Demetra Zappa is Timoteo's first cousin once removed, the mother of Croquant Bouche's dead lover and a nice, round, one hundred years old to boot. Or maybe she's ninety nine, Reborn hasn't asked.

She's also a Sky, but considering the grief everyone's having over Timoteo at his age, no one's handing the Sky Ring over to her until literally every other Sky in the family is dead, even if she is a direct descendent of the Secondo.

She's also surprisingly spry for her age. something something something about Sky Flames and harmony and nature of some bullshit like that, Reborn wasn't paying attention beyond double checking that she doesn't need and special accommodations.

Watching her, Reborn even finds himself a little jealous. She may be thin to the point of wasting away and her skin all wrinkly and spotted with age, but she moves with the energy and smoothness of a teenager.

"Yes, yes," she says as she circles Tsuna. "And you say he tried to commit suicide?"

Tsuna doesn't even flinch, though Reborn himself winces.

"Don't be such a baby, Reborn," Demetra chides. "In my day we didn't have your fancy Dying Will Flame Bullets and Pills. It rather felt like we were constantly talking people down from heights and away from guns and poison. We rarely had anyone seriously attempting anything before we got them a reason to live, but it happened."

"I want to live," Tsuna says calmly.

"Do you?" Demetra asks skeptically. "Do you really? It's so easy to burn yourself up isn't it? Burn bright, maybe save a life, maybe just follow an order, and you can tell yourself it was all for the best. You can tell yourself you did what you could, but that you just weren't good enough."

That's-

Reborn feels the adrenaline hit him in a way it really hasn't in a long time, his limbs weak and shaky. That's not how they teach Flame access anymore. That's not how Reborn was taught to do it, not how Reborn was taught to teach beyond how he's supposed to be careful when he shoots a bullet that his student has unfinished business.

Has he been making things worse?

The whole manta for Flames is What would you die for?.

"I want to live," Tsuna just repeats, but Reborn saw the way he'd shifted while Demetra talked.

"Do you?"

And then Demetra has a gun pressed against Byakuran's ribs and a knife at his throat.

And Reborn has Leon trained on her, but she knows what she's doing, with Byakuran between her and him.

"And what about you sweetheart?" she croons.

"What do you want me to do?" Byakuran asks calmly.

"Well, you're supposed to be our good example, ri-"

Byakuran has her on the ground in a moment, her own gun trained on her, the knife far enough away that she can't reach it in a single lunge. The moment catches the attention of Tsuna's guardians in a way Demetra's subtle movement hadn't and they come rushing over in a knot.

"For the record," Byakuran says lightly, "I would die for Tsuna. The world is better with him in it. But I won't die just so you can antagonize him."

And Reborn hates that. He knows how the Mare Sky Ring works, but he hates that Tsuna and Byakuran haven't even really had a conversation and Byakuran is willing to say this, and to say it like it's nothing.

And Reborn catches the look Tsuna's guardian's exchange at the words, the shift in their ever-moving-and-changing system as they redesignate Byakuran from unknown potential hostile to potential friend, shooting straight past neutral party and ally.

But Demetra isn't looking at any of them, just staring past Byakuran to look at Tsuna.

Tsuna, whose eyes are glowing orange.

"Would you look at that!" Demetra laughs.

"Don't you fucking dare Byakuran," Tsuna says, stepping forwards, a flame unfurling itself out of nothing on his forehead. He grabs Byakuran's shoulder and pulls so Byakuran's facing him. "Don't you fucking dare die for me, do you hear me Byakuran?"

Tsuna waits until Byakuran nods before he turns, meeting all of his guardians' eyes, meeting Reborn's eyes. "None of you better die or I swear I will drag you back to life from wherever you end up and I will make sure you stay alive, do you hear me?"

Demetra is laughing under the sound of Tsuna's guardians agreeing.

It's definitely Dying Will Mode and not Hyper Dying Will Mode, Reborn decides, watching Tsuna. There's none of the control Tsuna had shown in Hyper Dying Will Mode, which is obvious by the way he's obsessively making each of his guardians swear to him a full oath to the effect of what he'd said earlier. It's odd to see - there's none of the franticness that normally accompanies Dying Will Mode, just the desperation-fueled single mindedness.

Reborn watches as he makes Byakuran swear.

Then he crouches down in front of Reborn.

"Reborn," he says.

Reborn swears the oath. He even does Tsuna the courtesy of not crossing his fingers or toes, though he'll have no compunctions about breaking the oath if he needs to.

And then Tsuna looks around. His eyebrows furrow.

"Where's- where's Mukuro?" he asks.

And Reborn does not like the look Tsuna's guardians exchange.

"We're looking for him," Chrome says.

"Where's- Chome, I need Mukuro," Tsuna says, but he's swaying on his feet now. What with the oaths and his insistence that each of his guardians and Byakuran and Reborn listen to and swear the whole thing, it's well over the five minute limit imposed by the Dying Will Flame Bullet and the pills. Reborn's honestly impressed. "I need to make sure-"

"We'll find him," Hibari Kyoya says, and. Okay that's definitely trouble.

"I have to make sure he swears," Tsuna is mumbling. Ryohei and Lambo are the only things holding him upright at this point. "I have to . . ."

Tsuna's eyes drift close, and the flame on his forehead flickers out of existence.

"Well!" Demetra says cheerfully. "I wasn't expecting that. Hell of a first burn though."

It's confirmation that Tsuna's seal is actually broken.

But Reborn finds himself frowning, watching Byakuran again. He doesn't like Byakuran's immediate devotion to Tsuna, but he's always known that something like that might happen. It's the reason he's actually familiar with Byakuran himself after all.

In the heat of the moment, he'd forgotten that Tsuna doesn't know Byakuran back. But if Byakuran's words had been enough to kick Tsuna into Dying Will Mode . . .

Tsuna can't be the Mare Sky Ring Holder, not with Byakuran right there. And he isn't really behaving like Byakuran - Byakuran knew people, not events, not etiquette, not history.

But Reborn can't really help but think . . .

He sighs, and in his hand, Leon shifts into a phone.

Tsuna was asking for Rokudo Mukuro use the influence of Dying Will Mode. That's important.

He stares at the screen, trying to figure out who he should call.

Not Timoteo. Or that idiot Iemitsu.

Then he stops kidding himself and calls Cristiana.