Hello my lovelies! I am so sorry that I've been gone so long. I'm sorry that this chapter took so long to write. But when I say I've been busy –physically and emotionally –I am not lying. University is fantastic, I absolutely adore it. I've made some good friends, but university is work. I have upwards of 80 pages of readings a week, plus research, plus writing. So my fics have been pushed to the side a little. That's not to say I'm abandoning them, or FFN, do not worry your pretty heads!

So, despite the lateness, please enjoy this new chapter of ENOIS. The first 'arc' as it were is coming to an end.

E'la Nostra Ora Incisa Sull'anello
Will of a Family, Pride of a Leader.

"Primo guardian's thoughts and speech."

"Tsuna and guardians thoughts and speech."

Beta'd by the Pure Red Crane~~

Watching the progress of children was really something I cherished. More than my guardians knew. They had the understanding that their sky was theirs, that he was brilliant.

It made me smile to see such trust, and such inherent bonds.

"Our boss' will is our will."

And while Ryohei, Hayato, Chrome and Takeshi knew their wills well and openly…

"My will is my own." Kyouya was just a special snowflake.

Xanxus was not an exceptionally cruel man. He did not protect beyond expectation. He expected perfection. He did not cull children in his streets and he did not prostitute those same children or his own men. Xanxus just expected and was Varia Quality embodied in a man. His own men were the same, and if someone didn't meet those standards, they were culled before they could bring down the rest.

"Exterminate the traitors." That wasn't to say that his brand of expectation wasn't cruel compared to anyone else, of course.

The Varia themselves were a blood thirsty sort. Bel was especially so, and I could see G flinch and go green beside me as the boy-child taunted Tsuna and his company. It was especially disturbing given the small age gap between Bel and my heirs.

"I don't like those women."Asari explained as his hands gripped his swords.

"Hold it right there, please. We will be in charge of the battle for the 9th boss' revenge." As they spoke, I couldn't help but agree.

The Cervello had always twisted my gut. I had watched them destroy famiglia over famiglia. When they laid their claws into Vongola, I knew my family was doomed. Though, given the reactions of my heirs, and their Tutor, I supposed perhaps there was a chance that the Cervello would be banished.

"We have a duty to oversee the whereabouts of the Vongola rings."

"What the hell are you guys talking about? You're all Xanxus' bitches!" G's boy, as brash and obtuse as he was, had it on the spot. Those girls saw potential in Xanxus, saw the type of leader that they would want. Xanxus would keep them around, so long as they were useful to him. He had played on their 'neutrality' thus far, and it had made their impartialness tainted.

"You've got some nerve. You forced the 9th boss to give you that dying-will flame seal against his will." While I didn't trust the Basil boy, he wasn't wrong.

My boy could feel it, and Basil could feel it. I hoped Reborn could too, given his status. The 9th's flames had long since begun to weaken, but the ones that flickered on this letter of permission were tired, strained. The man didn't make the decision to seal the letter happily, that was for sure.

"The winner of this battle will become the next Vongola boss, so we declare this the sky ring battle. This will be the last of seven battles. How does that sound?"

"Not bad."

"Of course that bastard thinks it's alright. He hasn't lifted a finger. Your boy has been training since day one." Lampo snarled. He was ferocious when he accepted his bias.

"Tomorrow night, everyone assemble."

With that, the Cervello left. For judges, they were not careful. Xanxus could have slaughtered Tsunayoshi, or even the Cervello themselves, when their backs were turned. It was a brilliant show of their lack of care towards Xanxus' actions.

"Those boys want to fight." Knuckle whispered under his breath, his eyes cast to the guardians that stood around my boy.

"Hn, let them. Maybe we can end this farce now."

"Ah, that won't happen. The battle is tomorrow. My boy is tired." And just as I spoke, the tutor –whom I loved no more or less than before– spoke up to the boys. He quelled their fury a little, reminding them that their sky needed rest now, and not a battle.

"Tsuna is exhausted from training. This is a great luck to us."

Xanxus was especially amused by this. He saw weakness in exhaustion. He saw weakness in emotion. He knew Tsuna was warring inside. The fact that he took joke in my boy made my gut burn. I wanted to put that child over my knee, or else into a wall.

He didn't deserve Vongola. He barely deserved the Varia with the way he was treating his family.

"Pfft. Tomorrow will be the final chapter in this happy comedy. Make sure you're up for it."

I was aware of Xanxus' flames disappearing from half of my being, and before I could really react, Tsuna had me in his hands again.

I loved to watch children grow, to watch them become the protected to the protector. I loved to watch my boy grow, and though I had seen him make leaps, fall, but get up again through my guardians, nothing prepared me for when he caught the ring.

Nothing could prepare me for the sheer onslaught of emotions. The fury burning there threatened to call Secondo to the ring, but the sheer YouAreMineIAmHereIWillProtect thatstarted to form in the gut of his flames called to me. My flames bucked and roared and purred.

I felt lightheaded. I felt my knees give way.

But I did not pass out.

I watched on from beside him, feeling my flame in his gut. Whatever push I had managed to give him, he had taken. He had taken it into himself so strongly, and he had made it his own. Something was going to happen, something big.

I ignored the mass movement around us. Tsunayoshi seemed to ignore it too. His eyes were cast to the skyline where Xanxus and his Guardians had disappeared over.

Nothing could have prepared me for the sheer growth in this boy, in my child.

When I had left him, I had seen potential. I had felt the buck of flames just barely released. I had felt a resolve to survive and had known that this boy would be my heir. This boy would let me rest between trials. Now though, now he was on the cusp of being a different boy entirely.

He wasn't there yet. He had a lot of growing to do. He still didn't know that he had a possessive streak –as a sky and as himself. He didn't know himself yet. He still didn't want this power in his hands. Part of me hoped he never would. Despite this though, despite it all, there was a leader starting to charge out of Tsuna's flames.

My boy was just so much better than I could have imagined. I had felt his flames before. I had felt them through my Guardians and their boys, because they were affected by their sky, but this, feeling it, feeling my own flames dragged to the surface by it…that was different.

I had hoped my boy had grown while I was away from him, but I couldn't have wished for this.

Even his own guardians had noticed apparently.

"Che, the damage is extensive." Reborn seemed perturbed by the situation, barely reigning in his rage.

Alaude's boy, on the other hand, wasn't hiding his grin or his killing intent. "If this situation can draw out that herbivore's true strength, I won't interfere."

I could see why he was so excited, of course. My Guardians could see it too. Tsuna was still turned away, eyes downcast, and we could feel, through our rings, even if the young guardians couldn't, the way Tsuna's will bucked.

Even I, standing beside the boy with the ring back on his hand, couldn't truly handle it. My own flames burst into life.

It was thrilling.

It worried me.

My boy couldn't handle such conflicting wills right now. He couldn't, mentally or physically.

That teacher, though I loathed his ways, seemed to realise it as soon as I did because, quickly enough, he kicked my child in the head and pushed him along with a quick. "We're going home." I saw the flash of panic though. I saw the fear that the boy would crumble under the weight of his own will.

Tsunayoshi was my child, but Reborn was beginning to see him in the same way. It disturbed me –I didn't want that Hitman anywhere near my boy– but it also meant that Reborn would protect him.

That evening, my guardians and I met. We remained silent for the longest time. It was unnerving how close we were to the end, yet how far we still had to go.

Because, if Xanxus won, it meant that our children had either died or would be killed.

It would mean another age of waiting for an heir to appear and save our famiglia.

But, if Tsunayoshi and his family won, it meant another set of innocents would be drowned in blood.

If our boys won, it would mean our rest for their suffering.

"I didn't know that battles could be dragged on for so long." Knuckle was tired. I could read it in his eyes.

All my guardians were tired. I realised I had neglected them in my own thoughts. I had been too preoccupied by these inevitable battles to realise the weight on their shoulders. They had to watch these children grow too.

"It'll be nice when all this is all over. I've had enough of watching children try to be men." G growled as he lit a cigarette. He was the most affected, I think.

"At least they are growing." Asari explained with a sigh, hand on his swords. "When these battles are over, they will be able to rest again."

Alaude was silent for a moment longer, eyes clouded. "They will need time to rest. The growth pains will show soon. They are stressing their bodies too far, mentally and physically."

Lambo remained silent, though he flinched back when Alaude explained this. He would understand out of us all the sudden growth pains of a guardian. There was a haunted look in his eyes. He knew of things we did not. His family and line were blessed with feelings of future. Where I could see immediate things with my intuition, Lampo and his line could see much further. He saw something was coming, and it worried me.

But I had no time to ask, or to pull him aside and make sure my youngest Guardian was alright with all this. After all, he had grown attached to his little lightning heir.

The battle loomed. It was dark around the guardians, but there was this powerful hope that threatened to crush the air.

Basil was accompanying my boy's guardians while Tsunayoshi hung back with Reborn. He was given new clothing before the fight. I could feel his will. I could feel it in my gut. But I needed a break from the sheer indulgence of Tsuna's fighting instincts. Instead, I allowed myself to watch his guardians.

My boy had grown, and now I could be assured that he would not be culled, and would fight instead. It let me see his guardians in a new light. They were arguing with the Basil boy.

I couldn't help but feel proud.

"What? Tsuna's going to win, you know?" Takeshi sounded like he was laughing, but those eyes were cold and dangerous. It was as if he took personal offence to my boy being insulted.

"Of course he is!" I knew that G's boy took personal offense, but it was nice to see him less puppy-sure and more self-sure about my boy. Being confident for no reason would just bring more trouble than progress. How did I know it was more self-confidence in my boy? Well, he was serious, not flippant. "Listen newcomer. The 10th boss is a person so great he has surpassed greatness. Only those who understand him will get it."

Asari's child was quick to follow, laughing the entire time, but with a seriousness that unnerved me in a fourteen year old of this time. "Tsuna's not really that difficult to understand, is he? I'm not sure what it is about his greatness…well, it's like it's so obvious that it's easy to miss?"

I knew this trust to be true and not the unfounded biased ramblings of best friends when Knuckle's young one piped up for the first time in a while. He may be seen as an idiot to the masses, but I knew he was a great machine. He was constantly buzzing and observing. It was sometimes easiest to get away with things when you were underestimated, after all. "Well, in the beginning, I couldn't tell if Sawada was great. But that's because his ordinariness is simply not ordinary!"

"They….know my boy well." I heard myself whisper without my express permission.

A hand clapped my shoulder and I was quickly looking into the amused eyes of my three guardians.

"They do, I suspect they always have." Knuckles laughter was freeing, relieving in a way I hadn't known.

It had been too long since I can recall his laughter. To hear it now before our boys were to be killed was relaxing and unnerving.

"I believe they know him better than himself." Asari breathed in relief, eyes sparkling. "It's hard to see your own qualities, after all."

It was the truest thing that anyone could have said. In my earlier years, I had struggled with seeing myself as anything but worthless gutter fodder. It was difficult to overcome, but when people you love and cherish tell you the opposite at every waking moment, you begin to believe it. Once you believed it, well you couldn't help but actually become it.

Tsunayoshi would do the same eventually, especially as the trust between him and his guardians grew and they all became more vocal about their insecurities and praise.

I truly looked forward to that day. But we had to get over this one first.

Ring battles were always brutal affairs. The Cervello were worse. Their neutrality unnerved me and my guardians. Most of all, their cruelty was disgusting.

A few of the guardians were dragged from hospital beds and into this fight. Guardians that had served their time were being dragged into this.

I could feel true fury, suddenly, as my boy's ring was taken, along with his guardians'. I could feel fury bubble in his gut. Fear and fury were not a good mix, especially in the volatile mass of sky. But Tsuna was biting it down.

"The rings and guardians lives are at stake."

Even as the guardians were poisoned and fell, even as Xanxus laughed, even as the Cervello demanded of my boy what no other could, he was holding down his fury. He was trying to remember all his lessons.

But his fear brought tears to his eyes. He could see them on the screen, he could see the pain inflicted, and watched his friends fall to the ground.

I could see his thoughts, all of them self-sacrificing.

"What despicable creatures. I pray that god will save all these children."

"Che, surely the rules have been breached." Though Alaude seemed more impatient than worried.

"Yare, this is poor sportsmanship."

Tsuna's will was roaring. I could almost see it. He was so close to bringing flames to the surface without help. I wished he could, it would make his life so much easier. But he limited himself with his thoughts. He still didn't want this power. He still didn't think he needed it.

He relied on his tutor for good reason, but his tutor limited his student. He limited him with the destructive words and nickname.

"Tsuna, Xanxus is not an opponent you can fight half-heartedly. If you're thinking about saving your 6 guardians first, you're going to lose your life. First-" As much as I hated Reborn for putting my son down –for making him think less of himself for every good thought he had–without him I didn't know if Tsuna would have realised the need to end Xanxus before he saved.

"I know." my sky admitted, though very reluctantly if his gritted teeth and panicked pupils were anything to go by. "I have to end Xanxus first."

Would Tsuna really go after Xanxus himself, without Reborn's push?

"Let's hope this ends soon." Lambo whispered, sticking close to me. "I don't like see this kind of fight."

"Che, none of us do, boy." G spat, another cigarette in his mouth. He still laid a reassuring hand on Lampo's shoulder though.

It would be an insult to the Varia to imagine Tsuna as equal.

The Varia for all their cruelty, all their violence and destruction, they had worked hard for their position. Xanxus especially had to crawl from the bottom, from the belly-crawler he had been as a child to be where he was now. He needed to be strong. He needed to be solid in his conviction.

"Such cruelty in a man who is still really a child." Lambo suddenly seemed sombre, and it was at times like these that it was impossible to forget that he was but trapped in the body of his teenage self. He lived a ripe age.

And it was terrifying to see this man, barely in his twenties, so blood thirsty and so set to slaughter for his ways. He wanted to be Vongola Decimo. His pride was so fucking set that he would slaughter children for it.

I was almost certain that if he had just pulled my boy up by the scruff and asked, he would get the rings. Being that merciful, letting my child and his own go without a fight would make him a better leader.

But this man.

"I don't care about my subordinates. This is what the sky is all about."

One who could batter a fourteen year old child, one who laughed at his guardians dying around him, one who was so proud of his accomplishments as he climbed a mountain of bodies out of lust rather than necessity, this kind of man was not the kind I could get behind.

However, I couldn't argue either. Xanxus was awesome, in a horrible way. He was strong. He was determined. He had his guns developed to aide his fight. He had his men trained to aide his cause.

All skies were different. I did not like conflict, and Xanxus thrived on it. Of my decedents, most preferred a hierarchy like Xanxus –to different degrees– and some liked to have a family, as Ottavo did. Some skies were goofy and leaned on their guardians, were leaders in name only, and needed a family to make them work. Some skies tricked and deceived, brought elements in with trust only to twist and torment them, and betray them in the end. Skies were a dangerous sort. They were harmony in body. Some skies need all their elements, and some needed few. Some were dark and some were intimate. Some harmonized to such an extent that they turned their bonds to stone.

Skies were all sorts of crazy. I had seen many. I had seen skies like my boy. My boy was the most dangerous sort, or he would be. He would need a careful hand. I could see it.

My guardians could see it. He had a fury in his gut, an abused soul, and a sudden realisation of just how precious his elements were.

I could see the furious glare when he realised that he had to beat Xanxus down to save what was becoming his.

"That boy of yours is going to be more dangerous than you are, Giotto." Alaude huffed from beside me, but there was pride in his eyes. He was proud of my boy, apparently.

It made me worry for my Tsunayoshi's sanity.

Alaude was buzzing. I could almost feel him bouncing beside me. He had every right to, of course.

Kyouya was insane. I have never feared a child, even those who had come to assassinate me. But Kyouya was another story. He was a wildfire without control. He was the destruction that needed to scorch the land to let new life grow, but that didn't make the destruction any less terrifying. Yes, burnt lands let fields thrive, but this man-child would destroy these guardians himself. I could only hope that he would bring growth and not annihilation.

Thankfully, so far, there had been growth.

"With clouds come the storm, and storm is brother to lightning."

"It seems that child finally realises that the sky doesn't always need its storm." G scoffed, as if it were obvious.

It wasn't, of course. The storm would always need the sky. But the elements, they weren't always needed in concentrated forms. The sky didn't always need the reprieve of a storm's eye to rest, nor did it always need a torrent.

"Thank the gods," Lambo collapsed into the sky at my feet as he watched his young heir find sanctuary in Hayato's arms. His eyes closed and I felt the stress leave him.

It was more than amusing to see the storm and lightning so close.

"Ara, is the little prince attached to the little cow?" G grinned as he smoked, but even while tormenting our little lightning he kept his eyes flickering to the battle at hand.

"I don't have time to play."

"As if! I just don't trust your little runt with the storm ring." Even Asari chuckled behind his hand at the blush on Lambo's cheeks.

I could feel tense atmosphere, and even the Varia in their suffering were watching the screens with intent, watching for their Sky and their comrades. They had little luck of saving from them though. With Kyouya destroying his own land as he beat the Varia back and Hayato protecting and saving all that was precious to his sky –and himself– there was little room for antidote or rest.

"You know," Knuckle mused as we watched Kyouya fight, since he was of interest right now. "That boy calls himself a carnivore, but he is evolution in human form." As strange as it was to hear a man of God talk like such, I couldn't disagree. The boy fought tooth and nail, but he seemed to pick up on keys and fighting stances as if he were evolution in a tangible, sped-up form.

I had to wonder if he was always like this, or whether it took a home and a threat to do such.

A shock wracked through me and I spun on my heels to see the most horrifying sight. My heir, my boy, my child. All I saw was a grim determination and sweat on Tsuna's face as he stared down a barrage from those damned guns in Xanxus hands.

"His hands form that of a prayer." Knuckle observed. He had said the same thing to me some 400 odd years ago.

"I won't let it happen." Xanxus seemed to see the power in this pseudo-prayer because his teeth grit and his attack intensified.

Suddenly, my vision blacked. I could hear my guardians screeching at me.

"GIO!"

"Giotto, my friend!"

"By Gods, Giotto, what's wrong?"

"SKY!"

"Giotto-nii?!"

But it didn't matter. Suddenly, my focus on my child's flames was gone, and I couldn't feel the heat that surrounded him. Suddenly, the air around him was gone. His flames, his very presence disappeared.

I hadn't realised just how tuned in I had forced myself to be of his presence and status. For him to suddenly disappear, for him to suddenly lose his flames…

Suddenly, his flames were back. My eyes focused in panic and confusion, before my chest clenched in fear.

"My gods, he can't do this yet…."

I expected my guardians to say something, but as they watched young Tsunayoshi become engulfed in flames, and come out at least partly unscathed, they understood. He was trying to do what I trained for years to do. I may have helped him understand the concept, and I knew he couldn't win without it, but never did I imagine that he would try it out untested against such strength.

He missed the mark though, because not a single piece of ice appeared. Xanxus wasn't frozen.

"God damn it." I felt myself growl.

"Like a monkey, imitating things you don't know about. A fake like you couldn't have done it. Scum should turn to ash."

"Who's a fake?" I felt myself seethe as I stood, leaning on G, and my guardians flinched back.

Let it be known that while I did not like aggression and would never control my family with it, I had been known to dock the tails of impudent mutts. This particular runt had overstepped himself time again, and now I was passed…

"The ZPB is not like that." Xanxus was subdued by this, his voice tight.

"Che, of course he knows." G seethed beside me.

The technique my boy was pursuing, Xanxus would never even have the inclination for. The technique he had seen, the one that left those colours on his skin, that was my technique. It was one I cultivated to stop myself from harming what was mine. In my early years, I believed a time out would calm those who disobeyed me. It was only in later life I realised that these were men and not children.

Xanxus had felt my technique, my zero point breakthrough, but he would never understand the one that Tsuna was trying to learn.

"It's a shame that he had such time stolen from him." Knuckle sighed, though his eyes were harsh on Xanxus and hopeful on Tsuna.

"He deserved it though. In fact, he could use some more time." Asari clutched his swords. It hurts to see him so angry. But rain could be a light mist, or a torrent. Rains were tricky and unstable, and right now, Asari was completely right in his fury.

"Next time, I'm going to do it right." My boy though, as shocking and brilliant as it was, was not lost in his emotions. His eyes were on winning, on protecting.

His heart was in his flames and I was completely blank. It scared me, how solid the will was in this boy. None of my blood sons, or Tsunayoshi's father, had such will. It shouldn't be so strong, but it obviously was. It was obviously on par with my own, yet it was only now activating. It should have been flowing through him with an intensity that no one could control. My child should have been the top in every aspect of his life. My boy should have been confident.

But the 9th, for all his sweetness, was terrified of this purity. He stifled my child in a hidden fear that Tsunayoshi would come into his own. My boy should have. He should have had his flames all along. He should have destroyed Vongola and taken it for his own. Instead, some old fool feared the true Vongola flames and now it might end my boy.

The 9th's fearful compassion to let my child live forever as a civilian had ruined Xanxus too.

"You may say that my boy is evolution," Alaude muttered. It broke me from my angry internal thoughts and I turned to my cloud. His eyes were bright and concentrated on my boy now instead of his own. "But look at your boy." The grin on my cloud's face was feral.

In fact, all of my guardians, from Lampo to Knuckle, were watching my boy with a mix of awe, fear, and pride.

"Die."

One more attack pressed into him. A fireball so large and vast that it felt like it would take the entire country with it stood at Xanxus' muzzle. He grinned and strained with his own fire while Tsuna just watched with a frown.

He turned his hands, and he absorbed the flames. He was silent, hanging in the air for a moment, eyes closed in concern.

Then his limbs exploded outwards as flames, now converted from rage to pure sky, flooded his body and poured out as if they were limitless. I couldn't help it. I couldn't help the grin that grabbed a hold of my lips or the growl in my throat.

He did it!

"Zero Point Break: Kai!"

"Well, the boy certainly learns quickly under pressure." Alaude tried to sound put out, but there was pure want in his eyes, a want to train, a want to force my Tsunayoshi to spar and train with his Kyouya.

I watch with awe as my guardians and Tsuna's group watched my boy with this intense relief and disbelief. Tsuna did something I couldn't, something I didn't think possible. He had done it on the go, without much guidance. With a jump start from my will, and a push from his tutor, but with just his own intuition and the need for evolution like none he had felt before, my boy had done it.

He had perfected Zero Point Break. My child had found a way to fight without making his opponent submit to my power. He had found a way to keep fighting by using the opponent's strength.

My child would be able to fight longer, and become stronger than his opponent. It was the best irony. It was the most gorgeous thing I could imagine.

My little one, the weak and underestimated, would beat down his opponents with ease. It would be easier the stronger they were. It was beautiful.

"I cannot believe it…." Asari was breathless.

Eyes turned to the caged tutors and I spoke for my guardians when I saw that our jaws hit the ground. We had long since gotten over death in these tournaments, and though Xanxus' callous ways didn't affect my guardians, the death of such a loyal man had.

Only, he wasn't dead.

"Che, he's not much of a loyalist if he blurts his boss' most cherished secrets to the world." G scoffed, angry in the way he did when he was disappointed in potential.

Asari looked completely broken. Had his swords not been attached to his hip, they would have hit the ground. His eyes were wide and tears brimmed in the corners as he looked over the very badly beaten Squalo. Then man was bandaged beyond anything, but he still scoffed and complained, and his eyes were very much alive.

"He's trying to save his boss, G." Knuckle tried to defend.

"Doesn't matter. He is betraying his boss' secrets. To save him or not, it isn't acceptable." Alaude bit out.

Asari wasn't paying attention either. His eyes were focused on Squalo before quickly flickering to Takeshi. For good reason too. The boy had been leaning pathetically on a wall, pained by the poison left in his system, and giving up hope. Upon seeing Squalo though, life sparked back into Takeshi's eyes.

"Yare, as if you aren't glad he's giving your boy information, Alaude." Lampo chuckled. Of course, he was off at a sprint afterwards as Alaude chased to beat him.

I approached Asari and pulled him close. He shook with relief and I could understand. He worried that his heir would never heal from this. It was one thing to leave an opponent to die, but it was another for them to kill themselves despite being saved. It was no secret that Asari saw both boys as heirs to him either.

Still, the battle had lulled as Squalo explained Xanxus' tale. It was one I knew well, a sad tale of betrayed a child. It was a perfectly average tale of adults thinking the worst of their children. It was because people didn't believe in Xanxus' temperament that had led him to this rage. If he had been told from the beginning that he was cherished but not an heir, he would have grown strong.

He would have made Vongola strong.

Xanxus' will was tired now. It was empty. It was tired of leading this team, this rage, and it was tired of being led around by its nose. Xanxus' will was tired of this anger. He had no release. Even if he took over and killed my boy, he would not have Vongola for himself. He needed this fight, but he would get no relief from killing my civilian boy.

It was exhausting to watch, because had Xanxus been kept in the know, and treated like the man he was all along, then Vongola would still be strong. One of his brothers would take the throne. He would lead the Varia as a strong offense for the Vongola.

If Xanxus had just been allowed to grow and know what was happening, my child would be allowed to live properly.

"Look. His hands are frozen." My musings were long and empty, because by the time I let myself see the reality of this brutality, Xanxus' hands were frozen and my gut clenched.

I felt the fear, the pain, and the absolute terror.

Not from my boy though, but from Xanxus as memories of his eight years in cradle assaulted him. His wrath exploded as his scars writhed across his skin. It was ugly, and it was a punishment more than deserved. Those who experience ZPB already knew their wrong doings. They were punished by their own memories, and they did not need to see themselves turn into some deformity.

But they did, and it was sick.

It made me even sicker to know that my young child had to perform such an act on someone. He didn't need to. He needed to stick with his own creation. He needed to keep his hands clean.

But I know his will wouldn't let him. That intuition of his was volatile. I know for a fact that his intuition would make him kill before it lets him stop.

Tears poured down my face before I was even sure of how I feel about all this.

"Giotto, there's nothing you can do." G was by my side, and though the tears panicked them all, for I felt Lampo's hands on my cloak, they did nothing to stop my tears from falling.

"It was inevitable." Asari tried, a frown marring his face, and it stabbed me to think he was so happy just moments ago when Squalo appeared.

"Xanxus wasn't going to back down." Knuckle wept in his voice. "Your boy needed to do what had to be done."

It didn't help though. Because Tsuna's blood forced his will here. Tsuna's intuition wanted his life secured, and with Xanxus rampaging even more now that Tsuna has the advantage, there was no choice but to. Put. Him. Down.

I could feel Tsuna's flames crying.

It was a shame. All of this could have been avoided if not for the 9th's weakness. His softness trapped this boy, Xanxus, and now my boy was going to make him simmer. Xanxus didn't deserve this. He had been an innocent –in a sense– like my own boy at one point. But the 9th ruined him. Now he would always hate my boy.

"ZPB first edition." Tsunayoshi's voice sounded so broken, and his flames called out to mine for help.

As the ice covered Xanxus, his guardians approached him, broken and bloodied. I didn't even speak. Instead, I followed suit and drew near to my boy, each of my guardians pressed near their own. This had been the longest night, and hopefully it would finally be over. Hopefully, I could finally rest.

My heir was here. His fight was over, and I wanted sleep. Maybe he would take my place one day, maybe I would never have to watch another fight. I would watch all of Tsunayoshi's though. No matter how much my mafia blood scoffed at his softness.

At least Tsunayoshi's softness had a spine of steel. It may not always be there, but it slotted into place when it was needed.

It really was too bad that my child's story couldn't end there.

Hello my dearests!

I am sorry this took so long to get out, and how aweful it is as chapters go. But I needed to write it and I was procrastinating on other things, and as I said it takes me SOOOOOOO long to get ENOIS out.

So enjoy, please review!

~~Bleach-ed-Na-tsu :3