Chapter 5

Cuckoo

Reborn observed Tsuna as he closed the door of his room before speaking bluntly.

"Stop playing dumb, Tsuna. I'm here to train you into a great boss, one that would garner your subordinate's respect, but I don't approve of this method.

Your flames had to be sealed for your own good when you were a child. So how are you using it so skillfully?"

"…Is that what you call it? Flames? Maybe that was why I was literally on fire at that time. It scared me so much, but it was so freeing.

You know, Reborn… You say it's a good thing- but I'd lost something of myself that day. It still disorients me today. Nothing much has changed since that time. The thing that gramps did that day, it's burned into my memory, like he had burned that seal deep inside me."

"Then how?"

"It was because a hole had been created that I noticed its absence much clearer. I wanted what was mine back. So much so that I tried many things because I noticed that, something that could be a substitute was present in others."

"Is that why you've meddled in their problems? That's awfully selfish of you,Tsuna."

"…You've not even heard the whole story, so why're you jumping the gun?"

"It's because they're all excuses. Is that what your harmony is right now? A motley of the different flames? How did you take it?"

"It's the other way around, Reborn. Their will simulated my flames, especially when they try to reach out to me. That's why I love people who love me back.

I noticed it coming out when Kyoko-chan's brother was fighting. It tugged at me."

"Is that why you bait them, provoking them to get violent with you? If it was affection you were seeking, wasn't your mama enough?"

"Mom loved me, but she was always reaching out for dad. It's even more obvious when dad visited us. It's hard not to notice it."

"You tried to get her attention by telling her that Iemitsu was dead right? Then your flame that caught on to her agitation harmonized with it even further, anchoring that anxiety.

You're still repeating that mistake, even now."

"It's not a mistake-"

"I don't approve of your methods of bonding with people.

Yamamoto was your guinea pig. Was it worth the rift he created between him and the people around him? "

"He caused me quite a lot of trouble actually. He ruined everything. It broke everything between my friends and me." Tsuna's sorrowful voice made the tutor narrow his eyes.

Tsuna seemed to have a fondness towards people who were beaten down. The times he acknowledged Kyoko, Yamamoto, Hibari or Gokudera were when they were at a boiling point. They were dangling from a cliff, chased into that place by Tsuna's antics. Then, the brunette offered a thread of salvation which they immediately took to.

Well, in Hibari's case, it was his curiosity that was pushed to the brink though.

"I saw the way you lead Gokudera around the nose. You made him follow your line of sight, mimic your movements as he saw only what you wanted him to see.

His past is his vice and yet, you relentlessly exploited it. You amplified it by trying to resonate with him. Gokudera Hayato is easily agitated. His life experience until now was full of pitfalls. He pledged his loyalty to you, supported your fall and yet you repay his goodwill with evil."

The hitman spoke, trying to evoke feelings of guilt from the brunette, to fix that broken moral compass of his. He tilted his fedora, his eyes shadowed. He should have come earlier. They warped this kid thoroughly.

"You used your own mother to invoke Hibari's sense of violence. When you lured him all the way to the scene, you even led him to her resting place that simply mocks her along with everything else in the house.

The lower floor is filled with the memories of the two. Yet, you let her believe that they were separated without even a last word and that she couldn't even mourn for him as his body wasn't even found. You tricked her into thinking that she was here smiling every day when her husband died in some unknown ditch. " The baby seethed.

"No, she was happy. She was just like me, connecting with dad. Her flames leaked out every day and I helped to make her memories so prominent that he could be so vivid that he might as well be there.

Her Iemitsu was a man I've never seen before. I always saw him lounging around in his underwear and leaving despite my pleas for him to stay around for mom. Her view of dad would be better seen by her mind, rather than her getting disappointed when she sees dad for who he really was.

They were always in a honeymoon period, but mom was the one who relieved those short times when they were actually together."

"You don't know love or affection, Tsuna. If you really did know, you'd understand why mama cherished those occasions. It's not all about the strength of emotion nor is it about pining.

She died from your meddling."

"No, she's left so many things behind-"

"No, she died. She left things behind without seeing through them because she was cornered into abandoning them. They're all that's left of her. They're the things that she once cherished, but then, you changed them all into things that brought pain to her.

No one would know how she would have lived from then, what exactly she would have thought if she wasn't grieving or escaping from reality. You forcefully changed her state of mind and didn't allow her to move on.

You're still not letting her move on.

You've desecrated her corpse.

Your love is violence."

Reborn wanted Tsuna to see the truth. He was to be the child's guide when he was fooling both himself and others. It was never too late to learn from one's own mistakes.

"You need to know what it entails to take someone under your wing-"

"…It's not too late." Tsuna's emotionless voice rung out.

Reborn's countenance looked severe.

"You… know how to turn back time.

You have too much experience to account for being a genius. Plus, that pacifier… it has the exact same vibe as you do."

"Don't speak nonsense. Her body is scattered and a part of your backyard. There's no going back for her. It's the reason why life is precious."

"…You're only talking about my mom's revival. But you haven't denied the possibility of time travel."

"You're missing the point here."

"Why? Is my mother's death convenient for you? You've got the guardians of the Vongola Decimo set that way-"

Bang.

A bullet whizzed by, singing Tsuna's hair.

"Those guardians are yours. You're the one who's been playing with them."

"I've not-"

"You might as well be. While growth can be extremely fast when people are pushed to the brink, my trials aim at fostering you to be the best you can be. You bring out the worst in other people.

I've not satisfied with keeping things the way they are, Tsuna. Neither am I interested in playing along with your schemes. Keep that in mind."

"If you have the ability, you could use it for the mission too. You could rewind it before Xanxus killed the other candidates. It's a great deal for even the Vongola-"

"It's not a panacea nor is it solving the problem at its root. At most, it'll delay Xanxus. Plus, the time travel as tested by the Bovino family only transports one person through time and that too, to ten years in the future. Doing so would lead to unintended ripple effects. It also exposes those in the future along with the traveller to a huge risk.

Yet, Bovino uses it haphazardly- that idiot."

"Then why do you-"

"What I carry is a curse, the curse of the Arcobaleno. It's not that I've reversed time, but my time is stuck at a standstill until it consumes me completely. My pacifier is proof that we bear it."

"It doesn't have to be a curse. It could revive her and give her back the time I took."

"What difference does it make if her time still remains in a standstill. The only thing that changes is whether she's alive or dead and yet, she could make that decision for herself and she would be more at peace that it was a choice that she undertook.

You're still trying to make her decisions for her.

Tsuna, try to understand my intentions when I'm explaining things one by one to you like this. It's better that you're regretting it, but I want you to shoulder the mistakes that you've made and use it as an important lesson to never do it again.

That is the respect I want you to treat your subordinates with. It's because your decisions can come at a heavy cost as you've just learned. It's for that reason you should change the way you behave so that you're treated like you treat others. It's so that you don't harm those you want to protect and your will, your intention matches with your actions."

It was a bitter medicine as Reborn did the same thing to Tsuna as he did to Nana, corrupting his thoughts and memories of her. He changed the house that was to be her heaven to her place of torment. He would have to do it all over again when he would tell Iemitsu. It would break their family apart, but it was a problem they both must overcome.

Reborn wanted Tsuna to know that there was more to life than an instant of the past that was to be immortalized forever. The child did not have to cling on to one part as he sacrificed everything around him.

There was a story about a gilded statue of a prince with eyes of sapphire that looked upon a troubled town. The statue had a bleeding heart and was fortunate enough to grant the requests of the troubled souls that sought the numerous golden leaves that plated his skin and clothes. It was so abundant that it seemed like the prince wouldn't lack for anything, even if he spared a leaf or two. The souls that asked him felt that by giving one of the leaves to them wouldn't affect the statue one bit, but it would greatly benefit them instead. It wouldn't have hurt the other to help a pal out.

But there were simply too many people who wanted to help themselves or fulfil their greed and the material that the statue was sculpted from was a finite resource. Finally, even the beautiful sapphire eyes were plucked out, leaving the prince utterly bereft and as a result, abandoned.

It was a cautionary tale that left the people who heard it utterly aghast, even though Yamamoto couldn't sympathize with them. As he grew up, he felt that he had a lot to offer, so much so that no matter how much he gave, it never felt enough. It was because he was capable of doing, even more, he could offer much more to the table.

In return, people gave back, even if it wasn't something that they had to struggle or work to attain and gift back. It wasn't something to be produced, it was a by-product of consumption. That companionship that came from being a 'peanut gallery', the numerous benefits that came from being relied upon. Yamamoto didn't have to change himself and read the mood to belong, there was no need for normative conformation. His genius in sports lead to people conforming around him and shape themselves to extend his reach allowing himself to gain information from his social groups. It was easier for him to meet halfway, rather than carefully dress in whatever feathers his friends covered themselves him. It allowed him to mix in with different types of people.

It was also for this reason that he couldn't feel pity for the happy prince. He was able to achieve freedom and become omniscient as his leaves were a part of everyone around him. There was no way he could have been abandoned when he was everywhere. He was as important, in-demand and ever-present as air itself.

It was a recent notion, something he learned as he started sympathizing with the loneliness of the prince as he started to feel his limits in the last couple of months. He learned it again when he felt relief as his arm was fractured as a deal and in return, he could reach further and finally reach an itch that irritated him for quite a while.

That skill in baseball being compromised immediately threatened his team-mates, his classmates and his friends as they were robbed of dreams and made him realize his intrinsic value all the more distinctly.

Every time he felt like admonishing himself for stray thoughts of exasperation as his friends hung onto his every word and action, like as if he was ridiculous for feeling like he was the king- he met with Tsuna's eyes that shone gold, gold like the statue of the Prince. It made him think that he was the object of desire, the carrot that could be dangled just beyond reach.

It made him think that the happy prince played his cards well, since, if he didn't raise a benevolent hand to those desperate, selfish and greedy townspeople, their eyes would stray, and they would find alternative sustenance. As the prince spoiled his people with everything they could wish for, they grew increasingly dependent on him, so much so that drunk him completely dry. They never learned to stand on their two feet.

As Tsuna's golden eyes glowed upon him in that small and empty classroom, Yamamoto felt like the friendship that he offered the other served as the sapphire eyes that the lonely boy craved for.

That was why he frowned in displeasure as the webcam, a token of friendship, he planted in Tsuna's bag showed him the conversation between the 'kid' and the brunette.

It was like the statue was going to be rebuilt starting from the sapphires. Finally, the golden statue would be restored, forever to be simply looked upon, this time as vacuous and useless as air, forever untouched. Those eyes that let him be the happy prince that stole eyes and tempted and seduced people into a connection so deep it was sinful were going to change to plain auburn, like the abandoned bereft statue.

It brought a shiver.

Now that wouldn't do.

They were gifts, not things to covet.

It was like the sapphires that were plucked out flew right out of the brunette's hands as the cuckoo draped itself with it, reaping the rewards, claiming them all for itself.

At that moment, the sling on Yamamoto's hand felt heavier as the doctor's morose look appeared.

"It'll be hard to recover to your full potential. Rehabilitation will at the minimum increase the chances of the restoration of the full functioning of your arm, that is, for your arm to get to normal."

Those eyes that brought peace to him as he could honestly appreciate himself and his worth in a society where humility grasped people by the neck to cull confidence, call it arrogance. Where the feeling of uniqueness and talent wasn't rewarded, but instead shown as a long, long journey searching for the next peak to challenge while being blinded into seeing plains all around him- for equality.

All of a sudden, it was like it was Yamamoto who sought the sapphires from the gilded statue.

Well, it was fine weather it was Yamamoto who took the sapphires or Tsuna who wanted them instead. Either way, they were both ways that Yamamoto could be a part of Tsuna.

But, it wasn't a fair game if the kid got involved. After all, he was the outsider who couldn't be a part of the story.