OpalescentGold: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.

Waxing

This is the blood falling on the ground.

Immovable

Daemon was Primo's Mist Guardian. Daemon was Secondo's Mist Guardian. Daemon has destroyed countless families, both Mafia and not, ruined countless lives, murdered countless people.

He just might be the strongest Mist in the world.

Daemon has had years to perfect his craft, build his strength, expand upon his potential. He has vast amounts of experience to draw upon, has witnessed the worst atrocities of man, has provoked massacres and genocides, has the faith and devotion of the most steadfast priest in the name of God.

He is the immovable object.

Unstoppable

Tsuna is meant to become the Vongola Decimo. Enma is to become the Boss of the Simon. Their Guardians are meant to become the shining candles that will light up the darkness, stem the flood of blood so that nothing so much as brushes their Skies.

They are flying on righteous fury and wild determination.

Still learning, still trying, still pushing forward, they are only students of a junior high school, have been fighting and struggling and burning for less than a year. Their upgraded rings hold a power they do not fully understand, but their wills are fueled with a need for vengeance, a need to safeguard.

They are the unstoppable force.

Lies

It starts like this.

Daemon blinks and appears directly in front of Adelheid, a spade flashing in his right eye. Her beautiful red eyes roll back and then become overwhelmed with the same symbol. Her fans snap out, striking both Julie and Enma, and her Flame flares, ice cold.

She slips away from the Simon's shouts and demands and pleas and creates a Diamond Castle. Five hundred Adelheids fill the clearing, and anarchy twirls misty fingers in the air.

Daemon smiles, scythe in hand. Gritting his teeth, Tsuna throws himself at their enemy, Enma on his heels, while the others clear the way and hold Adelheid back. Mukuro and Chrome stay on the fringes, images hazy like a heat mirage, and the world shakes and trembles, reality such a fickle thing.

Tsuna goes airborne as befits a Sky, and Enma stays on the ground as befits an Earth, and Daemon laughs, chilling and dark. Everything spills out, every lie and death, all the blood that stains his being, and the truth, when it comes out at last, is just as painful as the lies.

Tricks

Daemon is powerful, so very powerful. Mukuro and Chrome together can only disable half of his illusions, and for all their efforts, they are mostly fighting amongst themselves. Adelheid is held fast in his control. A smirk and Mist weapons are hanging in the air, a tilt of his head and suddenly, there are six of him.

A magician, Tsuna thinks, a deception, a hallucination.

They push through because they must push through, because everything is on the line, Vongola and Simon, friends and family, and their Will burns, higher and higher, as their Flame flares, brighter and brighter. Enma holds Daemon down with a Gravity Sphere and Tsuna fires his X-Burner.

When that doesn't work, their Oath Flame crashes and shrieks through layers and layers of Mist until it slams into Daemon himself.

The curtain falls, and this is how it ends.

(Or not. Not yet.)

Blame

"Now what?" Hayato demands, arms crossed. Julie holds an unconscious Adelheid in his arms, the other Simon Guardians crowding around a bruised and exhausted Enma. Tsuna wavers on his feet, and Ryohei presses a hand to his back to steady him.

"What do you mean 'now what'?" Koyo snaps, fists clenched. "He killed Enma's family! He started this whole blood feud in the first place! After everything he's done, he deserves to die!"

"That's not your decision to make!" Hayato shuffles closer to Tsuna, glaring for all he's worth. "We all agreed that Noriko has the right to Judge him!"

"She's not here right now," Shitopi-chan points out, hand on her hip. "We can't wait forever."

"...we aren't going to," Tsuna says, voice soft. Reborn peers up at his student, face unreadable. Tsuna's eyes are still a bright, knowing orange. "We don't have to."

Daemon, lying broken and bleeding in the dead center of the crater in the ground that spans nearly half of the clearing, the rest destroyed by other means, chuckles, blood dripping down his chin. His smile is twisted, haunted. "It's about time."

Mukuro, who has been leaning against a tree, straightens up and narrows his eyes. Chrome twists her hands, eyes searching the glimmering fog that has sprung up around them, unnoticed in the commotion, anxiously.

Something lingers in the air, like the ozone that heralds a storm, like the stars that welcome the moon's ascent.

Takeshi appears first, sheathed sword flung over his shoulder, grin firmly in place, eyes cheerful and sharp. "Hey, guys!" he calls casually over their startled, disbelieving, jubilant cries. "Sorry, looks like I'm a bit late!"

"Yamamoto!" Kaoru gasps, delighted.

"Y-You stupid baseball idiot!" Hayato scowls, but there's no hiding the immense relief that flashed across his face. "Couldn't you have gotten here sooner!?"

Takeshi laughs, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand. "Maybe," he says, serious now, "but I was waiting."

"Waiting?" Ryohei asks.

The fog parts, and Noriko steps into the clearing, dissipating all of the shadows, gleaming so bright, it almost hurts to look at her.

Reconciliation

The clearing goes silent.

Noriko's eyes glow eerily. Her hair billows around her face, weightless and swaying in a nonexistent breeze. She wears a long black funeral dress that brushes the grass as she drifts toward Daemon.

Awestruck, unsettled, mesmerized, one by one, they all step aside to create a clear path for her, this sprite, this ghost, this terrifying celestial being.

Tsuna watches, still and quiet and unmoving.