had made the choice and would now see it through. "I am alone as Life and Love, brother Death, and am in need of guidance."

Yellow eyes softened, and the shinigami held out his hands. Accepting the formal offer of sworn family, Tsunami drifted closer and let hers rest atop them. Her new divine brother was nearly two feet taller than she was, hair blacker than a starless night on a new moon, and skin even paler than her own.

"I will help you all I can, sister Life. I am Inei. May I know your name? Our lord brother Death will want to know about you as soon as I can manage, though I will stay until you feel better prepared to begin your duties," he told her, his power a soothing coolness despite being almost the exact opposite of her own.

"My name is Tsunami," she answered with a slight smile. "And thank you, for staying... I have the knowledge but actually setting myself up feels... confusing."

With the help of a more experienced god, it only took them the rest of the night to fully syncronize her with her seat of power, and for him to teach her how to let her power unfurl over Japan. With her Hyper Intuition it was easier than she had realized, along with the lesson that for all the knowledge she had available to her, experience did matter still.

Inei explained the divine structure of Japan, and it painted a grim story. In the past five centuries alone almost all of their deities and spirits had faded, with only a handful of the former and a couple hundred of the latter remaining. They'd managed to keep the balance from going completely uncorrectable, but only two deities had ascended in as many centuries and only one in the four hundred years before she had, and they had been Luck and Death. She was the first of her Domain to be remade in almost a millenia, and as such the pantheon would be ecstatic to learn of her.

Somehow Inei had also managed to weasel out of her what had caused her to turn to godhood, and his face had soured immediately upon learning of her old connection to the mafia.

"Our divine Italian cousin Death has had entirely too much fun goading his Skies into cultivating a close relationship with our Domain. Until you, I don't think there was a single one who could manifest Flames as they were meant to," he said, disgruntled. For a Death god he was rather expressive. "They meant for you to fight tomorrow night? You're practically an infant!"

Making a face, Tsunami didn't let herself protest. In Inei's own words he was nearing his fifteenth century, and she would turn fourteen tomorrow. In his eyes he was absolutely right. Even their lord brother Death, the leader of Japan's shinigami, was only a bit over four centuries and was subject to merciless teasing all the time about it, apparently.

"I suppose it's for the best I took matters into my own hands, then," she said dryly, but it turned sad quickly. Even with just her, in a matter of hours Life had begun to regulate itself better throughout Japan, nudging at the balance seeking to right itself. For just one divine presence to do that meant her Domain had needed her far more than she had even imagined she needed it. "With my mind so new, I think I will miss some of them, though..."

"You can send them dreams if you wish them to call on you," Inei offered. "It hasn't been done in centuries but it used to be a common way to introduce yourself to your worshippers. The Baku could use more duties, they've been bored."

Unable to resist giggling, Tsunami thought about it. "Maybe. I'll have to draw on my Domain's image, though, I don't think I want them to recognize me. Crazy as the mafia is they might actually figure out what I've done and how, and I don't think any of them would be a great idea to help heal the balance..."

"Indeed," her divine brother remarked flatly. "At the very least you have one priest tied to your shrine. That should help along your connection to the humans nicely... I do have some duties to attend to, but they can be done from around here. You can call my name if you wish to speak with me and I am not in sight, or send one of those lovely birds of yours."

The hummingbirds twittered at the praise from their spots on her kimono, and Tsunami smiled.

"Alright. Thank you, Inei," she said softly, squeezing his hand. "But there is one thing I'd like to ask, about blessings? My hummingbirds were made by a friend, you see, and she was good to me, unlike most. Even if its only a small thing, I want to reward her."

"Ah, that's quite a simple matter. Its all in your words, and how you layer your power within them. For a minor blessing, the inflection matters as much as your word choice, and-"

Inei spent until dawn explaining blessings, curses, accepting priests, prietesses, and various kinds of oaths of loyalty, faithfulness, and fealty, as well as other miscellaneus things related to interactions with both mortals and not. There were a number of currently unafilliated spirits that had been waiting for one of her Domain to come along and accept them into service, not to mention part of her duties would be to help along the birth and development of spirits into her Domain. Goddesses tended to be more naturally inclined to cultivating the circumstances needed to birth or elevate spirits.

As the sun rose, Inei stood from where they'd both been seated on floating cushions in her divine boundary.

"It seems there are a few things I must see to in person today... As I said, sister, call or send a messenger have you need of me. And sleep if your mind needs rest, even we gods can use a break sometimes."

Waving him off, Tsunami left the inner boundary and stepped over to the front of her shrine, waiting for the priest to make his way there. A glint of metal in the grass caught her eye, and she sighed on walking over and picking up the Vongola half ring she had all but forgotten about last night. She hadn't realized she'd been wearing it still.

"Come, my lovelies," she said with a twist of her hand, a single jeweled hummingbird springing to life from her kimono and snatching up the ring from where it lay in her palm. Another thought had several more fluttering up to eye level. "... Find the half rings left to those who were once chosen as my Guardians. Give them all to Xanxus, and then return to me. No need to conceal yourselves from the Varia, if he follows you lead him to me."

It would be better to settled things as soon as possible, as far as she was concerned. She was now tied to the land of Japan, and while she could travel should she wish, she was stronger here, and more importantly could not be taken from here against her will. Flames could only do so much, and any knowledge on how to actually fight divine power had been lost to Flame users eons ago. Spirits they could manage, but even a lesser goddess would trounce them easily. And Tsunami was not a lesser goddess, for all her youth. With only her in her Domain she'd been granted much more power than she might have been had there been others.

As the sun began to creep above the horizon, the priest finally crested the top step, freezing at the sight of her.

"There's no cause for fear, friend," she told him softly, voice carried along the wind. It was odd to see and feel how differently humans perceived her now, divine power radiating like a gentle glow. She was barely recognizable as Sawada Tsunami, and that wasn't factoring the way her own power affected her speech patterns and appearance, same height aside. "My predecessor may have faded, but I am newly born, and wish to meet the one who faithfully cared for my lady mother's lands before they were mine."

The priest-one Yakushi Hiro-could barely believe he wasn't dreaming, even though he'd always had a knack for spiritual power and had actually performed a true exorcism or two in his time. A renewal of his family blessing for services rendered convinced him well enough, and she spent nearly an hour chatting with him. He seemed surprisingly understanding that she was very new to divinity, and actually laughed when she ruefully told him a bit of the scale of work she had facing her.

Priests, mikos, and other devoted humans were an important part of the balance, even if they were mortal. They acted as bridges for divine power to work without the deity having to restrain their power to walk among humans too often; without enough experience a young deity could lose their grasp and accidentally cause chaos. Tsunami did not want to be the first goddess in centuries to expose them to the greater world again. With the balance as precarious as it was it was best for them to work in the shadows.

Hiro finally excused himself to set about his duties, which for the most part remained unchanged, save for Tsunami asking him to make some basic protective talismans she would then charge with her divine power. Some would be for him to keep, others to spread about Namimori and drum up interest in the shrine again. Due to the nature of Japanese divinity she would probably need to come up with some parlor tricks to stir up belief; answering human prayers went a long way in correcting the balance when they fell under your Domain.

Leaving Hiro to it, Tsunami waited on the newly-restored stones in the courtyard, long hair flowing like smoke in the breeze. Old wards that would need to be studied so she could reconstruct her own newer and stronger ones in their place made a sound only she could hear as Xanxus and his Guardians crossed the wardline. Her little messengers soon flittered over the tops of the steps, landing on her outstretched fingers, having provided the right twist in power that would let the Varia actually see her while they were here. A small shift and flex produced a vibrant flower for the hummingbirds to feed on while she waited for the humans to catch up-and she needed to keep an eye on that, she'd only been a goddess for under twelve hours, she didn't want to start being condescending to anyone.

"Vooii, what the fuck happened to you?"

Lifting her gaze to meet red, red eyes, Tsunami held in a sharp gasp as her powers tugged and swirled, telling her all sorts of things about a man she had actually feared until now. Like the fact that his violent demeanor was partially an act, that he truly loved the Vongola like he had loved nothing since his mother and adopted grandmother and brothers (his love for Nono had been shattered by the man's own actions and inactions), and that he had such potential as a protector of those in need should he just be given a chance. He had put in so much effort into protecting the Vongola, into trying to get Nono to see that there was corruption running rampant, only to be ignored and trapped away in cruel ice for almost a decade.

"I told them many times I had no interest in being mafia," she said instead, tilting her head slightly. "As they would not listen, I had to make my own way out. The rings are yours, Xanxus of the Varia. You will do far better than I as Vongola Decimo."

Those red eyes narrowed, and he stalked closer, stopping just a few feet away as his Guardians fanned out to either side, even Lussuria and Squalo, who'd she'd thought dead after their battles.

"What did you do?" He demanded, curiousity deeply hidden but very much present.

She contemplated simply returning to her own small realm of crystals, but decided against it. She could not be harmed on her own sacred ground by a human at this point in time.

"I figured out how to ascend. Being a local goddess means I stay local," she said with amusement-truth, but not an absolute. "I likely won't leave Namimori for a century or two, even an unknown deity has duties. And I'm only telling you this because once you leave here, it's highly unlikely you'll bother with coming back, much less be able to enter the right face of the shrine. Reborn and Iemitsu and the rest of them can look all they like if you tell them, but without my messengers they'll never find me."

Xanxus snorted, eyeing her skeptically. "Goddess?"

"It is, technically, a Flame thing, but it's not something I did lightly. Nor can I share the process; if the wrong people find out the Arcobaleno curse well seem like child's play compared to the measures some of the older ones might take to keep the world from falling out of balance completely. I'm the first in centuries to figure it out after the Fall, and there's only been a couple before me in living memory. That's all I can tell you," she said. "I'm a part of the balance now, and will do what I can to alleviate the pressure on those with the curse as part of my duties. All that should matter to you is that I can no longer bear the Vongola rings, as those aren't made for immortals. What I can do, though," she mused, glancing at the group and inwardly sighing over how easily they had fooled her and her peers with false deaths and acting, "is give you this."

It was a blessing, and a gift, but as Blood was unarguably connected with Life it was within her Domain, though it did require serious focus. She lifted the flower in her palm, hummingbirds diving back onto her kimono, and blew, the petals flying away into light and power that twined around and through Xanxus. The resonance there told her instinctively that while it had been thin before her interferance, he had Vongola blood enough to wear the rings-something else that she'd missed, the way Reborn and Iemitsu had set up the Ring Battles as a test for her, and set Xanxus up to lose. Now he would be able to wear the rings without being punished; her power had told the imprints in the Sky ring in no uncertain terms that she had higher priorities than the affairs of mortals. Whether those imprints would make use of the connection she'd provided to come visit would be up to them.

In the same breath the ring damn near leaped from the chain and onto Xanxus finger. He went rigid for a long moment before relaxing, the ring's glow flaring before all of it faded and the man was left Decimo.

Her blessing was of wisdom and guidance for a Vongola that did as it once was meant to, that he and his would be protected so long as he upheld those values and did everything in his power to turn the Vongola in the right direction. There would always be bloodshed, that she knew, but so long as he worked to protect the innocents, the blessing would hold.

"Good luck, Decimo," she grinned, turning to go back into her inner shrine.

"... Tsunami."

She paused, twisting her neck to see over her shoulder. Xanxus was grinning wildly, and looking more than a little giddy for all it was hidden behind satisfaction and a bit of respect.

"We'll send an offering," he drawled.

With a small smile, she waved, and pulled her power around her like a cloak in order to step straight through air into her seat of power. With that taken care of, she could focus on her next tasks, which would be to start exploring and examining the flow of Life throughout Japan, and fixing what needed to be fixed.

She paused for a few minutes only twice, to speak with Hiro again during his lunch break and then to see him off at the end of the day. The sheer scope of work she had to do would have been overwhelming were it not for the extended sense of self she'd obtained. By nightfall she'd gotten into the swing of things, and left the crystal room-what she now called her Sanctuary. Some fresh air would do her good, and she could still work without being inside. Instead she perched atop the shrine and opened her eyes, carefully watching the flow of energy in Namimori.

There were a number of spots that needed tweaking, where Life had stagnated and become the spiritual equivalent of a disease-ridden bog, and she needed to focus hard in order to unravel the clumped and rotting tangles. It might have been easier up close, but she'd rather stay at the shrine for now, until she got more into the swing of things. Later on she'd have to go around Japan to find and clear the worst spots-a certain couple bombed cities came to mind-but for now she could practice here. Life wasn't all she was concerned with, though, Love was in distressingly dire straights in a number of locations. Abuse was so cloyingly thick in her senses she wanted to weep, and she spent a lot of effort working Protection and Guidance over those victims.

It did her good to take a break and listen to loosely formed prayers of young men and women hoping to win over their own loves, something she set her Hyper Intuition on with pleasure, nudging the humans here and there to either ideas and advice or a person that could be their best match. Inei arrived a few hours after the sun had set, watching over her shoulder as she worked. He let out a sound of interest and appreciation, causing her to look over at him questioningly. One gleaming yellow eye winked at her.

"You do lovely work, sister. Namimori is already thriving under your dedication!"

"Flatterer," she retorted with a blush. She'd barely done anything compared to all that needed doing. "And your work? Does it go well?"

"As well as it ever does. Although I did get to escort the soul of a lovely old firecracker through the veil," he said with a slight smile. "She claimed that it took me long enough to get around to collecting her, but my pleasant appearance made up for the delay. It makes me appreciate the others that take care of the logistics of our Domain, I much prefer getting to meet the souls in person."

Tsunami couldn't help but giggle at that; someone like that must have lived a long and interesting life. Maybe she could go out someday and meet some others like that. Inei settled himself next to her, folding elegantly down with one leg hanging over the roof of the shrine and the other drawn close to his chest.

"I sent word to our lord brother, he wishes to meet you himself. It will take him several days to arrange things so nothing collapses while he's away from his seat of power, but he should be able to stay for a week or so. Though I think both of you will be surprised when you meet each other," the shinigami added, an impish look about him.

A suspicious glare got her nothing but a wider grin, so Tsunami didn't press. Instead she looked out over the city. With the shrine built halfway into and up a mountain, it had a lovely view, and the light pollution wasn't so bad as to block out the stars when you weren't actually in the city.

Her gaze fell on where Nami-chuu should be, and she sighed. Despite having handed over the rings and ensuring she was no longer involved, she couldn't help but wonder what was going on with Gokudera, Yamamoto, Sasagawa-senpai, and the others. Part of her wanted to check on the kids, but she didn't yet want to leave the shrine. It was too soon, and even for a goddess she was vulnerable in her youth.

Tomorrow she'd send her birds to check on everyone, at least. With the Ring Battles discontinued, no deaths should have occurred, though she reminded herself to check on that mysterious Chrome girl too. For all that the poor girl had been roped in by Iemitsu with no one else having so much as seen her before, she had fought on Tsuna's behalf, and it would be dishonorable not to ensure she was well. And in that case she might as well have a look at Ken, Chikusa, and Mukuro, if she could swing it.

"Yen for your thoughts?"

"Ah... Planning, mostly. Tomorrow I'm going to send my birds to check on the people I've left behind, just to make sure they're alright. I might have only had one real friend out of the lot of them, but they did fight with me and for me, and I won't ignore that. Even though it's all meaningless, now." If even a single one of her so-called Guardians had actually listened to her, maybe she'd be more willing to seek them out, but as it was... no. She given Xanxus a hint, and if he was willing he'd be capable of guiding a group back up to the shrine once.

After taking ownership of the shrine, anyone without a connection to her would only be able to see and access an echo of it's old state. The priest and his family could access the new, true shrine by default, as could other deities and spirits, but normal humans-even ones with Flames-would need both permission and a guide she approved.

"The Ring Battle business?" Inei's distaste for the whole thing was obvious. How his eyes could be so expressive yet so flat was fascinating... "That the adults involved could allow it still infuriates me..."

Inei was a shinigami of gentle, peaceful deaths-the necessary ones, the ones that freed those in pain from mortal suffering, those ready to move on. There were enough shinigami in Death's Domain for him to be allowed solely to deal with his specialty. It turned out he was very much opposed to children being put at risk, especially for what he called 'utter nonsense', and his opinion of Sawada Iemitsu, Reborn, and Timoteo Vongola reflected that.

That her divine brother was fully capable and allowed to request that those souls be dealt with a rather specific way was something she wasn't sure she should think about.

"At least Dino-nii tried to help, even if he hands were tied," Tsunami sighed, mentally adding the kind man to her list of people to check on. "The look on his face when it was announced... The Cavallone's ties to the Vongola are strained as it is, from what I could tell, this might actually have been the last straw."

"So one person in the entire mess with sense. Wonderful," Inei snarked, before he pursed his lips in thought. "You call him brother... Will you let him know what you've done?"

A hard question. Reborn had shown himself to be a right terror and able to order Dino around with unnerving ease, so she'd never be able to tell him everything, but...

"Maybe... a dream message at least, I guess. But-oh." She blinked, sensing the large group just crossing the shrine wards. "Nevermind. It seems Xanxus caught on, he's bringing a group up. Is there a way to ensure they won't cause trouble or damage to the area?"

The shinigami nodded sharply, quickly walking her through the application of a new thread in the wards to keep violence from being allowed in the vicinity, and told her he'd stick by her side in any case.

"It's been a while since I've allowed mortals to see me outside of my duties, but I don't particularly care either way."

With a brief smile his way, Tsunami slid off the roof of the shrine, drifting to a gentle landing on the grass. After a moment's thought she waved her hand in a slow, delicate motion, bringing enchanted lights into being around the shrine's sheltered courtyard. The soft orange light warmed the night, self-contained balls of fire floating freely through the air. Inei joined her, his appearance shifting only slightly in that his hair became wreathed in living shadows, his topaz eyes gaining a noticeable glow. Stifling a snort at her divine brother's protectiveness-a new feeling, but not unwelcome-Tsunami eventually opted to do the same.

It was simple to shift, a simple choice of how and where to express her being a little differently by leaning in a different ratio of her Domains. Now her eyes were similar to Inei's, a glowing orange all the way through with no pupils or visible sclera. Skin was given a soft glow, like a candle in the dark. Her hair was nudged over to behaving even more like smoke, solid closer to her head but becoming wispier, curling up and floating into nothingness towards the ends. The sheer length gave the effect an ethereal factor, and she secretly relished in being able to permanently leave behind every facet of Dame-Tsuna.

It had never been true, but it was still nice to be able to prove it so easily.

Her birds flitted rapidly across her kimono, several so worked up by her slight anxiety over the coming confrontation that they were diving in and out of the fabric. Ignoring Inei's soft laughter at the sight, Tsunami took a few deep breaths to relax herself, tracking the groups progress up the many steps. Slowly guiding her power to give herself a better idea of what was coming, Tsunami was first hit with a wave of emotions from Dino, of all people.

Being Love meant that she was able to hone in and feel all types of the emotion, and Dino's love for her was a somewhat embarrassing mixture of fraternal and romantic. Huh. No wonder she'd gotten so many mixed signals from him at first, he seemed to be insistent on only focusing on the sibling-like affection. Well, considering her age she couldn't exactly blame him... In any case, he'd been worried sick when she essentially vanished and Xanxus had shown up with the Sky ring; he'd been terrified that her body had been left where it would never be found, if there'd been anything left at all. The protective instincts he had towards her also called to her power, making him the first and strongest to reach her senses. Perhaps... maybe later, she would gift him a child of her blood. Demi-gods and -goddesses had their own role in the world and there were too few as it was.

Takeshi was next, his Flames more than anything conveying how deeply upset he was about her little disappearance. Rains were so prone to attachment and then beating themselves up over any mistake, real or perceived... Perhaps she shouldn't have been so hard on him, even in her own mind... He was young, and if she'd stayed he would no doubt have eventually learned to heed her words and respect them better. As it was, the beginnings of an idea of how to keep him close without risking his life, happiness, and interests was growing in her mind.

Next was Iemitsu, only noticeable at all because of his distinct lack of love for anything but himself. That explained a lot.

Hayato was next, his life energy unstable and damaged, no doubt from the constant poisoning as a child. It would be easy to fix. Then Ryohei, because of the sheer amount of life energy he radiated, as well as love and protectiveness for his sister. Hibari's protectiveness for his territory outstripped Ryohei's by a mile, but his love was much less noticeable, though no less powerful. It was obscured, though, but that was simply because of how Hibari was. If she focused she could read it easily, but decided against it; she wouldn't infringe on the privacy of such a strict Cloud.

Lambo, Fuuta, and I-Pin were tagging along, and with a thought she sent ahead a trio of birds to greet them.

She heard the giggles and delighted chatter before the group entered her sight, having opted to stop sensing after identifying the last of the group as Basil, two Cervello, Reborn, Colonello, and the Varia. A rather large collection, but with the wards being divine in origin they could still handle keeping the peace, even decayed as they were with age and neglect.

Facing Inei as she was, she did not see the crowd as they crested the final steps and flooded into the courtyard, but she did hear the sounds of shock and disbelief, as well as feel the surge of conflicting emotions. Her divine brother glanced over her head at the humans, eyes glowing yellow, before he met her gaze again, mischief in his suddenly serene expression.

"It would seem, sister Life," he said, voice deliberately carrying to the small crowd, "that we have guests."