Tsuna was pulled behind Giotto and Natsu immediately as loud bang rang out, a bullet condensed out of pure Sun Flames hitting the floor from where he was moments ago. "Tsuna, it's best if you leave now," Natsu said, something feral and wild in his eyes while pushing him towards the door, "adults need to talk." And he wanted to protest but the way the shadows moved behind Reborn, Renato , and the way his eyes glowed a bright monstrous yellow made him listen for once, even ignoring how he felt indigent about being indirectly called a kid when he and Natsu are about the same age.
"Why don't you check out the campus?" the headmistress said, smiling and unaffected by the heavy tension in the greenhouse. Gracefully fixing the flowers that is in a vase in front of her, she turned to him and assured him, "maybe you'll like it here."
He agreed, anything to get out of this tension and the man, his teacher, who feels like anger, sadness, despair, grief . Tsuna closed the door behind him, just before seeing Giotto punched the man and he didn't know if he just imagined it but it seems like orange, Sky , flames were coating his fists.
Taking a deep breath, body against the door, smelling the unique scent of flowers in the air, Tsuna mindlessly scratched his bandages before walking towards the main building, deciding to ask the secretary for a map. Rolling his tongue against the top of his mouth, Tsuna wondered what made him say that name.
Renato, to rise again, to be Reborn .
When he said that word, that name, he had an image flash in front of him. A child that looks so similar to the cold man and that only differences between them was their eyes and smile. Wherein that man's, Reborn's, eyes were a dark murky yellow borderline black in some angles, the boy's eyes were golden in color like the pocket watch that Giotto carries around. They were too different people, not when Reborn didn't seem to smile while the kid would smile, even if it's meant to annoy someone. They were different but Tsuna saw a little bit of the boy in the man, the way both of their eyes warily looked everywhere for an escape room, the way their shoulders tensed when someone enters a room. They were different but Tsuna can see the other in their positions.
But the real question is, who is Renato? That made Tsuna stop, already by the entrance of the main building. "Renato?" he whispered, trying to listen on how that name rolled off his tongue fluently despite first hearing of that name from his mouth. Saying it was like napping in the sun, comfortable as if it wasn't the first time he said it.
He stood there, a hand holding one of the polished pillars just before entering the hallway, ignoring how students, wearing light-colored blazers with the inside shirt a different color which Tsuna thinks is based off their Flames, would stop and gawk at him. He could tell that rumors have already spread the way they whispered among themselves. He ignored them, like how he ignored everyone else at the hospital when they tried to ask him questions, like how he ignored his neighbors when they wanted to make friends.
Tsuna looked down, avoiding their eyes, his own tracing the multi-colored shadows on the floor before looking up to look at the glass ceiling. Glass of all different colors forming pictures which Tsuna realized tells a story, fragmented light falling down on the polished floor. It was beautiful, like those windows from cathedrals but Tsuna's heart began to ache when he noticed what the story was all about. Loss and Grief, telling the story of a new character with every five mosaics before changing.
They were all different but they had one thing in common. A girl dressed in the same clothes that the Headmistress was wearing with long brown hair, an orange jewel in her ring vibrantly glowing with many colors, making all eyes look at it first. Reaching the middle of the main building right where the secretary was, a big glass mosaic was situated above them. He walked along the side to find the right angle and stared at what he saw.
It was the same girl, or Tsuna thought so, her features were more defined this time. Eyes closed serenely while her hands were opened, white and orange lilies in her hands. The same ring on her hand and a soft empty smile on her lips. She was beautiful, a veil of detailed white stars was resting on her head, wearing those robes he only has seen from images of the Five Great Gods and she was surrounded by flowers that he doesn't know the names of but have seen in the Headmistress' greenhouse.
"Her name's Sora," he was interrupted from his thoughts by a soft and gentle voice. Tsuna turned around and met the same bluebell eyes that the Headmistress have. His eyes widened at the little girl, the same little girl Yuni he pushed out of the away that day. "Well, was her name at least."
She was wearing the same dress with the same hat with all the same colors but her eyes. Tsuna watched as her eyes glittered in the colored light before skipping towards her. He could faintly hear a voice telling him that her clothes, her colors, she was and still is mourning. The little girl smiled at him brightly like he created the sky and gave her the stars before she took his hand, warmth spreading across his palm, letting the little girl intertwine their fingers.
She's small, smaller than him and he's tiny compared to most people. With her hat, she was a foot smaller than him but if one would remove the hat, Tsuna would bet all of the knick-knacks his older brothers tend to give him that the girl was much much smaller than him. And yet, Tsuna can get the feeling that the girl was older than him despite her small stature and her eyes despite being so bright was hiding something darker that made his heart clenched but why?
"Sora?" he found himself asking, letting the child, not a child guide him across the lobby, passing by the Secretary and into another pathway, this time to the west. The girl turned to him and grinned, and something in him cried out for her .
"Hm-hm," she slowed down and Tsuna noticed that this corridor was not as crowded as the corridor where he was in. "Sora is the person that the Academy is named after," she revealed and for a moment there, Tsuna could hear the sadness in her voice. "But not a lot of people know that… Well not anymore."
Tsuna wanted to say something but no words could come out of his mouth. The two of them stopped with the girl dropping their hands, the atmosphere sullen and gloomy before the girl turned around to face him. He met her eyes, brown clashing with blue and Tsuna found himself losing in those sad bluebells orbs. 'They share the same look as Reborn,' his eyes widening at the realization. She, the Headmistress and Reborn, they all shared the same look of guilt, regret, my fault, my fault, it's my fau-. And it doesn't help that he knows those looks, the same looks that Natsu and Giotto have whenever they think he wasn't looking. Like they see a person, they see someone else, they see only Sora when it's just him, just Tsuna.
"What happened to her?" He asked, turning to look at the garden that seems to envelop the whole Academy, leaving open-aired corridors and glass pathways. He knew the answer, of course, he saw the glass panels but the silence was unbearable that the voice in his head was screaming to just hug her and tell her everything is going to be okay .
"She got killed, a long long time ago," 'how long was a long long time ago,' he wanted to ask that even now they still feel the pain. His brothers hiding the times they would cry and sneak into his room just to whisper Sora, why did you leave me Sora and all he wanted to do was cry because how come they don't see that he's just Tsuna .
He loves his brothers a lot, they were all that he had left after his parents died. They were the ones who told him that he still has them. They were the ones who took him in and took care of him. He loves them and yet he didn't know what to say to them when they accidentally call him Sora when they say that everything is okay when it's quite obvious to him that they're not and now he's in this academy. In this stupid academy named after this Sora who obviously knows who his brothers were, who this child and the Headmistress were, who Reborn was at some point and he didn't know what to do when all he wanted to scream is that Sora's not him and stop looking at him like that.
Tsuna's not Sora but there's this voice in his head screaming at him, clouding his judgment ever since he met his brothers and it hurts. 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,' repeating over and over again until Tsuna's lips could only repeat it.
"Is that so?" he replied, shaking his head to get rid of the voice and the memories and the feelings that are clearly not his . "Did you know her?" Of course, Tsuna also knew that the girl at least knew her, not when her dress was still the same black color from months ago, not when he could hear her voice was wavering and quivering the moment the talk about Sora started.
He turned to the girl when the girl answered his question. "I did," she whispered like someone else would hear and condemn her for it. The real question is for Tsuna right now is how can a child, a human child knows someone who died just before the Academy was founded when the Academy was founded a hundred years ago.
"You're not human are you?" That question shocked the girl, making her look at him straight at his eyes. His eyes which is now glowing orange and as if the world was stood still.
He watched as the girl stared at him, fear nowhere to be seen. The first time in many years other than his brothers met his eyes when he asks questions. "I'm human," she finally told him after what seems to be minutes, "but at the same time not." The girl wasn't lying, she stood tall as if she wasn't moments away from crying just a few minutes ago.
"Tsuna," the girl called out for him. "I-" she started before bowing down, "I wanted to thank you for saving me."
Tsuna blinked, the orange glow in his eyes receding leaving soft chocolate brown and he blushed. It was the first time someone thanks him, normally it was Natsu receiving the thanks admiration. His second brother might act like he doesn't care but between him and Giotto, Natsu is more like the person who's most likely to help an old woman cross the road.
"And this might seem rude to you but please," she trailed off. Tsuna could see her struggling, words forming on her lips but not being able to say it. He could relate for all the times he tried confronting his siblings, words memorized and said over and over again in front of a mirror but in front of them, he could swallow them all back before shaking his head.
"Please forgive Reborn," the words made his eyes opened wide. He was expecting something else, like 'be my knight,' or 'please protect me' but not this. This girl, the girl who he finds out that he has a weak spot for her, begging him to forgive someone.
"Please! Reborn doesn't mean it, he's just strung up and he's not recovering well and he's different and he's in pa-" he patted her head, watching as the mushroom hat gets squished from the force and bouncing right back up when he removed his hand. He did it again, fascinated by how the hat would bounce right back up as if it was jelly.
He caught hold of himself when he saw the girl's ears a bright red and coughed into his hand. "Why?" He asked, wanting to know the girl's reasons. He personally doesn't care about Reborn at all.
The girl stood up and said, "Reborn doesn't mean and…" He could see the hesitation in her eyes, her teeth biting on her lips before she continued, "he… He just doesn't know."
Tsuna raised a brow before sighing, tilting his head while tracing the bandages on his arms. The poor girl couldn't even explain. He patted her head before smiling at her softly. She's like the little sister he has never had.
"Su-" he froze, the word stopping when he caught himself. Why did he let this girl pull him along? Why did he bother listening to the girl? Why did he stay? Why was he about to agree to someone he just met? He took a step back and the girl stared at him worryingly.
The voice in his head telling him to stay, to listen, to agree, to hug her. It was screaming with every step backward he took until he couldn't take it, pressing his palms against his head. Something is screaming, trying to break his skull and he felt someone hold him and he looked down, it was the girl. He slapped her hand away and turned away from her, running, the pain coursing through his whole body.
He could see it, the lights of the lobby and he let out a shaky gasp, catching himself against the wall of the lobby. The screaming in his head refusing to calm and keeps on yelling at him to go back, to go back to her, to Yuni.
He looked down at his hands, shaking and trembling but from what? Fear that that girl managed to get close to him? His brain finally accepting that he was almost shot at and almost died? The stress of coming to a real-life school with other people? Tsuna doesn't know and he doesn't know.
What he does know that he couldn't breathe and everything is spinning and his knees hurt. Eyes looking at him and he just wants to scream at them to stop and just stoplookingathimplease . His arms burn and he pressed his forehead against the floor, oh since when did the floor become so near? Everything is so bright and he's just so tired.
"Tsuna!" Was that Giotto? Or was that Natsu? He doesn't know. Warm, gentle hands pulled him up, cradling him like a small child. The smell of bitter coffee and gunpowder and family filling his nose and he wanted nothing but to hold them tight.
He felt his head drop to the side, seeing the girl and the headmistress looking at him worriedly and his brothers standing by the side, their faces all in a state of shock. If his brothers are there then who's the one holding him?
Ah, that doesn't matter to Tsuna anymore. The voice was screaming louder than ever and he could feel his eyes close before he fell into nothingness. The scent of home and grieving skies and mourning sun lulling him to an empty dream, no flashes of light, of blood dripping down on the floor, and the leering sickening smiles of eyeless people. Just a dream where someone sings in the darkness, a song of longing and loss, waiting for someone to sing along with them.