"I don't understand! What do you mean that he living in a dorm!" Tsuna watched as his eldest brother slammed his hands down while the secretary of the Headmistress flinched, clearly not used to the violence that no one would ever show before her.
"Giotto," his second brother started, bored orange eyes looking at the eldest with annoyance. "Shut up for a moment and let the lady explain," and it was Tsuna's turn to flinch when the blonde 20-something man turned to them and glared at them, the same orange eyes he shares with Natsu narrowed in distaste.
He tried smiling at his brother, one shoulder above the other and his brother sighed at seeing the distress in his smile. Tsuna smiled apologetically at the secretary who is probably about to cry to her superior about how rude his brother is.
Gio-nii usually isn't like this, he was a gentleman who treats all humans and spirits with respect and would smile at strangers. Tsuna has an inkling that the lady, 'Headmistress Luce,' his mind reminded him, has probably something to do with his brother's change in behavior.
It was after he faced the Ruin despite having no contracts and no training what so ever. The Ruin took the shape of a snake with red scales, rotting and falling apart with dark black orbs with no other color. Red flames spreading wherever it goes, leaving a trail of bloodied and broken roads.
Tsuna, at that time, thought he was going to die. The first lesson he was taught was that to run if there is a Ruin sighting, drop everything and run for no matter what you do, Ruins will always eat what's in front of them be it human or spirit.
No one really knows when did the Ruins first appeared or why they exist. The first Ruin, named Apocalypse, later on, was a Sky-Classed Ruin with the shape of a mighty Lion, broken skin, and bleeding all over, wrecking the Holy Temple of the Five Gods and the kingdoms surrounding it, leaving nothing and no one in its wake. Apocalypse disappeared on the tenth day of its appearance but after it disappeared, smaller but frequent attacks of Ruins started.
Tsuna stared at the unblinking glassy eyes of the Ruin, hands opened wide and knees shaking. "Go, run," he said softly, not breaking eye contact at the same time of making no sudden movement. "I'll cover you."
When the girl runs, he will slam himself against the Ruin even if it meant him getting killed. He doesn't mind dying to save an innocent little kid. His brothers will be able to live without him, his biggest regret probably will be that he wasn't able to meet those people in his dreams.
They changed every night. A boy followed by a white raven that screams broken, pain, help meeee, mama, where are you, sa- . Twins forced to hide and run even from their own kind for in them carried the blood of sinners, murderers, killers . A skylark with broken wings, never to fly again, who has learned to walk about them and fight like a predator. A human lost the will to live and gave everything up for nothing.
No, Tsuna's biggest regrets will always be them. Just thought of them made his heartache and made his chest feel empty despite knowing nothing about them. Maybe that was made him push the girl to the side.
The girl in a black sundress with a hauntingly familiar white mushroom hat and when he pushed the girl away, he met bluebell eyes. An image of a sickly girl laying down on the cold marble floor flashed before his eyes before he faced the Ruin, leading him into that predicament.
The Ruin tilted it's head, a scale falling off as it slowly slithered around him then around him, effectively trapping him between rotting flash as a slimy tongue flickered out in front of him. He closed his eyes, holding his breath as the smell of burning flesh filled his nose and his mind.
He could hear it, screams in another language echoing inside his head, a screech of a raven as someone called out for hi- her . "Sora!"
Tsuna watched blankly as a bullet made out of pure, concentrated Rain flames pierced and the tight coil around him broke into red glowing fragments. He fell down, blacking out before he even hit the concrete and the last thing he saw was cold blue eyes that remind him of the dream he had about a pair of lovers, the woman was something akin today and the man, owner of such cold blue eyes, was the night to her day. A name was at the tip of his tongue before he lost consciousness.
He remembered waking up to screaming that he identified as Giotto's and a pounding headache. The lights of the room he was at were bright, worsening the headache and making him feel like someone is banging the inside of his skull with a sledgehammer.
"Nii-chan," he whimpered, throat aching and he felt someone hold his hands, warm and smelling of ashes and burning fire but they smelled like home. "Nii-chan, it hurts," everything hurts. He could almost feel the Ruin's scales rubbing against his arms, burning his skin and his ribs cracking from the pressure.
"It's okay Tsu-chan," his second brother said, appearing in his sight. Worried orange eyes, the same color as the lion cub in his dreams , while Natsu carefully squeezed his hand. "I'm here, everything is gonna be alright."
In that moment, he could almost see a lion standing in front of him, head butting his hand in worry. "Nii-chan," his brother squeezed his hands more, watching him struggle in trying to breathe properly without the sharp pain on his sides, "why is Gio-nii screaming?"
As far as he remembered ever since he met his eldest brother, he hadn't heard him scream or even yell. It was always a stern soft voice every time he talked to Tsuna as if he was talking to a child who barely knew anything and Tsuna hated it when Giotto does that tone. That tone where it feels like Giotto is looking down at him and his intelligence but now he hated it even more when his brother screamed. Voice loud and ringing through the air and all that Tsuna could focus on was pain, sadness, loneliness, grief, it's your fault, it's my fa- and he couldn't take it anymore.
"Gio-nii," he whispered, feeling so so tired and he just wants to close and rest and dream of kind bluebell eyes that sometimes glows an orange hue and the scent of lilies that reminds him of home. "Gio-nii, my head hurts."
And the screams don't stop and he couldn't even understand what his brother was saying. He was screaming in this language that sounds like he was singing a hymn to the Gods except Tsuna could almost taste it, the anger lacing the words like how his tea is laced with milk and sugar, like how Natsu's scent is laced with sadness, a deep echoing emptiness.
"Nii-sama," he tries again, his time closing his eyes, the light beginning to make the headache worse than it was. "Nii-sama!" he shouted a little louder, the pain on his stomach and sides making him scream when he tried moving.
"Tsuna!" He heard his brother yell out, finally speaking in a language where he could understand before hearing the beeping of a machine and meeting the eyes of a lady with the same bluebell eyes he keeps on having dreams about when he turned to his side to curl up.
The lady stood up, worry painting her brows and Tsuna wanted to ask despite the pain on why does it seem like the lady is chained to the glowing orb of orange that she wears upon her neck and what was she, where her soul does not fit the soul of a human or a spirit. But before he could ask, he felt something cold flow into his arm and the darkness hit him faster than any Ruin can.
'Hmm, why did that Ruin wait?' he thought before he was sucked into the arms of Vongola once again.
He remembered this dream quite vividly more than any of these other dreams. It was about a man, with dark hair screaming into the abyss as tendrils of darkness and red and orange covered the sky. The screams of the man ringing in his ears painfully, anguish, and pain and anger were running through him as if it was his own, tearing his insides and his whole being apart. He watched as the man's skin burst open, spraying gold blood everywhere and skin turned to fur, the body growing bigger by the minute until the man, no the beast was big enough to reach the skies.
'It's Apocalypse,' he realized, the man just turned into something he only read and heard about in that documentary he insists on watching despite his brothers' dismay. "Apocalypse was a man," he spoke aloud, his voice echoing louder than the beast's roars for some odd reason before he heard the sound of bells effectively shutting everything out.
"Apocalypse was never a man Tsunayoshi," he found himself facing a man with an amiable smile on his thin lips, dressed in a green kimono. The flash of light hiding his eyes from Tsuna's gaze but his hair was nothing Tsuna ever seen. Silver that turns dark in another angle and gold in the opposite angle. "He was not a man or a spirit. Never was."
"But I believe it is better off that you do not know him," the man said, suddenly closed to him where the man stared down on him, silver eyes looking at his very soul and something in Tsuna was screaming, run, run, run! Before he was pushed away, the man's hands cold like ice and he thought he saw a sorrowful smile on the man's lips.
Tsuna woke up in a start, the beeping of a machine echoing in an empty room, and his eyes wandered in the dark, his body still wary before holding his breath at seeing the same lady he saw before blacking out.
"You're awake," she said, putting down the book she was reading. The initials S.T. in gold was the only thing he was able to see before the lady walked up towards him. A big smile on her lips as she sat beside him on the bed, holding his hand tightly, like how Natsu would have done it.
And as if reading his mind, the lady laughed, the scent of lilies overpowering the sadness that resonates from her, "they're fixing your school records at the moment, Tsu." Her laugh, something akin to the warm spring breeze, made the fear he was still feeling disappear just like that.
He wanted to ask who was she, what she was and what she was doing here but when he opened his mouth, the pain came back a blade slicing his throat open and red filled his vision, screaming and a crowd roaring for his- her death . He was drowning in it, the screams of bloodlust and the jeering of the crowd as he- she waits for the end of his- her life as the world knows it.
"If I'm scared and alone," a voice that feels like home pierced through the pain and the darkness. "If I'm scared and alone," it was singing a song so familiar to Sora- Tsuna that he knows what comes next.
"I will never forget the truth, and if they stare, if they hurt me, I swear," the voice sang, the pain already receding and his vision returning to normal. 'That I'll never give up, I'll fight' Tsuna thought to himself, the screams and the taunting replaced by the song as the feeling of Otherness in him once again fell asleep like it was never there.
He listened in silence, the lady slowly patting his leg to the rhythm of a song and he wanted to reach out, to wipe those tears deep in the lady's soul and heal those pains that she carries in her heart but he couldn't. The pain was too unbearable if he moves, the phantom scales of the Ruin still clinging to his skin and dark red Flames still running in his veins but hearing the woman sing, having her near him healed him slowly.
"Yes for us, I'll be strong tonight…" and the lady reached out to his face before brushing aside his hair, the look in her eyes reminded him of the same look his brothers give him as if he didn't know; longing and a deep deep sorrow.
The lady booed his nose before introducing herself, "my name is Luce of the Sora Talbot Academy, I should have started with that teehee." Tsuna watched in disbelief as Ms. Luce, Luce Giglo Nero, contractor of 8 of the 9 Arcobalenos, Headmistress and Founder of the said Academy, one of the best Academy built to train children how to fight Ruins alongside with their Spirit partners, the Academy that released the ancient form of contracting where human and spirit are equal, knocked her head all cutesy, her tongue slipping through her lips.
"And you are Sawada Tsunayoshi! Tsu!" Madame Luce told him like he didn't know his name and it might have shown in his expression because the Headmistress giggled. "I would like to thank you," she started, losing the light in her smile as her smile turned somber, "for saving Yuni. I wouldn't know what I would do if I lost her."
Yuni, kind, selfless, dying , was the little girl he saved, the Headmistress said. She wasn't even supposed to be outside the Academy's barrier but for some odd reason, the child had managed to get out and it wasn't for him, she would have lost her sister's daughter. The one who killed the Ruin is one of the Academy's professors sent to search for the girl and he saw how Tsuna stood in front of the Ruin.
"And for that, I would like to offer you a place in the Academy," she ended and his mind couldn't keep up with the news. Him? Ordinary, sheltered Tsuna? Who doesn't want a contract nor will ever want one? Tsuna whose brothers refused to let him get out of their sights? Him who was the only survivor of that strange Ruin attack that killed 79 people?
"You will need it Tsunayoshi," and he wanted to refuse but the look in the Headmistress' eyes were dark and forbidding. The bubbly atmosphere that Tsuna thought would always remain stuck to her was now sharp and cold, like a blade waiting to strike. "Not when you will play a big part in the future of this world."
That was two months ago and now he is here. In front of the main office, listening to the secretary apologize and explained that he was put into the dorms by the Headmistress herself and if they have any questions, they must bring it up to her personally.
He could feel the stares of everyone they passed by, walking swiftly to the greenhouse where the secretary pointed them towards. He knew why though, the tight security the Academy prides itself of concerning visitors and families where only those who have invitations could get it and it doesn't help that he could only imagine what they see. Giotto with his foreign looks and his soft smiles, Natsu with his hair tied in a low-laying ponytail and cold glares, and then there was finally Tsuna, who hasn't gotten out of his bandages and the smallest of the trio. It's not his fault his growth spurt is late!
They finally reached the greenhouse, it was a giant dome just behind the main office surrounded by blooming flowers of every color imagined. He let Natsu guide him through the path while he thought to himself 'how is this possible?'
Giotto reached the door of the greenhouse first before slamming it open, a growl in his throat and orange eyes flashing. He heard his brother speak again in that language, the same language he heard at the hospital, the language that feels like home .
And before he could stop Giotto from doing something rash, Natsu covered him, holding him back, hiding him from the other occupants in the room. "Death," he heard his normally calm brother say with such venom dripping off his words. "What is he doing here Luce?"
Tsuna had enough and moved to the side, ignoring how his brother turned to glare at him to stay back. He returned him a look with one of his eyebrows up before facing the front to say his greetings and apology to the headmistress. His blood froze as every part of his body screamed and cried out, sorrow, regret, guilt.
There behind the headmistress, who smiled at him while she sat down in front of her desk, was a man dressed in an all-black suit, leaning against a bookshelf, a fedora hiding his face and what drew Tsuna's eyes the most was the same pacifier that Luce wears except it was yellow. Something in him was screaming it was wrong, that the pacifier shouldn't be there, Luce has no right, he's mine.
"Oh, Tsu! There you are! I was wondering if you got lost in the campus since it took you a long time to get here after Mei called," the Headmistress beamed, lips in a bright smile and Tsuna knew that she was clearly ignoring his brothers, the man behind her and the stale suffocating air. "Did you like the flowers? They're all specially made and genetically modified to have those colors and bloom all year round!"
"What is going on here Luce," it wasn't the same voice that haunts his dreams, it was smoother, lower, and much sharper than the voice in his head that sounds like it was from a kid.
"And goodie! Everyone's here!" the Headmistress ignored the man despite the terrifying glare that allowed Tsuna to see murky golden eyes. "This is the headteacher of the first years! Which is also Tsuna's advisory teacher!" Something is screaming in him, a voice in his head pounding through some thick glass in his mind and the name of the man at the tip of his tongue but he didn't know how to say it, the name seems so unfamiliar to him but when he met those eyes, he knew who he was.
"Reborn."
"Renato."