A sigh escaped Nana's lips a while after she watched her son storm off toward the sunset. Relief, annoyance, worry and insecurity lingered heavily in that one exhale.
»Alright«, she said, »we should be going as well then. I thank you again, Ms. Aarenwayth.« With that said, she extended a hand to the owner.
As Elyade took her hand and firmly shook it, Nana felt something from her that wasn't there before. Or rather: Something she could not feel before, because she had been so tense, there was nothing she could think of besides getting in touch with the other side. Now, with a more relaxed mind, she could feel the familiarity between them and she was sure the other could feel the same.
With a smile, the Blonde woman shot her a wink. »Maybe we will meet again one day.«
»Farewell«, replied the Witch. It was her polite way of saying that she wouldn't.
The Porter shrugged and clapped her hands once, before displaying what could be called a ›shooing‹ gesture — in order to wake up whoever fell asleep during the wait and call attention to the ones who stood there in a shocked daze. It was the signal for them to get a move on, so she could finally clean up and call it a day.
Iemitsu moved kind of clunky at that hint, like a marionette being pulled by an amateur. »Let's drive back.«
Despite the whole situation ending somewhat well, everyone in the room had the same thoughts in their mind. It was kind of anticlimactic; a disappointing conclusion, no answers, no understanding, just a truck load of questions and sentiments. Even the things that were explained to them seemed hard to grasp in their entirety.
It was as if you tried understanding words spoken in a foreign language with barely any knowledge about said language. You just smiled and nodded along, but you could never quite follow. The difference was that they did, in fact, understand the language spoken, but not the meaning behind the words.
One might have tried to interpret some of it, but there was so much to decipher, yet so little that seemed familiar. Not even Reborn was able to make it sound logical to himself.
A somewhat sullen atmosphere spread through their convoy as a result. But even Nana wasn't able to do much about it for now.
After getting into one of the jet black SUVs herself, she turned silent once again. This time, she wasn't anxious. Still, her mind couldn't slow down in its pace. Now that her first and foremost concern was settled, the next one had to be taken on. Not only was she bound to her word, there were also other people she had to worry about now.
She pledged to Undine on the name of Irina von Valhaym, not officially on her Shadow Code as White — but that was of no importance, seeing as her Pledge was made in front of a Supreme King. There was no getting out, not even with a verbal promise like her's. Aside from that, she also had her pride as a Witch and Magus, she was a woman of her word after all and thankful to her nonetheless.
The train of vehicles dispersed on their way, leaving their car to drive off a different road, returning to the Sawada Household. They wanted to get back faster, since the children had been left to their own devices for quite some time already.
She stopped after opening the door, just taking one glance back at who followed behind. It was her husband, Reborn, as well as two more infants who had been there with them inside the White Orchid. A little further away, Dino and his direct servant, who's name she couldn't recall at that moment, walked up from the driveway toward them.
»Be quiet upon entering, if you can«, was her single comment on the situation, as she had seen the haphazardly kicked off pair of shoes that was left at the entrance of the House.
Even Nana knew that he was probably up there, sleeping, so it wouldn't be wise to wake him up. Though nobody else knew exactly what she was getting at, they thankfully did as told. At this point, she really just tried to cut her losses.
With much less energy than what she had when starting off this adventure, her feet took her to the kitchen sink.
They were looking at her expectantly, while she got busy, only facing them shortly to spare an understanding nod. »I think we need to have a talk«, she said, readying a tray with cups on it and working the coffee machine, »Please, have a–« Her words were cut off by a sudden clatter.
Like thunder roaring, the feet of three small children rumbling down the stairs followed a few falling objects. One would wonder how such small beings could create a noise this loud, but as it was, they had all gotten used to it. However, that was not the problem.
»Mama«, Lambo yelled in her direction.
Even I-pin couldn't stay quiet. »You're back!«
»Are you better now?« Only Futa held back his voice, which sounded more sad than worried.
She couldn't help but smile at the child whom she had frightened with her earlier condition. »I'm fine now.« She actually wasn't, but she hadn't been able to feel it anymore. Her Base Plate was still fragile, but the chaps had mended during her forced time of sleep before.
Finally, she looked at the clock. It was about six in the morning. »How are you even awake?« The children went quiet for a second.
She knew that nobody was watching them, but she had thought that they were mostly capable of taking care of themselves. Wouldn't that entail going to bed on time and staying there?
Then again, it was 6:00 am. She sometimes forgot that humans functioned differently from what she grew up with. And Tsuna wasn't home often between the ages of five and ten, so how would she have known?
Shaking her head, she had to calm them down. »Anyway, please go upstairs for a bit, we need to talk.« She asserted a type of unyielding aura with those simple words, making the little ones listen. She was the one who fed them, after all.
They had to argue, but at least they gave in relatively fast, going back up to hide away in one of the guest rooms. »And be careful not to make too much noise. Tsuna is probably trying to sleep«, she added as words of parting, but that was her mistake.
All of a sudden, her influence wavered in front of three excited balls of energy, charging up and into the one room they were not supposed to get close to. Flinching with the worst expectations, she could only watch, unlike Dino, who picked up his pace to run after them, trying to solve the situation. It all happened so fast, not even Romario could follow, which made it a miracle, that his young boss even reached the upper floor in one piece.
Tsuna on the other hand, had taken a cab to get back, but he got there barely faster than the others. He had only stripped himself off of all of his clothes and slipped into a big shirt to cover himself up again, before crawling into bed. The bed, which now caved in, after three little pests hopped into it.
They simply barged in – burst right the fuck in – and took aim at his head and waist that were vaguely visible through the thin blanket covering him. Dumbstruck, he propped himself up, swatting away the invaders like annoying flies. Just in time for Dino to stumble in.
The blonde man fell into the room, landing halfway on the mattress beside the tenth vongola's feet. The latter watched him with a strange kind of amazement at how he managed to make this whole ordeal even more unpleasent, almost insufferable.
»Take them and vanish«, is all he said. But Dino was too astonished by the sheer cold that met his eyes and the freezing tone of the voice that spoke.
The calm words seemed louder than the screaming that was going on and the more experienced mafioso decided to abide by them for now.
»Stop badgering him, he needs to rest«, he said to the children, recalling how Mammon had referred to Tsuna as ›damaged‹. That specific way of putting it was still clear in his mind.
Tsuna couldn't be bothered with this shallow display of worry, so he only rolled his eyes at that. Dino looked at this behaviour curiously, as he ushered the children out if the room and closed the door, to be the only one left with him.
»What's wrong with you?«, he asked, furrowing his blonde brows in mild irritation.
»Nothing«, the seemingly younger boy admitted, »I'm rather wondering what's wrong with you.«
»I'm not the one who changed so much overnight.«
»Me neither.«
That made the Cavallone shake his head. »Is that truly what you believe?«
»The problem doesn't lie with my beliefs but with yours. Your perception of how the world works has been off, that's why you wouldn't know who I am.«
»What does that mean?« He moved closer to the bed again, as he saw the middle schooler sigh and scratch the back of his head before crawling out of bed and facing him.
Dino felt slightly taken aback at his getup. »Don't you have pajamas?«
He glanced over the black shirt with short sleeves that he wore - though the sleeves reached down below his elbows. It was so big, the hem almost reached his knees, yet it revealed his left shoulder at the same time, because the collar was far too wide. Dino'e face turned a little red, as he avoided looking into the boy's eyes decidedly.
It was a question that was supposed to fill up the awkward space between them, but Tsuna took it seriously. »I don't like wearing them. But I can't sleep naked when there's other people in the house.« A spark of mockery visible in Tsuna's usually innocent hazel eyes and a crooked smirk showed on his still pale lips.
At this, the more experienced boss shrinked back a bit. It was an odd feeling. Dino didn't consider himself a prude, but Something about the atmosphere in the room made him retreat little by little.
He had to clear his throat, to chase away his shameful thoughts. »Well, at least you know that.« At this point, he really just wanted to flee the scene.
Only one peek to the side and the smaller boy used the blonde's lack of awareness to close the distance between them - close enough to lean in and whisper in his ear; close enough for Dino to feel the warm breath tickle his chin. »Other than this shirt, I wear nothing at all though.«
The sensation made him shiver and step back yet again, just lose his foothold and suddenly trip. He couldn't do anything but fall backwards, hitting the closed door behind him with his upper back and head. Lying there, he looked up at the one who called him ›big brother‹ until yesterday, not believing what's been taking place these last few seconds or minutes. He couldn't even tell how much time had passed.
Shaking his head, he carefully got up and turned to put his hand on the doorknob. »Don't make jokes like that in front of others, they might be misunderstood.« It was honest advice, yet he felt guilty as hell for being one of those ›others‹ himself and he knew it. He felt like Tsuna did, too.
»Maybe I want them to be understood like that«, he heard in response, said in a calm but weirdly sullen voice, before he made himself ignore the whole thing and welcome Romario, who had been waiting in the hallway.
»What happened?« The man inspected his boss as if he was a parent, checking for dirt and injuries on their ten year old child.
»Nothing«, the young boss replied, »We should go back down.«
Not convinced, but unable to do anything about it if he didn't want to tell him about it, he nodded his head.
»They are waiting downstairs.«
And they did wait. They had sat at the table that Nana had pointed out before the whole shuffle started, looking down into their coffee cups, as if they would start reading their own future every second.
Once the last person had taken a seat, the only adult woman at the table sighed. »I know, I have to explain a lot, but we have to take this slow first.«
»Tell us whatever you can«, Reborn stated, not demanding, but also not quite asking either.
His face was unreadable, as his thoughts were still unorganized. He wasn't exactly confused, as the others definitely had been, but he couldn't relax either. He wasn't in the know and that irked him more than anything else.
»First of all«, the supposed housewife started, »as you probably already gathered: I'm a Witch. That means I perform a sort of Magic that isn't related to any of the natural elements, though at the same time, is composed of all of those elements at once. We call that Witchcraft – or Shadow Magic.«
»Who is ›we‹?«, her husband threw in.
»Hm« She couldn't quite phrase an answer to that.
She didn't think about how she would hold this conversation, as she never thought she would ever hold a conversation of that kind anyway. There was neither right nor wrong, she was simply unprepared and just as confused and overwhelmed as everyone else in this room.
»Why don't you start at the beginning? HEY!« It was Colonello who had to meddle in, as she didn't seem to resume her explanation anytime soon.
»I can't. It would be way too much, if I'm really honest with you. I can only … try.« She shrugged her sunken shoulders, now looking even more frail than before. »Once upon a time, in a cluster of walls made up of a mass we call ›Dark Matter‹ – or ›Shadows‹ – energy that filled life gathered, raising natural elements to new heights within new spaces that were formed. These walls are widely known as Dimensional Walls and in between those walls, where Shadow falls, new worlds and universes are created and destroyed as we speak. The one that was build first, but took the longest to develop – that place is what we call ›Earth‹.«
Iemitsu furrowed his brows, trying to follow her words and process them, while the three arcobalenos didn't give any of their thoughts away. Dino seemed interested but confused at the same time, his mind was also not entirely concentrating on the subject matter.
Which left only Romario to ask a question: »What does that mean?«
»Simply speaking, besides Earth, there's other worlds, cut off from this one by Dimensional Walls and the spaces in between those Walls. One of those worlds, the counterpart to this one, is called ›Typha‹ – as a pair they are understood as the center of those Dimensional Clusters.«
They had heard that term before. It was what she called the place that they tried to bring Tsuna back from. »And that is this other world that Tsuna went missing in?«
»Not exactly missing«, Nana replied, »but yeah, that's the place he came back from. It's the place that I grew up in, and Tsuna has visited there a lot of times over the past years. It was to the point of me seeing him less than everyone on Typha, to be honest.«
»How is that possible? Didn't he go to school?«, Lal asked, while thinking of how that might have been the reason for his terrible grades.
»Well … that's because it wasn't him.« She shrugged her shoulders again, closing her eyes while confessing the truth. »The Tsuna you met was most of the time someone else. It was my familiar, Katryn, posing as Tsuna in his stead. She went to school in his getup and came back to me when it was over. Since Tsuna didn't have actual friends, nobody asked for him as soon as the bell rang and everyone ran home.«
Her husband was dumbfounded at this statement. »What do you mean with that? Do you think I wouldn't recognize my own son when I see him?«
A wry smile formed on his wife's lips. »Iemitsu … you never really knew him. So how could you have known?«
It was like a punch in the face. The room fell silent upon her words. Not even Reborn tried to meddle here, as it was something the two of them would have to sort out themselves.
»Then, how do I know that the boy up there is my son? I never knew a son that behaved the way he did in that shop!« He wasn't angry, even though he looked like he was. Nana could tell; he was frustrated, knowing that she had been right.
»You know because I tell you that it's him. Do you not trust me, either?«
It seemed so easy to answer that question, but he soon realized it wasn't. »… how am I supposed to trust you, if you really kept that many things from me?«
Now it was Nana who had been taken aback by what he had said. She knew he would say something along those lines, yet hearing him say it was a lot harsher than simply trying to imagine it and brace herself for the impact.
A hollow laugh ripped from her throat, surprising the audience once again. »All of that only worked because you weren't there to notice – nobody was, except for me«, she said, not as calm as at the beginning, her voice subtly cracking at the pain she felt deep inside from this, »And did you ever think of telling us anything at all? Me knowing who you are does not change the fact that you kept all of that from us, so get off your high horse.« She got louder by the word, looking at the man she once pledged to stay with until death did them part.
And he could see her eyes glistening with tears at that. »I know I wasn't always there for you. But you could have called me anytime, you know that. This isn't fair.«
»No, this is not fair«, she corrected, »I couldn't tell you anything, because I was bound by the rules of contract, while you could have told me about any of your deeds at any time. You also pulled Tsuna into this, even though he would be a mere child in your eyes. I let it be and kept the charade going, since I knew the moment I married a Human, that my life would change.«
»Change in what way?«, he asked, agitated just as much as she was. Nobody else dared to utter a word.
»You would live your life, do what you felt was right and what was important. One year you would do one thing, the next year another – it was fine. I knew it would be like that, because your life is short and thus you have to live according to that lifespan.« She got up from her seat and sniffed without openly crying. »But don't tell me no one else could have ever done your job or that you could have never done anything else. Just because the Vongola is important to you, doesn't mean you have to do everything yourself. You chose to do it and that is fine. But don't blame me – or your son – for doing the same.«
She was levelheaded in a way, but emotional in another. This wasn't what she wanted to say, it wasn't the conversation she wished to have. A heavy sigh made half the group flinch right at that moment.
A hungover looking middle schooler strolled down the stairs and into the kitchen, looking slightly annoyed. »I thought you would actually let me sleep, but seeing as you started a screeching contest, I guess I was wrong?«, he stated in a monotonous tone of voice. »Why don't we all sit back down and talk like responsible adults, yeah?«
Brushing over her face, his mother nodded, more to herself than to anyone else, before slowly sitting back down. »He's right, I should have done this in a more civilized manner.«
»It's not just you, though«, her son added, before sitting down on a chair. He now wore a pair of sweatpants and a fitting white shirt, as Dino noted, before swiftly avoiding his eyes when Tsuna looked in his direction. »So, how far did you get?«
»Not far«, she admitted. »They may have understood that Typha is a thing.«
»Well, in order for all of us to get home and have a rest«, he especially emphasized that last part of his sentence, »let's speed this up a bit. There's seven elements existing in this world that make up basically everything that you see. Five of them are called ›natural‹, they are Fire, Water, Earth, Air and Wood. Other than that, there's also Light and Shadow.«
»So basically, this is Avatar?«, Dino mused.
»Not exactly«, Tsuna replied smugly, »There's only four elements in Avatar.«
»What he's trying to explain is the ›origin of life‹, as we call it. These elements carry the light of life in them, but it's different for every element. They have differing properties and thus, bring about different life. Over millennia, the seven elements created guardians to represent and protect their longevity on this Dimensional Cluster, to keep the balance in between the expanding network of worlds.«
»Humans are also Guardians – it's like different races. There's Guardians of the first order, like Witches and Witchers of the Shadows, or the Kali of Air«, he seemed to weigh his words for a moment, before continuing with his explanation, »But there's also second order Guardians, that were born of diluted blood that caused mutation to a degree where it's safe to say they are a new race altogether, like the Sirens of the Waterbody.«
»So you say there's at least seven different … Guardians or whatever?« The blonde arcobaleno could barely put together what was said, but he was confident in at least that much.
»Sounded like there's more than seven«, Lal added with a nod.
»So Humans are also one of those races, but what element to they represent?«, Reborn asked. The whole thing seemed to familiar. If he didn't know any better, he would compare it to their flames.
»Yes, Humans – we call you ›Mundi‹ – are representative of the most basic core of life, the Light, basically pure life energy. It holds no other authorities besides the one to walk on two legs, live on this earth and have a life of ambition and dreams. It's actually a lot if you think about it.«
»And what other races are there?« Finally, Iemitsu opened his mouth again. He was still not sure of what happened between him and his beloved wife, but he couldn't keep sulking and let everything pass by him.
»If I say it in terms you would be able to understand, it's Vampires, Werewolves, giant Gargoyles, Mermaids, Elves, and well, Witches.« Tsuna yawned and paused for a second, before shrugging just as his mother had done before he even came down, as if he was mirroring her. »Essentially a lot of dangerous fuckers from another world, which are now let off their leash, as the Contract has been broken.«
»What contract? I feel like I heard that before.« Reborn had his usual pokerface on, but on the inside, he felt restless. He hadn't seen much, so he could still believe not to know. But not knowing wasn't an option for him either.
»A contract that bound each and every one of us to the words of our ancestors. We were, for the longest time, forbidden from letting the truth about non-Human species, known to mankind in any way.« It was Nana who once again explained more calmly. »We weren't allowed to use our powers in front of Mundi, we were not allowed to say anything. It was the Shadows who watched us, so there was no cheating possible. And the payment for breaching the contract was absolute.«
»They basically gagged us with fear for eons«, the brown haired boy spat, while taking an apple out of a fruits basket on the middle of their dining table. »But now that the gag is gone, there's gotta be some chaos happening. Especially since the people from the other side are busy taking care of the aftermath of the Contract breaking.«
»What aftermath?« Iemitsu looked at his wife in a new light, yet he still couldn't really see her as anything but the woman he had once met and fell in love with. What else would she ever be to him?
»To be honest, even I can't really tell. But there's bound to be a lot of imbalance happening. This Contract ate itself into the makeups of the Dimensional Walls, becoming part of every possible world, every possible future and every possible past. Taking that away could cause fissures in the Walls by itself, but it could also cause the Momentum to shift forcefully, creating Rifts all over the place.«
»Or in other words: Pandemonium.«
»I heard this word way too often these past few hours.« The only female arcobaleno in the house had to sigh heavily at this, but propped herself back up right away. »So what are we going to do about it?«
Colonello jumped up as well. »I don't really understand any of what you just said, but I understood that it's going to be a problem for all of us.«
»As mentioned before, we need to talk. We need to have some sort of conference, with whoever you trust and rely on, so we can come up with countermeasures«, she said, before looking directly at her son, »but aside from that, I still have to get in touch with Undine again.«
»Why?« His disgruntled face almost made her laugh out loud. He really hated everything that smelled even vaguely complicated.
»I made a Pledge to her, so she would take me to a Port. I didn't know you would come out of it on your own, though.«
Tsuna stared at his mother with an incredulous face, realizing just what type of Pledge she was referring to.
»Did you really have to create more work for me?«
