Chapter 18

"Isago," Iemitsu called out during dinner time. The two of them were the only ones in the room since they were taking dinner early apart from the other members. In front of them, there was a full course meal, from Italian pastries to cakes and Lasagne to garlic bread. Isago sat across Iemitsu at the short table, tearing his bread like a proper person with manners.

Iemitsu looked at Isago with a face, laughing and sighing at the same time. Isago had two black eyes, his whole face was messed up and swollen with puss oozing out of his eyelids. His body was fine though, just on the borders of collapsing but still able to carry himself with his bones and joints aching.

"I know I told you to knock yourself out at training, but-" Iemitsu scratched the back of his head as if he did not know what to say. Finally, after pondering about his words he bit down on his lasagne. "-Keep it moderate, would ya?"

"The thing is," Isago munched his bread and sipped some water despite the stinging cracks upon his lips. They were starting to bleed again. The taste of iron and garlic mixed into his mouth as he made a face. "I don't exactly have the luxury to take my time before the succession."

Isago raised his head a bit and stared directly into his dad's golden eyes.

"Tsuna already has all his guardians chosen. Granted, most of them probably can't surpass me, but I only have one guardian." Isago gestured to the other side of the wall that held Usagi in the room. After Isago's own training, he received a report that Usagi had fainted four times during the six-hour training. She was woken up by water splashed onto her face each time though.

Isago didn't mind, only visiting her unconscious state and leaving her an encouraging note to remind her what they were there for. They were trying to increase her reaction times and dodging rates. Including her stamina, which was lower than the average girl because she was from Japan. Isago had told her on the note that if she wanted to improve, she had to throw away everything that categorized females in Japan.

Here was the thing with Japanese culture. They forced girls to be petite and slim. They wanted girls to look a bit dumb since that was their way of being cute. With all the stereotypical: walk with your legs turned inwards and be terrible at sports. Any girl that defied that, was shunned in both work and education. If Usagi really wanted to stand as his Storm guardian, then she would have to abandon that stereotype.

"Isago, you don't even know the date of the succession," Iemitsu said with his eyebrows raised. "You can take your time."

"I can't take my time," Isago pointed out with his swollen eyes. His vision had deteriorated so much, but it didn't hinder his performance in battle. After all, he was the person who went through Reborn's hellish mountain test without his sight at all. Thinking about that training he had gone through, Isago shuddered.

"There's no way of knowing when the succession will be held," Isago blinked slowly and chewed. "What if it's tomorrow? Unlike Tsuna, I need to first learn how to sense flames."

Iemitsu pinched the bridge of his nose, then drew another prolonged sigh, "Do you have to battle?"

"Can Tsuna give up on the succession?" Isago raised his ending tone unusually high. He grabbed a tissue from the side, wiping his buttered fingers before pausing to look seriously at his father. "I don't think that's the case because that's what drove me here."

Isago had told Iemitsu his side of events, definitely with the brother's splat and Tsuna's words stating that he didn't want Isago in his life anymore. The succession changed everything. They were no longer only brothers.

Well, Isago had predicted that this would happen sooner or later ever since he was born as Tsuna's younger brother. He just didn't know when. That was why Isago forced Tsuna to make the promise when they were kids. Isago pursed his lips at the thought. Originally he expected Tsuna to be the one to actually push him away because his older brother would suspect Isago of trying to steal the successor's seat. But that would be near their twenties or at least after Tsuna was named officially the successor.

Isago never expected himself to purposely set the events in time though. He mulled over the reason why Tsuna had contrasted so much from the anime. In a way, Tsuna wanted to be noticed as himself, not as Isago's brother. That was why Tsuna now had something to push him on. Push him towards the successor's seat.

Isago knew all of this because he was in Tsuna's position in the past. Well, he didn't have a sibling in the past, but Isago definitely knew the feeling of wanting to be something different and proving yourself because you've been living in the shadows for too long. Being ordinary was suffocating. Well, Isago had already decided to give up on the rings.

The only thing that he still felt a bit unfair about was how other people viewed his ambition. Isago wanted to prove to everyone- anyone who thought of ambition as a liability that he could control it. Unlike Byakuran who wanted to rule the world, Isago didn't have that much greed yet.

Hopefully, he could get his hands on the Sky Mare.

(⊙ω⊙)

"Alright," Mateo crossed his arms over his chest, his frown slightly lighter when he saw Isago's flame surpass the five-minute mark. The clock in the training room ticked throughout the emptiness. The training ground was more like a gym- soundproof gym with bulletproof walls.

Isago sat on the ground, eyes completely red from both his flames as moderately crying earlier because he had broken his arm. The good thing was that Mateo's flame was the Sun, who healed Isago up almost immediately. Mateo's eyes lingered on the new flame that was burning in Isago's palm. His gaze was glued onto it, entranced as always.

There was a thing with special flames.

The flame of Wrath had intensity like no other, but the Flame of Eternity could entrance anyone seeing it momentarily. Isago had only found out its ability to bewitch people from showing it to some of the guards in the base. Maybe because of its unique colour?

The news of a completely original flame had spread through the mansion like wildfire. Many guards were already questioning who would become their leader. They hadn't met Tsuna yet, but they knew that there was favouritism given to the older one from their boss. The younger one had everything he needed to be a suitable leader.

Isago's name was quite well known in the base. He had greeted each of his new guards personally, frequently stepping into the kitchen to help out or watch the training sessions when he was taking a break or just simply walking around. It was more like Isago was purposefully doing rounds to make an impression on himself.

Connections were important. For someone who lived twice, this was obvious.

"Now, do not dismiss your flame. Make it disappear," Mateo ordered as the sweat from Isago's neck rolled down like bullets. Isago grimaced, trying to make the flame smaller until the point that it was barely visible to the eye.

"No!" Mateo's shout startled Isago as his concentration broke, heavy breathing pumped out of Isago's mouth as he stared at Mateo's frown. "Do not make the size of the flame disappear! Focus on its visual aspects! How did you use your weapons? You don't have flames visible when you're using that! Again!"

Isago nodded, readjusting his flame to appear slowly on his palm again. The flame was flickering, wobbling as it disappeared from sight almost instantly. He could still feel the weight of the reddish-purple flame in his hands though. Mateo nodded slowly, making his own voice as monotonous as possible.

"Now, close your eyes and try to focus on the flames on the other person. Search for it with the senses that you use to activate your own flames."

The hardest thing about pulling the flames out was the need for absolute concentration. It was like meditation, sitting in an empty room. If you hadn't known about meditation, the hardest task would be to keep your mind empty. Isago's mouth twitched as he tried to concentrate on someone else's flames without thinking of something else.

Suddenly, a luring thought occurred in his mind.

What if he had duel flames because the rain flame was from his previous life?

"Concentrate! Monello!" Mateo's voice broke his thoughts again as Isago went back to his empty mind instantly. Dammit, this was harder than Isago had thought. "Monello!"

Isago's eyes snapped open, frustration raging through his eyes as he stared at Mateo. Mateo still had his face as stern as ever, arms crossed over his chest like he was expecting Isago's outburst at him. But Isago swallowed it down, twisting the corner of his lips as he felt a wave of water wash over him.

"Sorry," Isago murmured in English.

'Mateo is doing this for my own good,' Isago repeated inside his mind as he closed his eyes again, immersing himself into the calm waters of his rain flame. Mateo on the other hand had a face filled with surprise before he pushed it off and resumed his lesson.

His flame gradually disappeared from plain sight as Isago's eyebrows slightly frowned, feeling the sensation of something else. Something else...warm.

"That's it," Mateo's voice rang into his ear like an echo. His tutor nodded approvingly and watched sweat appear like heavy beads on Isago's forehead. "Extend your flames out to reach them. What does the flame want to do?"

"Harmonize," Isago breathed. There was this strange feeling of wanting to reach out to the sensation. It was calm and warm, telling Isago's flames to reach out to it. However, the flame did not accept. It stood there, stoned and rejected his invitation.

"My flame has already harmonized once," Mateo lifted his arms off his chest and told Isago to stop. Isago did with ragged breaths drowning out his expression.

"Your task is to master the Flame state in four days," Mateo unbuttoned his collar before walking off to the direction of the exit. "Do whatever it takes. On the fifth day, I'll be watching for the moment you break concentration."

With that, Mateo walked out.

Isago sat on the ground and blinked, his mouth twitching with a mild alarm ringing throughout his head. His max limit was 10 minutes. How was he to extend it to 24 hours? That was almost impossible. Clicking his tongue, Isago stood up and headed towards Usagi's training room.

(⊙ω⊙)

Isago watched Usagi punch the sandbag with her gloves. She bit hard onto the mouthpiece before huffing out once again, sidestepping to avoid the weight from pushing her offbeat. She hopped twice and kicked upwards directly into the stomach of the bag before leaping back and then closing in on it again.

She used her momentum to jerk right and swing around the bag.

"[Impressive, isn't she?]" Adriano said in Italian, not wiping his smile off as he studied Isago's poker face.

"[How many days did it take?]"

"[Four, Isago.]"

Isago raised his eyebrows, smiling to himself then closed his eyes to feel everything around him. Slowly but steadily, Isago felt the presence of four flames inside the room. One that felt purple and evaporated when he tried to reach out to it. One that was beside him and the colour felt a bit green and zapped him once when his own flame tried touching it. That was most likely Adriano's.

Isago's Sky Flames shrouded back into his chest, slowly creeping out into the middle of the room until he felt someone's red flame, burning so intensely that it burned him. But it didn't move, instead, it tried coming forwards to Isago's own flame. Willingly.

"Isago," Usagi's voice broke Isago out of his thoughts as the girl's attacks stopped, looking surprised at his appearance. She dropped her hands that were guarding her face, took off her mouthpiece and rushed towards him. Once she appeared in front of him, she bit her lip and opened it but nothing came out.

"I felt you," Isago's hand trailed out to her sweaty face. His intense eyes shook Usagi breathless as if it was devouring her entirety as her body flushed from embarrassment. Adriano on the side took a few steps back with wide eyes, grinning from ear to ear as he held his hands up.

"Did you feel it too?" Isago whispered in her ear almost enticingly. He wasn't doing it on purpose, he was just marvelling at her flames. They were so fierce, extremely passionate that it felt like a fever. Usagi only squeaked, telling Isago that she was dirty from the sweat.

But Isago didn't move his hand. He only stared directly into the girl's eyes before reaching out with his invisible flames again, this time feeling the storm flames gather around his sky, coddling him. He laughed, throwing his head back at Usagi's storm before enlarging his own, then the Sky consumed the Storm.

He felt the power, felt her inside out. Her chaos, her personality, and her loyalty.

"I feel-" Usagi shuddered, leaning her face into Isago's palm as her breaths quickened. "I feel so warm. Is this the flames?"

Isago opened his eyes, nodding slowly and Usagi's face flickered with realization. Her smile beamed, flashing some of her teeth cutely as her eyes twinkled with glee.

"With this- I am your official Storm Guardian, right?"

Isago smiled mischievously, poking her on the nose with his finger, "I've never seen someone so happy to hear their death sentence."

She gave a pleased shimmer in her eyes before she kissed him on the cheek and hopped away, the smile on her face instantly disappearing as she started to shout out with more vigour.

"[Seems like she already knows how much of an honour it is to serve a Sky Flame from a Vongola descendent.]"

Isago's gaze flickered towards Adriano who walked back to his place, placing both of his hands on his hips as he grinned crookedly. Isago scoffed, waving to no one in particular as they walked out of Usagi's training room and towards one of the black cars parked out of the mansion.

(⊙ω⊙)

Isago sat in a busy cafe, Adriano was parked outside the street just enough to see everything that was going on in there. Isago had ordered a double-double, sipping his coffee as he drew out his flame, trying to feel all the different types of flames inside the building.

Four rains, two lightning, and ten storms.

Isago hummed quietly, bobbing his head as his sky wandered around, invisible. It was honestly like shooting a laser from his earrings, yet this laser was more flame condensed and invisible.

There were a few clouds, but none was noticeable enough to compare to Usagi's. There was no intensity, only dull and gray flickers of the flames.

Isago inhaled sharply as he felt his energy run out to its limits, stopping instantly without showing any signs of pain or exhaustion. So far, he could differentiate the different flames by their colours and personalities.

Sky was orange, storm was red, rain was blue, lightning was green, mist purple, and cloud was a bluish purple.

Although it took Isago a lot of energy just to maintain his state and search around for flames, it was useful practice. Isago's eyes wandered to the watch on his wrist, timing it to three minutes. If he were to only stay in his flame state, he was able to last for around fifteen minutes. Searching around was only three.

Isago bashed his teeth together, feeling the possibilities of mastering flame state being close to zero. It had to be possible, Mateo wasn't the type to issue the impossible like Reborn. Talking about Reborn, Isago was also one of the students that were granted the title of being 'talented' in Reborn's teaching career. If he could withhold Reborn's spartan teachings...How could such a small task be a burden to him?

Isago shook his head as he pondered on the thought, eyes trained hard on the glass in front of him.

Across from the cafe was an alleyway. It was dark and dirty, just like what anyone could expect from the lesser controlled parts of the small town. He had come here in the first place to seek out more examples of flames and didn't want to be in the city just in case rival mafia groups started targeting him. Although he was one of the successors that had just landed in Italy a few days ago, news had spread out like wildfire since it was the Vongola they were talking about.

In the alleyway, there was a bunch of trash bags, along with a group of trash cans on the outside. Isago narrowed his eyes slightly when he saw a silhouette bolting out of the alleyway, a small boy with the same coloured hair like Isago's eyes yelped out as a couple of hands pulled him back into the alleyway.

Isago didn't move though. He only sat there and watched the scene unfold. He had no reason to, not even a single ounce of motivation to help the child. The child's hair brushed into the darkness as it fumbled, making Isago muse even closer while his eyes started to adjust to the darkness of the alleyway.

He could see the golden-haired boy scream out as the legs from the two adult men crushed down on his body. The boy's hand flew over his head as the dust from around his small body started to rise up. One of the men grabbed the boy by the collar, slamming the kid into the walls as the other spat in the boy's face.

His face was covered by his brown and patched-up hat so that no one could take a close look at the boy's face. Isago shifted nonchalantly, standing up from his seat and walked leisurely to the door. The bells on the door rang as Isago greeted Adriano who also had his eyes attached to the kid. Isago leaned on the black car, sipping his coffee on a cold day for a closer look at the scene.

Isago didn't know why he was so interested in this event. It was just his gut feeling that told him to stay, and knowing that he had hyper intuition, he listened to it.

The boy's screams were barely audible as the men cocked both of their arms back and double punched upwards into his stomach. The boy spat out blood, his already dirty and beggar clothes that were torn into threads had fallen apart, tearing in the middle of his chest while he crouched on the ground, coughing.

The hat that he wore fell to the ground with a heap, dirt falling onto his hair as one of the adults stomped on the hat, cursing in Italian. One of the adults, the one wearing blue, stepped on the boy's back and pronounced a loud 'crunch' sound with his feet. The other crouched down to eye level and yanked the boy's head up.

They were saying something, but Isago couldn't quite hear it.

"[The boy stole their wallet,]" Adriano said after Isago had a face of interest. Adriano shrugged with a bit of discomfort, saying that he had taken lip reading class before. Isago chuckled, licking his lips as Adriano continued to read their situation. "[The boy had led them through five blocks of the town. He's a sneaky one.]"

Isago smirked, commenting that the boy must be quite agile to run that much without being tired out. The boy's lips were bleeding slap after slap from the two people, cheeks reddened like apples before Isago gestured to the car. Adriano nodded obediently with lingering eyes at the boy before opening the door for Isago to sit in. Isago did, turning his eyes towards the window just in time to meet the boy's stubborn and vapid gaze.

The boy's gaze wasn't pleading for someone to help. He was provoking Isago to come help. Emotion blazed through those brown eyes as the boy sneered. Something inside Isago clicked, stunning him as he stared at the boy with wide eyes. The boy had known that Isago was watching the whole entire time.

"Wait," Isago commanded before opening the door again. This time, he willingly closed his eyes and drew his flame. The boy's brilliance was almost dazzling.

Sun.

This boy was the colour of the sun.

Step by step, Isago took after the two adults turned their heels, walking away with their foul mouths battered by the boy's struggle. Isago stood inside the alley, in front of the boy as his eyes inspected every inch of the kid.

"[So you've come-]" the boy hacked out spit and spat it on Isago's shoe, grinning maliciously with his bloodied teeth flashing like it was his victory. "[-Mister fucking small eyes?]"

Isago's mouth twitched.

"[You were looking at me,]" was all Isago said before earning himself a scoff from the kid. The beating in his chest was switched to full-blown as a strange feeling hammered into Isago's gut, but Isago held it in and maintained the perfect poker face.

"[You're rich, right mister?]" The boy wiped his saliva with the back of his caked palms, not tearing his eyes off of Isago. How old was this kid? Nine? The look in the boy's eyes seemed so deep and wide that it felt heavy on Isago's shoulders. But it wasn't something that Isago couldn't take.

The boy pointed his bony finger at the two disappearing adults that were still clomping in the middle of the alleyway, trying to make their way to the other side.

"[Kill them for me, and I will do anything that you want.]"

Isago didn't move. The kid's eyes dilated, a bit glassy as his hands clenched onto his chest. Disbelief crashed onto the boy's face as he pressed it down, desperate but still stubborn.

"[I will do anything you command of me! I don't care if it lands me in jail! I will even-]" he slouched, wheezing in pain. His face was covered with dirt and his lips were held in a thin line. "[I will even give my fuckin life to you if you want!]"

That was what Isago was waiting for.

In the next instant, small dots were charging up on his side as they shot out only moments later after Isago lifted his eyes in the direction of the two men, hearing their squeals like pigs as they fell to the ground. Their bodies spasmed, thrusted upwards as more lasers came raining down on them like the grim reaper from hell had come down especially to delve out their souls.

Soon, blood was pouring onto the streets as multiple screams could be heard from the other side of the alleyway. Isago flickered his emotionless eyes back to the child in front of him, seeing the gold head fully stiff with wide-set eyes. The kid's skin was clammy, paling as his shoulders shook in not fear- the boy was grinning madly.

"[O-oh shoot,]" his voice was shaky, halting as he stared up at his saviour. Respect and awe, then realization dawned upon his expression. "[Y-you're the real deal.]"

Isago mused, maintaining his poker face and his voice came as calm as the surface of a lake. It was almost comforting, yet it held its own iciness.

"[I can teach you everything that you want. I will give you power and you will never return to the old life you have, but I only ask for a simple thing in return.]" Isago lowered his posture, looking down on the submissive boy with a piercing tone. "[Devote yourself only to me. Never betray my orders and give your life to me.]"

"[Are you willing?]" Isago's tone was softer this time, eyes brimming with sincerity. The boy's mouth widened in shock from Isago's question. Getting on all fours, the boy crawled to Isago's shoe like a beggar, sinking his head and lapping out his tongue on the shoe that held the boy's spit.

Isago fought the expression of disgust from surfacing onto his face.

"[I will!]" The boy croaked out, forehead pressed onto the shoe like his life depended on it. "[My life is yours! I will become your shield with my body!]"

In the heat of the moment, Isago lifted the boy's face with the tip of his foot. Resolution crawled into the boy's eyes as he raised his head to meet his owner's gaze. They were twinkling- shimmering with devotion.

"[What is your name?]" His master asked.

"[I don't have one,]" the boy answered.

"[Then from now on, your name will be Aurelio.]"

"[Aurelio,]" the word rolled off of the kid's tongue. The child accepted it obediently, greed roaring through his eyes. "[Yes, mister.]"

"[Aurelio,]" Isago called out, lips curling up. "[Welcome, my sun guardian.]"

And with that, the sky devoured his second flame, the sun.


AN:

By the way, do you guys binge chapters or have a set limit to read?

Also, Len for the Mare rings question, that will be a very big spoiler alert so...you'll know when you get there.