"And so... please," Tsunayoshi says, standing and facing them all, maybe not the boss he still refuses to become, but every bit a leader. "Let's fight together!"

Byakuran looks around the room, but no one looks back at him. Tsunayoshi's clearly talking to all of them, yet no one seems to find it strange even if he's among them too.

Byakuran already had to double-check when Tsunayoshi came to find him at the hospital in the middle of the night, making sure he really meant to come to him when clearly in need of something. He keeps making sure again ever since they all gathered together, that even if what Tsunayoshi needs is their help, for something as important to him as saving his beloved home tutor at that, he wants to ask it from Byakuran too.

No one looks back at him, and it seems this is really happening.

How novel.

Tsunayoshi looks every bit a leader as he explains the situation again, but it's only when he stands with his people like he is right now that he looks like that. Or when he stands for them, one of the two, but most often it's both. As if he only knows how to be Tsunayoshi when they need him to be, or when he needs to be so to keep being happy by their sides.

It's a foreign concept to Byakuran. Byakuran, who's himself and only himself to his very core before he's ever anything else, and who's been that way for as long as he can remember.

Being someone else's too has always been too troublesome to bother, and never seemed worth the effort. Tsunayoshi is plenty proof of that. At least when he was bullied it was because they found fault in him, but now, many of the wounds he carries are ones he could have left to be someone else's.

Which is why people who fail to be so certain of their names like he is of his own have always looked like scenery in his eyes, yet Tsunayoshi, who's only ever about other people, is currently in the spotlight in even his eyes.

Byakuran only listens to him with one ear anyway. He doesn't really care if Reborn dies, but does focus more on what Tsunayoshi says when he talks about Bermuda destroying the Arcobaleno.

All of them can drop dead whenever they wish for all he cares, except for Uni.

That, that won't do.

"But you're making a bit of a big deal out of things, aren't you?" he says. "No matter the opponent, if Tsunayoshi and I get serious, we can win with just the two of us."

"No... that wouldn't do, Byakuran."

It's him disagreeing with his words, but he doesn't reject him.

In fact, he even said he could rely on him too. Met his eyes too as he said it and... saw him, right? Byakuran didn't just imagine it, did he?

Byakuran sits in a small room surrounded by many people, all extravagant in their own ways and hardly forgettable. He forgot them anyway in all the worlds they met, but as Tsunayoshi stands stark against what should be a forgettable scenery, they're not only made of black and grey. Tsunayoshi's painted with vivid and almost blinding colors, but the fact they remain with colors too only makes him shine more instead of less.

No, it's because they're painted with colors of their own that Tsunayoshi's able to shine so brightly to begin with, isn't it?

Byakuran is in the room too, though. Because Tsunayoshi chose him to be there too, wanted him to be there too.

Ah, is it because of that? Because he ended up healing Yamamoto even if he was just curious to see what would happen, and had no idea it'd work. Because he protected Gamma and Tsunayoshi himself. Because he's been giving it his all fighting for Uni's sake ever since the Representatives Battles started.

Byakuran, who's always been the only colors that felt real in a world of black and grey, but now he sees other colors that aren't his too… he's still as certain of his name as he's ever been, isn't he?

Maybe even more certain than before, in fact.

Byakuran looks at Tsunayoshi, made of the brightest colors he's ever seen and in a way he's never managed before, using his colors too to shine so bright.

So that's it. Of course, Byakuran who, he realizes now, has never been anything else but himself before, let alone someone else's, could only be made of black and grey in Tsunayoshi's eyes.

So that's why Tsunayoshi chooses to be made of so many people, and yet has still to lose sight of who he is.

How nice.

It's nicer that he's ever imagined all that time he spent conquering the worlds, and he'd do worse in a heartbeat to keep that feeling within his grasp than he's ever did chasing after it.

Tsuna is back to back with Byakuran, both of them flying in the air and ready to defend their respective boss watches. Both of them supposedly ready to help each other defend their respective boss watches too.

Tsuna feels uneasy, feels reluctant about ensuring his back to Byakuran. He doesn't understand why he's participating in these Representatives Battles to begin with, can't bring himself to believe it's only out of good faith.

"Uni-chan keeps telling me," he says, "although I haven't been sure what she's been talking about, that the two of us have a lot in common."

"Eh?" Tsuna can only think of saying, not out of the genuine surprise he felt when he first heard Uni say those words to him too, but it's hard to believe she still believes it even after all was said and done in the future.

"The two of us seem useless when the world is at peace, but in times of emergency, we truly shine. Like during my game in the future, when it came to breaking the rules... you seemed to want to say you wanted to do things properly for the sake of your friends..." Ah. How strange. So even if Byakuran and him can't see eye to eye, they still can speak the same language and understand each other. "Currently, I'm probably similar to how you were back then... For the sake of that child... I'm giving it my best."

Unexpectedly, his words strike a chord deep within him. Could only have struck that chord deep within him, and maybe in the deepest part of him too.

He turns his head to look at him. "Byakuran... you…"

But it doesn't have to be said, does it? Byakuran and him might not see eye to eye, might never see eye to eye again about anything else, but this, Tsuna can only understand.

For the sake of Uni, just as he's fighting for the sake of Reborn.

Just as he's always been fighting for the sake of his friends and family.

For the sake of protecting because you care and love, but almost more importantly when it comes to him, and when it comes to Byakuran too, Tsuna heard it in his voice, could have only heard it clearly in his voice, because you're cared about and loved back in turn.

Tsuna chose apathy and resignation in the face of the world not having anything to give back to him where Byakuran chose to make it so he could take it from it no matter what. And for all Tsuna would have never allowed himself to do the same, he's all but too familiar with the pain and loneliness that'd push you on such a path.

Ah. All this time Tsuna was convinced Byakuran and him couldn't be any more different if they tried, but maybe he was the one refusing to even listen to him.

Tsuna is back to back with Byakuran, and when the battle starts, he does not feel the need to look above his shoulder.

Gamma kneels in front of Uni and kisses the back of her hand, warmth, love and happiness plain as day on Uni's face, a bright smile on her lips and tears in her eyes.

Uni, who has yet to need to die, who might not need to die this time around, but who has the memory of when she had to die in the future because of him.

Byakuran can't wait to see with what kind of eyes she'll look at him, for all she felt compelled to make sure he'll be anchored and connected to the same reality as everyone else's too this time around, for some reason.

"You can't do that, Gamma-kun!" he says cheerfully, walking to them. "You're going to make our cute Uni-chan cry." Gamma puts himself protectively in front of Uni, screams threats at him and opens his box weapon, but he only has eyes for Uni. "How naive, Gamma-kun."

"Wait, Gamma!" Uni shouts. "You're wrong!" She looks at him then, and smiles, and says, "Sorry, Byakuran. I'm very grateful you came for me."

Byakuran used to think he was able to see right through her, to see her too, that he'd always been able to, but he knows better now. She's truly a child he might never come to understand fully even if he had a lifetime or two to do it.

She apologized to him of all things.

Thanked him of all things.

It was hard to believe her mother would choose him of all people as her representative because of the belief it's what Uni would have done too anyway, not when she also had the memories of just what he never did to her daughter, but he can only believe it now, when Uni looks at him like this.

Her eyes, who've always ever been kindly distant at best, and cold and indifferent at worst and the most often, are warm. Have faith in them, if not trust.

Have recognition in them, at long last.

Would she find it funny too if Byakuran were to look behind him right now, to convey his doubt about how she might not actually realize just who she's looking at, or would that just ruin the moment?

He decides against it, closing the distance between them. "Don't be such a stranger, Uni-chan! Here I was so happy we finally got to have a reunion." He leans forwards to be more at eye level with her, smiling. "I've heard all about the circumstances, so it's okay."

Does she hear what he's saying?

Everything's okay because Byakuran will fight for her as her representative, and will win for her too, giving her the chance to live a long and happy life.

Uni wouldn't just believe him like that, though, would she? Byakuran has only ever wanted her to die at the most convenient and useful time for him before after all. And then he only wanted her to die in the most convenient and useful way for him.

Well, that's just because he didn't know at the time she has in her heart to give him everything he's ever wanted, or how warm and alive a being she is. How she pours so much life around her, so much life in the people around her as long as they allow her touch, he's been undone and made anew again from it.

Uni's a person like Byakuran thought he was the only one in the world to be but never was, and she's made him a person too.

Because Uni's a person she embraces wholly her life and existence no matter how painful they are, embraces them fully so to be and keep being a person, and Byakuran would rather the pain too than ever stop being a person too again.

He knows all that now thanks to her, so isn't it only right he makes sure to stay by her side so he'll never forget it? To make sure she stays by his side so no one else will ever have to teach him that lesson again?

Isn't it only right of him to live the life she's given back to him all for her now, to stay by her side for the rest of his life so she can make of him whatever she'd ever want or need from him?

"Um... Uni..." Sawada starts tentatively, uncertainly.

Uni knows that voice, but she keeps smiling. "Yes?"

"I know that all the other Arcobaleno are trying to win so they can return from being a baby to their normal forms... but what about you, Uni?"

Uni lets her smile slip from her face, looking down, reluctance twitching her lips. Knowing Sawada...

She doesn't want to have this conversation. Doesn't want to hear him say anything with that tone of voice, or to see that look in his eyes.

"The Curse I had put on me is different than the rest of the Arcobaleno, so removing it is a bit different, as well... My Curse is the fate of the Arcobaleno of the Sky, a 'short life'."

"What?" he shouts. "So then that means if you win the Representatives Battles, you'll be able to live longer?"

"Don't even think about it!" she says, catching his eye again and taking him aback. "Please, fight for Uncle Reborn with all the strength you have. I'll be fine."

She will be, even if it still ends the only way she's always known it could end.

She's already met that end once before after all, hasn't she?

"But... your life, Uni…"

There's concern in his voice and guilt already in his eyes, and she's grateful for it, she is, but she doesn't need it, doesn't want it.

"Don't start worrying about other people in this fight. In this next battle... two teams will be eliminated."

Her words shock Sawada just as much as the others, but he still looks at Reborn right away, clenching his hands into fists in determination like she knew he would.

Uni's shoulders slump now they can move on to another subject.

Her breath catches in her throat when Sawada looks back at her.

His face's still hardened with the resolve to not let his team lose, but there's anger burning in his eyes too.

Not directed at her, of course.

It's anger on her behalf, and it shakes her to her core, leaving her speechless like she rarely is.

People are the way to speak to Sawada and get through him, the way to reach out to his heart and move it, has always been the way that makes him care the most and the fastest. It's Uni's too, but where Sawada will always choose the people right in front of him, the ones within his immediate reach, the ones he loves, Uni, for all she has people she loves too, has to choose everyone else she cannot see nor are they within reach, but she knows them to be there, and just as worthy to be chosen over everything else too, surely.

Sawada and her will never see eye to eye on the matter, because him understanding her on the matter would mean going against everything he's ever been.

But as Sawada's face soften, for the first time since they've met, he seems to understand that Uni seeing eye to eye with him on the matter would be going against the only thing she's ever known to be too.

It's evident in the way he says nothing despite the anger still burning strong in his eyes, and she smiles, her eyes stinging.

So this is how anger on her behalf looks like in someone else's eyes.

Checker Face refuses to give a chance to Talbot's device despite Bermuda agreeing to help with it, and before Tsuna has a chance to try to make him change his mind, Uni speaks first, "No, you should definitely ask him!"

"Uni!" Tsuna hears himself blurt out, shouting too, because he's never heard her speak that loud before. Not with that... that bated hope in her voice.

"Their revenge is completed at the very moment that oversight of the Tri-ni-sette has been taken away from you. After all, there would be no greater humiliation to you, Checker Face." She's poised and soft-spoken again, though her voice retains the same unyielding resolve he's always known it to have, but he's never seen that look in her eyes before either. Steady and certain like it's always been, but alive and reaching out, almost pleading, like her certainty is made of faith instead of knowledge. "And when their desire for revenge against you is gone... they want to give up their own future so that no further Arcobaleno sacrifices are necessary." Of course. This is the only chance she can take, and the only time she can take it too, just as it was in the future. But where in the future it was about sacrifice, this is about freedom. "There is no better outcome than this. After all, you won't live forever either, Checker Face."

"Indeed," he says. "You see it, don't you, descendant of Sepira? The peaceful existence of the Tri-ni-sette in the future?"

Uni, Sky Arcobaleno and their boss, descendant of Sepira, descendant of Earthlings, smiles. "Yes!"

But her smile is all Uni's, so, so bright despite how small it is, like it feels new on her lips and she's not quite sure how it's supposed to look like.

Uni, with a weight on her shoulders she did not ask for, a weight all but too heavy for her to bear, but one she's had to learn how to bear and look after all the same, the same way the ring he did not ask for and still does not want to keep forever fits him all but too well now. And they still have to go through with it, to see if Talbot's device will work, but as he looks at her, at her small but bright smile, at the faith in her eyes, she already looks all but too similar to him.

All this time Tsuna's been both resolved and desperate to break the Curse for Reborn's sake most of all, but now he needs it to work for Uni too, so at least one of them can finally put down the burden laid on their shoulders.

Uni would lie if she said she doesn't feel relieved as Byakuran flies to block Team Colonnello's attack instead of Gamma, but she feels something else much stronger too that she can't name.

Doesn't know how to name, has never gotten the chance to learn how to.

Colonnello's Rain flames hit Byakuran head on, destroying her boss watch, but he keeps taking it as they scatter all around him, protecting Sawada and Uncle Reborn's boss watch from the same fate.

"You can't lose here..." he says. "That's Uni-chan's wish."

It is. But what of it?

Byakuran's wish is to win the Representatives Battles for her so to free her from her Curse, and he's the most selfish person she knows.

Uni's wishes have only ever mattered when it's what everyone else wants too, when it's what they all need too. They've only ever came first then too, yet Byakuran didn't hesitate to fly to his possible death, and is now risking his life because of her wish.

Her wish.

"No...!" Sawada shouts. "Why?"

"In the future... right after I was defeated by you... I fell into a nightmare of my own creation. In that dream, I defeated you in that game of mine, but afterwards... when all my wishes came to fruition... having lost all my goals, I became 'nothing'."

"Nothing...?"

"I returned to a state of no attachments or connections. There was nothing at all. I didn't care what happened. I was just waiting to die. But... from far away, she came just for me..." She did. But what of it? It's just what she does. "A girl who was worried about me from the bottom of her heart... That entire time that I felt so far away, she stayed with me..." Of course she did. Uni's life has meaning only through others, doesn't he know? "That warmth... it brought me back to life... The kindness of that child's heart was the glue that connected me back to reality."

It did, and it was, but what of it? It's just what she does.

She gives and gives and gives all of herself away to whoever needs it and for whatever purpose is needed of her. She gives herself away as is expected of her, gives herself away the way everyone asks her to because it's only a given she will.

It's nothing worth dying for, so why is Byakuran smiling as if he thinks otherwise?

"This time..." he says "... it's my turn to protect Uni-chan's heart."

Uni's almost brought to her knees by a feeling she can't name, tears in her eyes. "Byakuran..."

Her heart, which Uni has only ever given it away too, but he wants to protect it so she can keep it, even if it happens at the expense of his own life?

Byakuran, who's the most selfish person she knows, but how could he not be when he's only ever found meaning in himself? Until Uni showed him how meaningful other people could be too, but she doesn't want him to find meaning in them like this, like her.

The urge to reach out to him and pulls him back to her side and to safety again almost blindsides her.

He won't die for her, will he?

Uni, of course, knows about sacrifices. She would know. She also knows they are all but too common, that they don't need a Curse around your neck to happen, that she's far from the only one knowing about them and that it doesn't make her special.

She knows she won't be the only one sacrificed if it comes to that after all, that she's never been the only one being sacrificed all along.

Uni's seen examples of sacrifices during her life that weren't hers, but it's the first time she sees one happen in her name, and all she wants is for Byakuran to stop and stay safe and live.

And maybe it's because she's made to feel what it's like to be the one being left behind for the first time in her life that, for the first time in her life, she allows her desire to live to take root in her heart.

Uni wants to live too, she does.

She does.

A/N: I feel like... this chapter might be a little rough around the edges? Byakuran especially was a little hard to write through his voice while making him understandable. (Did that sentence just make sense zefggfsdf?) But hopefully the different points in the chapter still come across!

Also Uni is such a tragic character, gosh. Even more so than Luce too in a way. And like, I love writing her because of that, but gosh.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Any and all reviews are appreciated.

Thank you for reading!

- Hope