OpalescentGold: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.
Last
This is how the Sky Battle burns.
Before
The day before the Sky Battle, none of them go to school, not even Kyoya.
Instead, they all pile into the Sawada household and spend the hours with Tsuna.
And despite their reassuring smiles and laughs and jokes, Noriko is fairly certain that even Nana knows something is wrong, because when the matriarch comes to deliver lunch, there is a worried crease to her brow.
Noriko just hugs Tsuna tighter and resists the pull of the Eclipse. There'll be plenty of time for that later.
Poison
When Noriko realizes what the Cervello have done, she's tempted to sentence them to something dreadful, descendants or not.
The knowledge that they have been lying and biased from the beginning does not help her temper at all.
"What do you think you're doing!?" she hisses after that battle starts, turning on them with flashing slate blue eyes and half a mind to inflict grievous harm.
Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Reborn, Colonello, Shamal, and Basil turn their heads towards her, clear interest on their faces, but she ignores them in favor of the uneasy Cervello.
"Please, calm down," the one on the left entreats, holding up a hand, palm-out. "Whether you agree with them or not, these are the rules of the Sky Battle - "
"Quiet," Noriko commands furiously, fingers curling into fists. "This has nothing to do with the rules. Understand this, Cervello, if even a single one of my family dies tonight, I will tear your organization apart with my bare hands."
And she can do it, too, for this is the organization she helped create. She knows exactly which nails to pull to bring the whole thing crashing down.
The Moon spins away from the blanching Cervello to focus on the fight of her Sky.
Wrath
Xanxus really does remind her of Ricardo, with his absolute fury and incredible intensity and bloodthirsty countenance.
But.
It's too bad for that child, because Tsuna reminds her of Giotto more.
Zero
Tsuna puts his hands together in that stance, orange Sky Flames flickering erratically, and Noriko's eyes widen.
How long has it been since she has seen this technique?
The Zero Point Breakthrough.
Cynthia had been there when Giotto created that technique.
And even better, Tsuna improves upon it, creating his own version of it.
Noriko smiles proudly and waits patiently for this battle to end.
Adopted
It does not surprise her to learn that Xanxus is an adopted child.
She has thought from the start that he is unrelated to Timoteo. But perhaps she will have a talk with him later about his relation to Ricardo.
As for his previous stint in the ice created from the Zero Point Breakthrough...
Well. Cynthia has seen the scars from Giotto's former enemies. They never go away, not truly.
Pull
Noriko can feel it pulling at her. The detached, impartial embrace of the Eclipse, for the time of Judgment draws ever closer, the conclusion of the battle so, so close she can almost touch it.
It starts with a daze of silver calm, impenetrable and unshakable.
Next is the cold in her veins, creeping into her mind to muffle her emotions.
Then, there is the weightlessness, as if the tether between her body and her mind has been broken.
And finally, there comes the confidence, the assurance of a being that reigns above the stars and in the heavens.
The circumstances that bind the rest of those who walk the earth do not touch her, for she is above such concerns. The niceties of society and emotional impairment - what does that matter to her?
There is only the Judgment.
Barrier
"O-Oi! What's wrong with you, kora!?" Colonello shouts, eyes wide with alarm.
Reborn says nothing, but grips the brim of his fedora and pushes it down.
"Has the cute girl finally gone crazy?" Shamal wonders to himself while Basil panics.
Noriko says nothing to them, but continues to press her glowing hand to the infrared boundary that surrounds the observation box. And then she -
- disappears.
End
Tsuna is lying by the defeated, boodied Xanxus as his Guardians defeat the rest of the Varia when he senses it, a massive wave of pure, crystalline power that floods the battlefield.
He jerks his head up, eyes widening, and goes pale.
Oh.
Noriko walks slowly, purposefully to the two fallen Skies, form pulsing with silver light. Her eyes are lighter than Tsuna has ever seen them, a blue so pale it may well be white, and her platinum hair shines metallic silver underneath the moonlight and the glow of her aura.
With her long white dress, she looks like a spirit or a kami, come to pass damnation on them all.
The usual air of an Eclipse surrounds Noriko, mystical, unearthly, and transcendental, but it is stronger than the ones that have come before, strong enough that those she passes instinctively freeze and go motionless, weapons stilling and bloodlust retreating to leave behind an anxious awe.
This is not an entity that belongs to this earth, not under ordinary circumstances.
Tsuna manages to gather the strength to get to his knees when Noriko stops in front of them. "Nori-chan...?"
"What the fuck?" Xanxus mutters, staring wide-eyed at the spectator in white and silver. "What sort of trash are you!?"
Noriko raises her hands in front of her, a meter or so in-between, saying nothing. Lying morosely on the ground, the Sky Ring pulses orange, once, twice, and vanishes to appear in between her hands, flaring with a bright Sky Flame.
"What. The. Actual. Fuck?!" Xanxus snarls, but loses steam out of necessity when the other six rings appear as well, circling around her hands and the central ring, to various other cries of surprise and alarm.
Tsuna wants to agree with his rival, just this once.