OpalescentGold: I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.

Retribution

This is how family protects family.

Track

Finding Daemon isn't easy, even with the Vongola at his back and the Simon at his side. Tsuna grits his teeth and pushes forward, the Sky Ring heavy on his finger and his Will burning bright within.

Nori is lying broken on a hospital bed, and Tsuna will see Daemon kneeling at her feet for what he has done.

While he waits, he asks Mukuro and Chrome for help. Daemon is a Mist, an illusionist. Tsuna has always been weak to illusions, and maybe that was okay before, but it isn't now.

Mukuro laughs creepily and Chrome smiles warmly. It takes seconds for them to tear his reality apart and replace it with something new, fantasy and dreams.

Tsuna narrows his eyes and strokes his Flame higher.

He makes himself remember those crucial moments when he thought that Yamamoto was going to die. He makes himself remember those minutes when he thought Enma betrayed him. He makes himself remember how red Nori's blood was, as it spilled across the carpet on the day she took a blow meant for Tsuna.

All because of Daemon Spade. All because Tsuna has been too weak.

No more. He won't let things stay the way they have been.

Tsuna burns through the illusions clouding his mind with fire and conviction, and Reborn smirks with something that might just be pride.

Objectivity

The Vindice come.

Tsuna's Guardians flank their Sky protectively, and Enma's Guardians narrow their eyes and snarl.

Tsuna faces the darkened guardians of the mafia world with eyes of orange flame. Enma stands beside him, jaw set and hands fisted.

Reborn's eyes are as black as the abyss and just as merciful.

"Why are you here?" he asks, point-blank.

"Daemon Spade is a criminal of numerous crimes," one says. "He must be dealt with accordingly.

"Why come to us?" Tsuna stares them - all of them - down unwaveringly. "Why don't you just drag him to your prison yourself?" They are the enforcers of mafia law. Certainly, they are not weak.

"The Arbiter." If he didn't know better, he would say that the speaker is aggravated. "Reiki Noriko. Cervello Cynthia."

"What has she done?" Reborn demands immediately.

"Centuries ago, she invoked the Gestione Accord, in regards to Vongola Primo's Mist Guardian. To this day, the agreement holds."

Mukuro presses his lips tightly together. "What, precisely, would this accord be?" he questions silkily. He has not forgotten that he, too, is protected by this unknown contract.

The Vindice turns his head slightly towards him, and Mukuro refuses to flinch under his would-be jailer's regard. There is a long, strained moment of silence.

"In exchange for relinquishing certain individuals to the Arbiter's control, she will never overturn any of Vindice's penalties," he explains at last. "That is what was decided. And it holds."

It takes Tsuna a few seconds to understand. Daemon Spade is under Nori's jurisdiction. Even when his best friend is lying on a hospital bed in a coma, he's all but untouchable to anyone but her. The Vindice...

Mukuro bursts out laughing, lips twisting into a gleeful smirk. "You're powerless," he accuses. "You've been powerless. He's hers, and you lot can't do a thing until she revokes that accord! The great Vindice, reduced to bystanders!"

The Vindice stiffens, the already impressively murderous aura around him intensifying. "You will watch your tongue, Rokudo Mukuro."

"Why?" Mukuro taunts, still chuckling. "You can't touch me, either."

"Mukuro," Tsuna says before the situation can accelerate anymore, frowning. "That's enough, I think. What do you want us from us specifically?" He directs the question at the Vindice.

Surprisingly, Mukuro goes quiet. The Vindice shifts his attention to Tsuna, voice once more monotone and impassive. "The Arbiter is incapable of dealing with Daemon Spade, both emotionally and physically. When your fight with Daemon Spade concludes, you will deliver him into our hands to do as we see fit."

It's a command. A mandate. Similar to the pure surety behind Nori's voice when she lays down Judgement, but -

But -

Faith

"No," Tsuna says.

Reborn frowns, his glance a warning. Everyone else reaches for their weapons. The Vindice go still, oh so still.

"'No', Vongola Decimo?" The danger in that tone is substantial, and Tsuna wills himself not to shiver, to stand his ground. Though his face is wrapped in cloth, the Vindice's gaze is bloodchilling. "You would defy the Vindice?"

"Yes." Tsuna doesn't know what happened with Daemon and Noriko. Cynthia. It doesn't matter. The names don't matter. His lack of knowledge doesn't matter.

He might not know much, but he was there when they came face-to-face, for the first time in what must have been a very long time. He paid witness to the twisted feelings that link Cynthia and Daemon, and Tsuna won't -

Tsuna won't take this away from Nori. Not Nori, who has always been on his side, who, his Hyper Intuition whispers, has been waiting for Daemon for so, so long.

"I won't let Daemon get away with what he's done," Tsuna says resolutely. "But Nori-chan's going to be the one who decides what'll happen to him. When she wakes up."

"And if she does not?"

"She will," Tsuna responds, and it's a promise.

He refuses to contemplate otherwise.

The Vindice leave.

Capture

They find Daemon Spade in the forests that surround Namimori, rather than in some obscure third-world country.

A girl reaching for consciousness on a hospital bed would have laughed. She knows that both of her lives have been catastrophically affected on this land. Naturally, this last loose end will be taken care of here as well.

"Nufufufu...Hello, Decimo," Daemon greets, madness lacing his voice like miasma.