"Mukuro."
. . .
"Mukuro," Chikusa repeats softly.
A single red eye opens in the artificial darkness. "What is it? I'm trying to sleep."
Chikusa doesn't sigh only because by the time he'd stopped being scared of Mukuro, he'd been way too accustomed to his dramatics.
"You wanted to know when the Vongola party arrived."
"Right, those idiots."
Chikusa can feel the illusion as it ensnares him, but since he'd never figured out how to break Mukuro's illusions, he gets treated to a frankly disturbing display of extra limbs, impossible flexibility, and disturbing sounds that he's been seeing variations of since Mukuro stole him from the Estraneo family. He doesn't sigh again.
The artificial darkness of the room lightens as Mukuro walks towards the door, the illusion hinting at limbs that don't belong getting pulled into his back, and fading just as he steps into the light.
"Alright," Mukuro says. "Let's go see who thinks they're worthy of taking up the title of Vongola."
()
"Reborn kora!"
"This is Colonello," Reborn explains, ignoring the kid yelling at him. "He'll be training you lot while we're here."
"Don't just dump the kids on me kora!"
"Tsuna and I will be at the hospital trying to solve the complications with activating his magic."
"At the hospital kora?"
"I don't expect you to keep any secrets, Colonello's an absolute busy body."
"Damn right I am."
"If you get into any trouble, feel free to defend yourselves. Once you're safe, find either me or Colonello."
"Reborn! Stop ignoring me kora!"
Reborn tips the brim of his fedora down to cover his eyes and turns away from Tsuna's guardians, heading back towards the shuttle that had taken them all to the training grounds.
Tsuna follows behind him, and after wavering uncertainly for a moment, so does Chrome Setsuna.
Reborn gives her a long look as she steps into the car with them.
"I'm not ready to train on the same level as the boys," she tells him flatly. "I'm currently rather malnourished, and I would rather the food I eat go to getting me up to a healthy weight before I worry about burning calories on fighting and magic."
Reborn nods in assent and pushes the button to close the shuttle doors and send them back along the track to the main business sector of Mafia Land.
"Tsuna," he says. "Shamal found some geezer who went through flame training the old fashioned way, without pills or bullets."
"If you think that will help," Tsuna says.
"We'll also have someone with monitoring magic on hand. Hopefully, we'll be able to get a better sense of how you're activating your flames."
"Alright," Tsuna says.
"You're being very agreeable right now."
Tsuna glances down at him for a moment, before his gaze returns to to the sky outside. "There's nothing for me to argue against."
()
Shamal stares at the two boys across from him in the private hospital room.
He hadn't been sure what to expect when Reborn had pulled in the ward of the Sky Arcobaleno and the Fuuta-rated Mafia Top Expert in Minds, Spirits, and Possessions, but it hadn't been two fourteen year old kids.
The Mafia experts in Minds, Spirits, and Possessions list is several years old too - created when someone caught Fuuta just as the Estraneo Family's Possession Bullets came to light in the aftermath of their massacre, and Shamal really doesn't want to know how someone that young made the list, let alone got to the top of it.
The person he'd found that learned Flames the old way would be coming in in the afternoon, after Shamal and the boys had done some more assessments. There'd been, honestly, quite a few assessment Shamal hadn't been able to do in Namimori, even with the help of his Mist Flames, due to lack of proper equipment.
Shamal glances down when his phones pings, and relaxes despite himself at the text from Reborn.
"They're almost here," he says. "Just double checking once again - you've got everything ready for your tests?"
"All good," Byakuran says cheerfully, stretching his crossed fingers. "My knowledge is a little haphazard, so I honestly wouldn't know what to do with the results of any specialized tools!"
"I'm set," Mukuro Rokudo says calmly.
"Right," Shamal says.
And then the door is opening, Reborn stepping in first, followed by Tsuna, then by some girl Shamal doesn't recognise.
Tsuna's face, as his eyes sweep across those assembled in the room is . . . hm. Shamal can't actually read it. His face is completely blank, in a different way than it had been when Shamal saw him recovering from Hyper Dying Will Mode. Shamal can't quite tell what the difference is, but it's there.
"Tsuna-kun!" Byakuran starts cheerfully before Rokudo interrupts, leaning forwards.
"Oh that's interesting."
"Back the fuck off," the girl snarls, darting forwards to stand between Tsuna and Rokudo. Tsuna's gaze fixes on Rokudo from behind her.
"It is?" Tsuna asks.
"Oh god, not again," Reborn mutters as he hops up to sit on the tall stool next to Shamal.
"Aiyah, Tsuna-kun, always going on about your guardians," Byakuran says, shaking his head even as he steps back, moving away from Rokudo.
"Again?" Shamal asks in a low voice as Reborn fixes a gimlet eye on Byakuran.
"Yes, interesting," Rokudo says. "However did you manage to do that?"
"I said back off," the girl hisses, and Rokudo jerks. "He's mine, you can't have him."
Tsuna seems startled by this, his eyes widening as they go from Rokudo to the girl. Byakuran, watching this, lets out a soft laugh, before immediately brining his hand up to cover his mouth.
"This really sounds far too close to the conversation he had with Chrome here," Reborn nods at the girl, "before he picked her up."
"I'm afraid you'll have to specify," Tsuna says calmly, his gaze returning to Rokudo. He looks . . . happy, the blankness slipping.
"Sawada," the girl says, sounding desperately unhappy as she glances over her shoulder at him.
"Don't worry, Chrome, I won't let him either," Tsuna says.
"How touching," Rokudo says blandly. "Now, convince me that you're not possessed."
Tsuna laughs at that. "Possessed! If I was possessed-" He cuts himself off. He takes a deep breath. Then, calmer, without the half hysterical edge, he says, "I thought this was supposed to be a medical exam, not an interrogation."
"And he's not possessed," the girl says. "There's not enough person in there."
There's a lingering silence as everyone looks at each other, then Shamal sighs, trying to ease out his tenseness as he steps forward.
"You're right. This is supposed to be a medical exam. I'm going to be taking baseline measurements again so I can compare them with the ones I took in Namimori first. Is that alright?"
Tsuna's eyes cut over to Shamal, and Shamal blinks.
For a moment there, he thinks he sees orange.
But then Tsuna nods, the light on his face shifting with the movement, and when he starts forwards to the exam table, his eyes are the same brown as they'd been before.