When you have another story but you get too many ideas and go "ah, what the hell."

Remember, the KHR fandom is still one hundred percent alive.

By the way, I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn (though everyone freaking wishes they did).

Onto the story!

Hot.

She feels hot.

And it wasn't from this soft blanket, her eyesight is so bad right now.

What color was it?

A blurry kind smile was directed at her, along with strands of... hair? Brown, she decides.

Her skin felt itchy, and far too warm.

Who am I?

She was Mariè.

At times, she felt like she has some kind of split personality.

Her body felt off.

Like it isn't even hers. But then who is it's?

When her mother, Nana, was her name, asked her to look through the kids books on the shelf of the store while she purchased groceries, she nodded.

Because she really couldn't refuse he own mother!

As she flips the book over to see the back, she blinks and tilts her head curiously.

Strange, she thinks. It was strange.

Shouldn't this be in English? She frowns, and places it back, and walks over to her mother, feeling oddly discontent.

"What's wrong Tsu-chan?" Her mother fusses over her, but she can't shake the strange feeling of what was the word?

Nostalgia, she thinks firmly.

And she doesn't realize she thinking in a different language for the next few years.

The first time she looks in a mirror, and really looks, she screams.

Where is my dirty blonde hair-

What am I talking about?

Where were her emerald eyes? Instead, dark, frightened orange stares back at her. She steps back, and clutched her head as she sinks to the floor.

Her head hurt.

Wrong, she says. It was all wrong.

She remembers now.

Sunset hues snap open in surprise, and then she realizes that she actually fell asleep last night.

She never sleeps normally.

Usually, strange images paint over her eyelids as she sleeps, and they were unfamiliar. Today, she saw skyscrapers stretching into the sky, and lightning coating the rain filled clouds.

No wonder they called her strange, and it wasn't just because of her weird eye color.

Sawada Setsuna didn't get a wink of sleep with her intuition nagging at her head like some annoying fly she couldn't swat.

The same thing echoing in the back of her head for the past fucking week!

Watch out. Watch out. Watch out watchoutwatchout-"Tsu-chan?"

"I'm already awake."

A single sunset coloured eye cracks open, meeting her mother's warm brown. Tossing off her white covers, she swings her legs out of bed with pale feet hitting the ground. "I...Had an off day." She runs a hand through her messy blonde locks, yawning.

Which was an understatement.

Very rarely did she have a good day, due to her little ...issue.

Nana hums, before waving a paper in front of her sleepy face. "Don't worry~ I have just the thing for you!" Her daughter would thank her later. Then she notices her slightly dark skin under Setsuna's unusually bright eyes. "Ara, have you been sleeping well lately?" Nana hinted. Must have been playing to many video games late, she mused.

"Fine," she mutters, shaking her head. She would think her crazy if she knew the real reason."Can you fix my hair?"

Nana agrees with no hesitation after Setsuna pulled on her school uniform, pulling her blonde hair into a French braid that was put over her shoulder with a large red bow settled with black pins above it. Her mother slipped out of the room, going down to make her bento.

Setsuna studied herself in the mirror, exhaling and taking out her contact box. She pressed it lightly into her eye, eyes watering. A normal shade of brown staring back at her, same as her mother's. She glanced down warily, looking at the colour. Dark brown, which only managed to just barely turn her eyes amber brown.

It was getting exhausting, doing it every morning. But it was worth it. When she showed up without them, most thought of them like freaky contacts she had put on to get attention. Which made her bullying worse.

People hated her. It was a known fact at Nami Middle that she was dame-Tsuna. She was clumsy, she could admit. She messed everything up half the time and no one ever wanted to work with her because the thought of her to be some ditz, which was far off the mark as it was. Truthfully, she didn't consider herself stupid, as she had already done all of it beforehand. Whenever she took a test? Her mind just wanders around until she had the ability to focus again, which was a problem.

Setsuna tripped on thin air most times (which is why she wore black spandex shorts underneath her skirt), and slipping down stairs and receiving bruises was a daily occurrence too. Her body just wouldn't function the way she wanted to at all.

She despised it.

She was fine, from ages one to six. Someone did this to her, and she was going to find out who if her life depended on it.

Setsuna's eyes darkened, clenched her fist, throwing the white box at the mirror in anger. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Fourteen years….. and she was supposed to be dead.

"Tsu-chan! Come down to eat breakfast before you become late!"

She spun around and took a deep breath. Stay calm. Anger was radiating off of her in waves. She caught sight of her wall, and had an idea. The compartment under her bed flipped up, revealing where she kept special possessions.

Three things ever resided in it. A violin. A diary. And an engraved metal choker of polished gold, her tenth birthday present.

The blonde carefully took out the thin gold ring, engraved with a smooth scripted /S.S/ deeply in it (courtesy of Nana). When turned over, messy initials of a curved M and V was on the back, (which she did herself), along with a single '16' underneath it, like a fraction. The one thing she remembered with absolute clarity as morbid as it sounded, was her death age. She unclasped it and rested it firmly on her neck, sighing at the cold weight on her neck buttoning up her shirt fully. If people ever got their hands on it…

Setsuna scowled. Her hand grasped the bow, and pulled out the brown violin.

Her hand plucked the strings, and then reached to tighten one. It was off-key. She'd have to fix that later. Setsuna's mind drifted to the amount of time it took to relearn the skill, snorting. It was embarrassing. The first time she had lifted the bow to it, she had miraculously snapped all the strings on it in the store, and ended up buying replacements with the actual violin, which wasn't cheap. So she offered her mother not to buy her a present for her next few birthday's, because this was all she needed.

Needless to say, her mother was horrified at her lack of excitement about her date of birth. But Nana then just sighed, and bought it anyway on the spot, knowing what she was like and offered to pay for lessons too.

Her mother was an angel in its purest form, and she would fight anyone on it if they said otherwise.

Setsuna gently placed the violin back after checking the time. "Already half-past six?"

When she finally got a hold of herself, Setsuna stepped carefully down the stairs, watching every step. When she reached the bottom, she felt pleased with herself. Her control was starting to get a little better. The blonde walked into the kitchen and sat down.

Taking small bites, she eyed her mother who was humming to some pop song on the radio. "Why are you so happy? Not that it's a bad thing." She hastily added, which was a lie.

It was borderline suspicious.

It seemed like Nana was waiting for that question, because a paper was shoved in her face at the question. "Well, since you seem to be having so much trouble with your studies lately, I was planning on getting you a tutor-"

Setsuna choked on her tamagoyaki. Say what? Her average grades weren't even that bad half the time despite what everyone said (which was a 50/50 thing), and she excelled in English and Japanese literature. And knew another language, along with English!

"- So it was purely a miracle when I received this interesting flyer in the mail!" Setsuna's eyes grew wider with each word as she read through the paper that looked to be written. 'Are you looking for a tutor? We can train your children to become future world leaders!' What the hell?!

"Sorry," she said with a heavy sigh. Dread suddenly filled her. "Wait. Don't tell me you actually called them?"

Nana paid her no mind, smiling happily at the letter she continued to read. "Our tutors are young and handsome! Train students to become future leaders! Isn't it amazing?"

"But you just got scammed."

"Plus, they'll teach twenty-four hours a day, as long as they get free room and board! Oh! They'll be coming today so be nice, okay?" Nana said cheerfully, dismissing her comments after a few minutes when she placed a blue cloth covered bento in front of her.

"I make absolutely no promises." Setsuna muttered. " Besides, I was doing just fine on my own."

She chewed on her last piece of toast and grabbed her black messenger bag with her supplies and picked up her bento. "I'll be going then," she slipped on her brown loafers, and was about to reach for the door handle but immediately stopped.

Something was… off.

Setsuna twisted the knob hesitantly, then heard a strange sound.

"Ciaossu!"

Setsuna's eyes widened, looking down at the person in front of her house.

A baby dressed in a black suit stood before her, dark eyes staring into her very soul. A black fedora placed above his dark spiky hair, with oddly curling sideburns. A thick yellow band was around it, and sitting in the brim was a… green chameleon? Swishing its tail lazily. Hanging on his tie was a pacifier, a bright golden yellow color. On his small feet were black dress shoes, shined and polished. Her eyes drifted to the bright yellow pacifier around his neck. It gave her an odd sort of feeling.

Why was he dressed to kill?

And not in a good way?

And baby's shouldn't have the ability to talk at such a young age!

"Are you Setsuna?" The baby asked, black eyes boring into hers.

She automatically took a step back from him at his next words, intuition blaring fiercely.

Dangerous.

"Starting today, I'm going to be instructing you, dame-Tsuna." He finished.

Her caramel eye twitched briefly. "Don't call me that." How would he even know about that?

"Gathering information is all part of the job, Setsuna." He said smugly, as if he actually knew what she was thinking.

Her mother noticed she had left the door open for too long, and came to check on her. "Tsu-chan? Ara, are you lost?" Nana bent down to smile gently at the baby.

"No." He answered bluntly, sticking out a name card. "I'm the home tutor, Reborn."

Nana then giggles at him. "My, how cute!"

Honestly, if this was any other situation, Setsuna would have snickered a little. But right now….

Not a lie. Her intuition informed at the back of her mind. The normally sunset-hued girl's eyes narrowed in disbelief. He's not lying?

"Tsu-chan you have to hurry or you'll be late!"

That snapped her out of it, and she bolted. She broke out into a run on the sidewalk. Every step had her feeling more and more tired than the last. She couldn't show up late again. She had a test!

"Maybe I should have studied instead of trying to sleep last night. Which completely failed." Setsuna let out a breath of exasperation, slowing down from her running. "Who was that, anyway?"

"I'm a Hitman." A weight settled into her straw colored hair and she stumbled in surprise but caught herself from falling. She quickly became irritated.

"Please remove your shoes from my hair," her hair was a disaster to take care of, and she didn't want the french braid it was put in to be messed up. Luckily, he complied, hopping down to her shoulder. "And Hitman?" She questioned with an arched brow.

"Un!" Reborn jumped off her shoulder to the ground. "I'm the number one Hitman, Reborn!" The animal morphed in his hand, shifting into a green handgun causing her to step back.

"Wha-?" A shape-shifting animal?

"Ah! He's so cute!" A girl suddenly cooed after catching sight of him, bending and folding her skirt."Why are you wearing a suit?"

"I'm a hitman." He repeated, the green animal changing back to scuttle across his fedora.

"Sasagawa-san?"

Kyoko looked surprised momentarily after noticing the blonde and her carefully done hair.

"Tsuna-chan? You're hair is so pretty! Did you do it yourself?" She asked in awe, leaning up to touch the ribbon.

Sasagawa Kyoko, known as the 'school's Idol', and someone she was sort of friends with. More like... acquaintance?

"Sasagawa-san?" Setsuna's eyes met her honey colored ones, pink lips curving. "Thank you, and no, I didn't. Kaa-san did."

"Mou, call me Kyoko!" Kyoko pouted, and Setsuna could see why she was called the school Idol', she was kind, pretty, and honestly too nice for the world.

"If you want, but we have to go," Setsuna informed as Kyoko blinked. "Or else we're going to be late."

"Ah! I forgot about Onii-chan!" She exclaimed, starting to run off. "I'll see you later, okay!" She waved.

Setsuna sighed, shaking her head. Reborn caught the action.

"What is it? He asked.

"Just got a bad feeling about today, and it all started with you." She said bluntly, yelping at the sudden kick to her face. She coughed, "what was that for?" Setsuna could feel the bruise starting to form on her face.

"You're a thousand years too early to talk back to me," Reborn said, beady eyes staring at her. Is this her intuition starting to form? I'm going to have to change plans. He jumped on her shoulder again, as her face turned to him.

Sawada Setsuna. Blonde hair, and eye color not listed, but is brown. Height is 5'2, fourteen, and an all around average student. She's blunt, by the attitude I was just showed. Records say she's constantly bullied by her clumsiness and anti-social tendencies. Most likely after effects of Nono's seal. She isn't apart of any clubs or extracurriculars. Excels in English and food-tech, but is abysmal in math,science, and gym. Reborn stared at her as she walked faster. Hyper intuition is also starting to develop. I'll need to look into that.

Her flames were fluctuating, like they were struggling to be contained by the seal. His bullets would slowly coax them out, however. So she wouldn't have as much as a problem.

Reborn smirked, eyes shadowed by his fedora, jumping off her shoulder to watch from the trees. It will be interesting to see how she progresses.

When Setsuna finally arrived, she had to push through throngs of people. What was going on? It was getting crowded by the minute, and there were few disciplinary committee members trying to push them back. When she reached the gate, she saw something that boiled her blood.

It was Kyoko, and she was being asked out by Mochida kensuke of all people. She hated the way he ran through woman like his allowance of the week. He had a leer on his face that made her feel like throwing up, and a hand running through his hair. Everyone who was cheering for them didn't even notice how uncomfortable they were making her. She had a nervous smile, trying to find a way out of the situation or at least let him down lightly.

"Way to go, Mochida!"

"Aww, Kyoko-chan is so lucky!" A girl whined.

What the hell is wrong with society? And where the hell was Hana?

Setsuna took a deep breath for what she was prepared to do, not knowing that Reborn was watching her.

Either this was going to work beautifully, or fail miserably.

"Oi!"

Everyone's gaze turned to her quizzically as they parted like the Red Sea for her. Mochida scoffed and Kyoko's eyes widened at her.

"What do you want, dame-Tsuna? Can't you see that I'm busy? Or are you just that dumb?" Mochida snapped, irritated that his chance was ruined by her.

"What do I want?" Setsuna repeated with a sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Well, I actually want a lot of things in life." Ain't that the truth. "But stop harassing Kyoko, I seriously doubt she wants to go out with the likes of you." She stepped closer to her, pushing the girl behind her.

Everyone gasped. Dame-Tsuna's going against Mochida?

All she received was a dropped jaw and a series of stutters. "I.. I'm not harassing her!" He shouted.

Ooh. Somebody's in denial. How amusing.

Setsuna seeing his steadily darkening eyes towards her, glared back. The blonde girl tugged on the orange-haired girl's wrist gently yet firmly. "Let's go." She whispered, sending her a reassuring look. Not even a second later someone gripped her shoulder tightly, causing her to wince at the pain.

"Not so fast dame-Tsuna! I won't have you making decisions for Kyoko! What kind of scum are you?!" Mochida shouted, grip gradually getting tighter. He smirked at her. It was a shame, because she wasn't bad looking. Just really airheaded!

"That's not cool!"

"Kyoko doesn't have feelings for you, dame-Tsuna!"

"Oi, dame-Tsuna! Leave them alone!"

"Kyoko, say something!"

Kyoko frowned, taking a step back. I… I don't want to..

"Shut up before I make you." Setsuna twisted her head to give them a glare. "And oh, look. There's Hibari-san." She nodded to the crowd of committee members coming they're way. "I'd suggest you leave, lest your life span beshortened."

All faces paled at the mention of the dark haired, tonfa-wielding prefect.

Her expression changed as she slapped Mochida's hand away from her shoulder.Her nose wrinkling in disdain, looking at the very spot where he touched her. "And don't touch me with your filthy hands, bâtard misogyne." Everyone was stunned by the accent seeping into her tone.

Since when did she know another language?

With a flip of her gold hair, she strode away into the building, Kyoko in tow with confidence, yet having oddly careful steps.

When they entered the building, they were met with people gaping at them, probably watching the exchange from indoors. Setsuna could feel all eyes on her as she waited for Kyoko to switch out her shoes, leaned against a locker. Then both walking back to her own to change them.

Setsuna felt another odd feeling as she opened her shoe locker. She slowly opened it at an arm's length, before feeling a little relieved at the sight of no flying projectiles or anything. When she picked up her shoes, there was a certain weight attached to it. Hardly there, but still a difference. Looking inside, she frowned, feeling strangely disheartened. Were they so bothered by her? To put this in her shoes?

It was irritating and depressing all at once.

Kyoko watched as Setsuna turned away and walked over to the bin in black thigh-high socks in confusion. A gasp escaped her lips as she saw her tip her shoes upside down, small gold objects raining out.

Thumb tacks?

The girl ran over to the other, who had a raised brow. Like it was boring to her.

"Who..." Kyoko said horrified, with hands flying up to cover her mouth. "Who would do such a thing?" Her voice dropped to a whisper of shock. Who could be so cruel?

Setsuna gave her a look, considering her for a minute. "The people who have nothing better to do with their time." She fished out the remaining ones with her hands, and slid them on her feet once clean.

"How ...how are you so unbothered by this?!" Kyoko burst out uncharacteristically, catching the attention of others. It wasn't right!

"Oh, don't get me wrong. I am bothered by this, I am angry." That these brats have the audacity to do something like this to me. And if there are other kids like me, they'd do the same. Setsuna commented, looking calm as she always is as they walked to class.

"You don't look angry," Her honey eyes softened in worry.

"Call me crazy, but it's like a calm sort of angry. I feel angry, but I'm going to be making use of it." She held back a cackle, or she would look crazy.

And I have a feeling I'll be getting it soon. Karma is an absolute bitch.

"Make...use of it?" Kyoko inquired, as she reached to slide open the door. A hand stopped her suddenly.

"You'll see." Setsuna said with a mischievous glint in her caramel eyes, releasing her to enter the classroom. Everyone was already present, and all eyes fell on them. Kyoko shuffled to her seat, and tried to avoid everyone, but Hana was already in her seat, filled by the chatter of the room.

Setsuna sat down, and took out her notebook, propping up her arm to lean on her hand. Her eyes skimmed through her notes, flicking and darting to each side of the page. She could feel her eyes start to become heavy, and slowly let out a yawn, finally realizing how tired she actually was. Sleep sounded so good, but she couldn't, not now. She vaguely heard the chatter started to slowly die down as their Sensei entered the room.

"Alright, class!" Nezu was walking around, handing out the math test. "This will count as a large makeup of your final grade, because it's getting close to the end of the year. If you somehow manage to fail-" His sneer met her eyes, as he set down the paper on her desk, moving to the next row."-then you will have to repeat the year. Hear that, Sawada?"

Setsuna lifted her head slightly from her notes, hearing everyone's snickers and a few worried looks directed towards her. "Hmm? What was that?" Is your ego getting too big, or is it just me, Mr. Elite?

"Is she always like that?"

"She's such a ditz! Probably going to fail the test anyway!"

Setsuna rolled her eyes at Nezu whose face was steadily going a dark shade of red, closing the notebook shut. As he told them to put everything away, she discreetly checked her white flip phone, the numbers 8:00 a.m flashing back at her.

Putting it back, she grabbed her pencil and inspected her work. Algebraic equations, graphing, and a few other things. All I need now is absolute focus. She took a deep inhale, then breathed out.

Well, it was now or never.

By the time lunch rolled around, everyone had already heard the latest gossip. There were a few rumors swirling around, but almost none were true. Some say she interfered because she had a crush on Mochida and was heart broken, others saying she was lesbian and had a crush on Sasagawa Kyoko. Some just saying she actually liked messing with people and hated Kyoko because she was 'prettier' than she ever would be.

"So," Hana started casually, almost too much so as she walked up to the center of attention. Setsuna in the midst of pulling her chopsticks apart. "What did happen this morning?"

"Ah, the question of the day." The blonde smirked wryly. "Well, here's a question: where were you this morning?" Setsuna chewed on her rice ball, then swallowed."I thought you would have walked with Kyoko?"

"I thought you called her Sasagawa?" She arched a brow, before shaking her head to the side. "Whatever, I didn't think she would be held up by all those.. monkey's." Hana spat, glaring at all the boys at the room."So I came early and decided to wait there."

"Were you-"

She was suddenly cut off by the sliding of the door opening, a stout teenager to running up to her and out of breath.

"Are you Sawada?" He panted, hands on his knees.

She stood up warily, placing a lid over her food. "Yes?" She had a bad feeling about this.

"Captain Mochida said he'll be waiting in the gym for you right now to settle things." He relayed.

"Huh? This I gotta see!" A boy exclaimed.

"Hey come on! Let's go!"

"Kyoko is so lucky~ he's fighting for her honor!" A girl let out a dreamy sigh, cheeks tinted pink.

Three clangs ran through the room, soda cans rattling against the ground. Kyoko stood at the entrance in shock.

This was all her fault!

Setsuna stretched and sighed in relief at the sound of her back cracking. Hana started to look at her in suspicion. "You're not going to run away, are you?"

"At this point, there's nothing I can do." Setsuna muttered, turning at the sound of metal cans. She couldn't run away because then Kyoko would get all the backlash instead, and everything would go to hell in a handbasket.

"Kyoko?" She walked over to pick up the cans."Earth to Kyoko?"

"I'm sorry," Kyoko whispered. "This is all my fault!"

A cool can tapped her on the head. Kyoko looked up to see Setsuna rolling her eyes. "No it isn't. You don't like him, right?"

"I didn't want to say it in front of so many people. I didn't want to humiliate him." Kyoko's eyes fell to the floor, shining with sadness.

"Then that's that."

What?

They both looked over to see Setsuna at the door, messenger bag slung over her shoulder and glancing at them expectantly. "Well? Let's go!"

Hana and Kyoko's eyes met.

They had a sinking feeling about what was going to happen.

"But first, I'm going to use the bathroom."

"Ouch!" Setsuna groaned as her head hit the bathroom mirror, leaning a bit too far close. Just when she thought she had it all figured out, this happens. She had been contemplating taking out her contacts, to scare him a little, deciding not to after realizing that her eyes weren't even creepy, just a bit….illuminating?

On second thought, that sounded even better.

She rubbed her forehead, seeing the skin starting to raise. She still had the bruise Reborn gave her this morning, but it was times down a bit. She was surprised that nobody asked questions.

Whatever.

The orange-eyed girl turned her head to the side, feeling a presence. She tiptoed carefully to the window, and opened it. She fell back in surprise. "What are you doing here?!"

It was Reborn, hanging upside down from a….. she stared puzzled seeing a brief hint of green. Was he hanging from a chameleon of all things?

Questions later, then.

"Planning on running away?" Reborn taunted, seeing her furrowed brow at the sight of him.

"No, I don't have the luxury to do that." She answered, giving him a once over. "And what are you doing outside the girls bathroom?"

"A tutor always has to look out for his student." Reborn said, finishing with a remark, "no matter how they stupid may be."

"I'm not stupid, despite what you and others may think." Setsuna grabbed her bag off the hook, slinging it over once more. "If that's all, I'll be going now."

"How do you plan to win?" His words froze her in her tracks, continuing.

"He's the captain of the kendo club, and has more experience than you, and won last year's prefectural tournament. On top of that, he's a second year. You won't be able to defeat him the way you are now." His shoes hit the ground. "So dame-Tsuna, what's your next move?

A sigh exited her mouth, and she turned her head to look at the infant. "I don't have one, actually." The truth was spilling from her mouth and she couldn't stop herself. "But I'm at least going to try."

"Why?" His words were harsh.

"Because I'm not like that, I'm not running away because that's usually what someone would expect me to do. And Kyoko…." Setsuna trailed off, grip tightening on her strap.

"Kyoko?"

"She needs my help." And if she could at least offer that, then that was good enough for her.

"Good answer." Reborn smirked. She understands, then. There's no room for a mafia boss who cowers in fear.

"Besides," Setsuna returned his smirk. "I don't want a baby lecturing me on my life."

A small foot sank into her cheek for the second time that day.

He smirked at the twin blooming mark on her face.

"Can you stop doing that?!?"

"No pain, no gain."

"Oh, SHUT UP!"

She ended up showing ten minutes later than she expected at the gym with a white square bandage plastered on her left cheek. Kyoko's mood lifted at the sight of her, smiling in relief and a little worry.

"So she finally showed up," Hana commented quietly. No one knew she would arrive, and assumed she would leave.

Mochida was garbed in traditional kendo gear with a white hākama, dark rounded vest, and a helmet on his head. Similar dark gloves surrounded his hands for protection. A twisted grin was on his handsome features. It's impossible for that scum to win, no matter what happens. The judge is one of my club members, and is in my favor. He's never going to raise the red flag for Sawada.

"She's late!" He barked. "Isn't Sawada here yet?"

"She totally ran away."

"Man, airhead Tsuna." The boy shook his head.

The grin spread wider across his mouth as he laughed loudly. "Then that means I win by default! Hahaha!!"

The two boy's sweatdropped at his mad laughter. "Man, senpai can be so petty sometimes."

"Hey, look! It's Tsuna!"

"She actually came?"

"She's going to fight in her uniform?"

"She should've run away."

They saw the blonde at the entrance, uniform bow missing from her neck. Her gold hair shadowed her eyes, bangs framing her face and the elaborate braid in her hair was undone in a slightly messy fashion. She slowly walked up to Mochida, stopping when she was just a foot away.

The girl's head lifted, expression schooled into one of complete and utter calm. "Hey," an unspoken 'don't look down on me', in her voice.

"We thought you couldn't make it." Mochida said with a leer, showing it wouldn't of mattered if she came or not. He caught the practice sword from the referee, standing back to point it at her face in retaliation. "Heaven may forgive scum like you, but I will not!"

Setsuna snorted. The heavens apparently never gave a damn about me, or else I wouldn't be standing here.

He continued, not acknowledging her laughter. "Don't worry, since you're a beginner in kendo, I'll explain slowly so you can understand. If you can take 'one' from me, a single point, in ten minutes then you win. If you can't, I win."

Simple enough, Setsuna realized. It was similar to a game of 'tag', only with a time limit.

"And of course the prize is…." The air rippled as he pointed his practice sword at a certain girl. "Sasagawa Kyoko!"

"P-prize?" Kyoko stuttered as Hana glared. "What a pig."

"Ha..haha…. Hahaha!"

Their eyes landed on the girl's, whose shoulders were starting shaking vigorously. A sound rang throughout the gym, echoing loudly. A silvery noise emitting from the girl's lips. A few blushed at the sound.

Was that...laughter?!

Setsuna had broken out into a fit of laughter, much to the surprise of the crowd of students. She abruptly stopped, standing even closer to him, her amber eyes piercing the taller boy's.

"Kyoko is neither an object, a prize, nor something you can just throw away when your done with, whatever your lack of brain cells may think." Some laughed at that, but was seized by her holding up a hand. "What was that you said before? 'Heaven may forgive scum like you, but I will not?' Sorry, you're talking about the wrong person here. Maybe you should take a closer look in the mirror because I think all the chemicals in that hair gel you use is starting to sink into your skull." His face, much like Nezu's, was starting to redden quickly with anger.

Setsuna raised her hand once more to the rising chatter.

"I… I can't let you win." She murmured. She shifted her stance,

Her body tensed in preparation, intuition buzzing in her head.

The second she uttered those impending words, Mochida lunged at her, giving her raised arms a chance to shield her face.

"Oi, Tsuna!"

A voice rang out. She looked to the side to see a practice sword soaring through the air. Her hand curled around the hilt, nodding a little at the one who threw it.

"Thank you," She said, gripping the bamboo sword tightly.

Yamamoto grinned in return but his eyes soon widened in alarm.

"Watch ou-"

The sword smacked into her shoulder, pain shooting through her arm. She grit her teeth. When he came at her again, she jumped backwards, only to trip on the waxed gym floors and land on her butt. She ignored the small bubbles of laughter and the feeling of her cheeks growing warm. Setsuna used her weapon to push herself up, but quickly rolled over to the side to avoid another strike.

One hit, that was all she needed.

So why, she scowled, was it so difficult?

Left.

She got up shakily. Left? Her eyes bulged. Mochida was standing close to her, making her uncomfortable enough to walk back. He jeered at her pathetic form.

"C'mon, where's your cockiness now?"

"..." And then the assault began all over again.

Kyoko watched her friend with worry. Setsuna had a split lip, and her shirt had a small tear on it. Her face was slightly pink from exertion, and breathing heavily, trying to sit up. "Tsuna-chan.." she whispered.

From the arching beams on the ceiling, two large, obsidian eyes watched her carefully. In his hands, the chameleon glowed green, shifting into a large sniper rifle. He peered through the scope, slipping the bullet on. The safety being taken off let out a loud click.

Bang!

A whirring noise suddenly filled her ears, she turned her head to the side weakly. A small, silver metallic bullet was aimed straight for her, and nobody else could see it. Her lips parted in shock, not having enough time to get out of the way. Who would want to kill her?!

Move! The voice coaxed with urgency.

There was no time as it connected with her forehead with searing pain, she blankly registered the sound of her body falling back with the sound of surprised screams.

Her vision blurred, before everything went black.

I didn't help her enough, I can't die yet!

In those brief seconds, for the first time in years, she felt absolute freedom.

When her eyes snapped open again, feeling strangely exposed when chilling breeze hitting her midriff. She looked down dazedly, vaguely registering her surroundings. Setsuna had on a black thin band covering her chest completely, and dark, spandex shorts that stopped above mid-thigh, embarrassingly enough. She wiggled her bare toes, and then clenched the shinai, to check if it was there.

Wasn't.. wasn't she sitting down?

An intense pain ran through her eyes, she gasped, bringing a hand to her face, particularly her eyes. She couldn't feel her contacts! It felt like it melted off!

Her vision faltered at the sight of Mochida laying below her unconscious, groaning in pain momentarily. Her mouth became dry, heart pounding loudly in her ears.

What did she do?

"That was so badass!"

"Damn, didn't know she had it in her."

"Mochida Kensuke lost?!"

"Tsuna-chan? Are you okay?"

Her head turned to the side, to see a white blurry figure run towards her. Or was that three people?

Setsuna's grip on the shinai loosened as it clattered to the ground, lips falling open into a pant. Her hand reached up to clutch her head, breathing beginning to shallow greatly. A step forward seemed so easy, but instead her body sank to the floor. Black spots dancing across the edges of her vision.

Thoughts of sleep tore through her mind as the feeling of something warm slowly lifted her off the hardwood engulfed her being.

Setsuna didn't remember what happened next.

"Oi, Tsuna. Get up."

It was the child. Her head felt fuzzy.

Maybe if she ignored him, he'd go away?

"I know you're awake."

Damn it.

She slowly got up, and the first thing she noticed was how sore she felt. Setsuna rubbed her arms, looking around. She was in her room. A flashback caused her to remember something. She saw it, a chameleon. His chameleon. Her head snapped to the baby drinking coffee innocently. "You, you did this." She said in disbelief. What on earth?

"It was a losing battle, anyone could tell. I just unlocked some of your... potential."

"Potential," she echoed in reluctance. She sighed. "What was that bullet."

"Your taking this better than I thought you would." Reborn stared at her, fedora shadowing his eyes. She looked at the wall behind him, the shadow stretching into the form of a young man, yet.. Her eyes closed, then opened. The shadow was gone.

She was going insane. "Answer the question."

"The deathperation shot, or rather bullet. It unlocks your dying will, your life source. Everyone has it, but those who choose to use it, have trained for years."

"Why are you even here." Setsuna stressed. "I don't need power, it would be wasted on a person like me."

"Why am I here? I told you before, I'm going to be instructing you." Reborn smirked. "You're the next generation boss of the Vongola Famiglia."

She frowned.

I should have stayed dead.