XXI.

Setsu is minding her own business, walking to school at the usual pace along her usual route, when she's nearly flattened like a pancake.

"REBORN! CONFESS TO KYOKO WITH MY DYING WILL!"

The little girl barely throws herself out of the way in time and watches –with no small amount of lightheadedness– as a brown-haired boy with a flame burning on his forehead charge down the street, kicking up a cloud of dust behind him.

She sits there on the ground for a moment, completely shocked by what'd just happened.

Then:

Woodenly, almost mechanically, she gingerly picks herself up from the ground, brushes down her clothes, and continues walking down the sidewalk in the opposite direction.

… What was that just now?

XXII.

School passes by in a buzz for her that day –and for some reason, her mind keeps flickering back to the flame she saw burning so brightly on the boy's forehead. It was familiar, in a not-familiar sort of way that was almost déjà vu, except… not.

What sort of magic trick was that?

(Was it even a magic trick at all? Somehow, the answer seemed to be a resounding 'No…')

When Yuuto comes home from school that day for dinner, he regales them with a tale of a boy in his class being challenged to a match by the kendo captain for the right to date the school's idol. It was… interesting, to say the least, and Setsu couldn't help but wonder if this boy was the same one who'd almost run her over that morning.

"It's strange," Yuuto remarked lightly, "Other than stripping down to his boxers before the match, it feels like his personality also flipped completely. Sawada was totally motivated for his fight with Mochida. He's usually kinda quiet and tries to blend in with the background."

"Maybe it's just a phase, then?" Mama passed over a platter of potatoes to Yuuto, who accepted it and quickly shoveled a portion of the dish onto his plate before passing it to Sousei next to him. "Kids your age are always changing so quickly these days."

Change?

It was… correct, to a certain extent, but it was also more than that. Setsu wasn't quite sure how she knew that –a feeling that was somewhat of a mix between intuition and–

"More rice, Setsu?"

"… Okay, Mama."

XXIII.

"-you for him? Losers like Dame-Tsuna should just roll over and die!"

Yuuto didn't mean to stumble onto this scene. He also wishes that he hadn't walked this way to get to his locker, although it's far too late to back away unnoticed. Not that he can, really. His feet seem to be rooted to this spot, eyes fixated on what he saw in front of him, even though he'd never wanted to see it.

Sawada Tsunayoshi… while Yuuto wasn't overly fond of the boy or anything, he also didn't go out of his way to interact with him. He knew the boy was bullied, but what was the point of standing up for people like him? As soon as you weren't around them anymore the bullies would come again, and Sawada would go back to being bullied because he wouldn't stand up for himself.

(Couldn't, more like, but also wouldn't; and it was the latter that irked Yuuto more than anything else. That was the main reason that stopped him from reaching out a hand to Sawada years ago, because his eyes were hopeless and dull. Yuuto wasn't nice, but he wasn't cruel, either. And neither was he a miracle worker who could save somebody who wouldn't be saved as they sat in a cage of their own making.)

This, however.

… His friends.

His baseball buddies.

The ones he skimmed reading assignments with, the guys he hung out at Mama's pastry shop with, the boys he laughed with every day.

...

They were bullies, too?

He… he'd always thought that they were like him, standing on the sidelines and not interfering with Sawada's torment, but at the same time not actually one of the active tormentors themselves. It bothered him –no, it downright unnerved him, because it was like receiving an electric jolt down his spine when he looked at his friends and didn't recognize their eyes anymore, because of that cold glitter of malicious glee lurking there.

How had he missed it before?

"Shut up," the silver-haired Italian transfer student growled, stepping in front of Sawada protectively –and when had Sawada become such good friends with Gokudera when the latter had nearly uplifted the former's desk on his first day here? "Juudaime, may I have permission to eliminate them?"

Juudaime? Tenth? Tenth what? Eliminate?

… And holy shit, was that dynamite? This –wasn't this illegal or something? What in the world was–

"Hieee! G-Gokudera, please d-don't go around trying to blow people up!"

Sawada.

… Something was different about him. Usually, where there was that fearful, defeated light in his eyes whenever the bullies came for him, now –the fear was still present, yes, but there was also something else all but burning there, something…

… What was it?

What had changed him?

Yuuto wanted to know.

"What, still insistent on being Dame-Tsuna's lapdog?" Keita. Keita was a good pitcher, though nowhere on par with Yamamoto. No one was, really. "I'm tellin' you, Gokudera, that ain't gonna do you any good here. You shouldn't hang out with failures."

... He isn't sure why he did it, but he did, and perhaps that's all that matters.

Yuuto squared his shoulders, took a deep breath, and stepped around the corner and walked up to his friends before he quite entirely realized what he was doing in the first place.

Friends.

(How could he not have seen it before?)

"Keita, Hikaru, Masao." His voice was cold and flat, unlike the usual cheer that he spoke with. "What are you guys doing?"

They didn't seem to notice his tone.

"Oh, hey, Yuuto!" They grinned. "We're just lookin' around for some fun right now. Wanna join? We can go out for a bit of baseball after this."

... Yuuto didn't really like getting involved in things that were none of his business. He didn't hold any particular love for Sawada. He didn't want to confront his friends like this –if they even would remain as friends anymore after what he was about to do.

But in hindsight, perhaps all of this was only unavoidable.

XXIV.

She didn't actually mean to do it, when it happened.

It's just… Setsu knows that some of the shadier alleyways in Namimori tend to have a problem with thugs that the widely-feared Hibari hasn't gotten around to 'biting to death' yet, but usually there aren't any problems with taking shortcuts. As long as she runs along fast enough and keeps her head down, there shouldn't be any problems. This isn't her first time taking a shortcut through one of the smaller streets to run to her mother's pastry shop; she accidently stayed a little too long in the art room after school today and–

"Oh? What do we have here, boys?"

She didn't mean to.

But somehow, it'd ended up happening anyways. It's different though, seeing it in her dreams and seeing it in reality...

Don't think about it.

Shakily, Setsu bends down and retrieves the school bag she'd dropped. She very deliberately does not allow her eyes to linger on the red liquid soaking through the fabric and inhales slowly, calmly.

… Why isn't she panicking? Why isn't she screaming? Why isn't she crying?

She doesn't know.

Oddly enough, she feels… nothing.

And that frightens her, more than anything else, in a distant corner of her mind that's growing quieter and quieter with each passing second as she gazes coldly among the men who tried to kill her mere moments ago.

("You damn MONSTER!")

…

Does this make her a bad person?

She hopes not. She really, really hopes not. Besides, they were the ones who threatened her in the first place, anyways. If any fault should be laid at hands, shouldn't it be at theirs instead of hers? It wasn't as if she wanted to do this, she wasn't even sure if she could do this, all she'd known in that single moment when that knife inched towards her throat was fear and panic and then she'd just–

No, no.

Don't think about it. Move along, and put it all behind. It's not like anyone else was watching, right? And even if there was, this was… this was self-defense. Yes, self-defense. She was perfectly justified in her actions. There was no need to feel sorry for them. Left alone, they would continue to harm others, wouldn't they?

They weren't worth crying over.

…

Setsu isn't quite sure how she walked the rest of the way to her mother's pastry shop, only that she somehow made the trip there without throwing up or keeling over on the side of the street. Surprisingly. Her entire body felt numb, and yet everything had never been so clear to her at the same time with that foreign-familiar warmth dancing under her skin–

"Ah, Setsu, I was getting worried –oh my god!"

She breathed in again, this time inhaling her mother's scent as the woman dropped everything in her hands and immediately rushed to her daughter as soon as she stepped through the doors of the shop.

"Setsu, Setsu, talk to me. Are you hurt anywhere? Did you get into a fight at school? Was someone bullying you?"

She opens her mouth and–

"It's okay, Mama. I just got clumsy and spilled a lot of the red paint at school, so I had to stay behind and clean up. Sorry for worrying you."

That …that hadn't been what she was going to say. But the words rolled smoothly off her tongue as she slipped a guileless smile over her face, and, really –was there anything else she could say to the woman who was her mother? The truth?

Hilarious.

"…so don't scare me like that again, Setsu. Papa is home early today; why don't you head on back and clean yourself up?"

Okay.

Go home. She can do that. Clean herself up. She can do that, too.

…

She vaguely remembers feeling disgust, once upon a time. She also remembers feeling satisfaction.

But right now, sitting in the bathtub and watching lazy red ribbons trail away from her body under the lukewarm water, all she feels is nothing.

(What is she supposed to feel, now that her dreams are becoming reality? What is this sudden feeling of disconnection –as if there's something she should know, something she should be aware of, something that's right under her nose and she doesn't know what it is?)

XXV.

She blinks, and there it is again.

There it is.

A man hanging in the air before her, dangling in chains. Nails are driven into his wrists and ankles in a mockery of crucifixion as he screams and screams and screams. She blinks at the writhing man covered in blood, and a single name floats across her mind.

Bellini.

A thread of distaste is coiled around the name, a brush of dislike associated with it.

"You damn MONSTER!"

Drool and spittle fly from the madman's mouth as he struggles violently against the chains and nails suspending him in place. Burning iron and frozen steel. He doesn't seem to notice his flesh tearing and shredding under his futile struggles, and she does nothing to disabuse him of the notion to stop moving to lessen his pain.

A small smile curls across her face. Why is she smiling?

"So you've gone insane, too." The man's blood drip-drip-dripped on her face, and she didn't bother brushing it away. Just like –she banishes the thought, but not quickly enough. "Just like my late father. At first I thought this might've been done purely out of revenge on your behalf, but it seems to be a little more than that."

Revenge for a golden-eyed woman whose smiles were poison and wanted to kill her. Revenge for a Family slaughtered by one that she had manipulated. Revenge for the rage and grief tearing his heart apart in a world that had nothing left to offer him a reason to live.

"Shut up shut up SHUT UP! I'LL GUT YOU AND STRING YOU UP BY YOUR ENTRIALS, YOU GODDAMNED MONSTER!"

But then her attention shifted away from the rambling man to settle on a scowling young teen standing a little ways behind her.

"Ah, but where are my manners?" Such a smooth, smooth voice. Had she ever talked this way before? She didn't think so, but it certainly seemed like something she was very familiar and well-practiced with… "We have guests, Carmen."

Carmen?

Carmen Bellini.

Yes, she recognized the name. Of course she did; how couldn't she?

This was the man who killed her biological father.

"Xanxus," she dipped her head politely, and the boy with beautiful flames returned the gesture. Then: "I thank Vongola for the aid that they have sent …"

…

…

…

"-ke up, wake up! Setsu, it's time to go to school!"

"… Setsu?"

"Setsu, did you have another nightmare?"

The gray-eyed girl finally surfaced from her blankets when a note of concern entered her brother's voice.

"I'm fine."

"… Are you sure, Setsu?"

"I… I'm fine. Really, I am."

What else could she do? Hug him and cry, like the numerous times she'd done before?

When had crying ever solved anything?

XXVI.

Sousei glanced up from his math textbook.

"Something wrong, Yuuto?"

He watched the gray-eyed boy fidget in the doorway for a moment before setting aside his study materials and beckoning his little brother into the room. As Yuuto gently shut the door behind him, Sousei felt his gaze sharpen –this meant that there was something Yuuto didn't want to let their parents or Setsu know.

Yuuto flopped down on his bed, biting his lip.

"… Did you hear about it?"

"You're going to have to be a little more specific than that," he replied dryly.

"Just… it." Yuuto struggled with articulating his words, "I mean… even though you go to Yumei Middle, you guys have to have heard about it too, right? Yamamoto… Yamamoto tried to commit suicide today."

"I'm aware of that," Sousei nodded, "Yamamoto… he's on the baseball team with you, right? Are you two close?"

Yamamoto isn't close with anyone. Yuuto thought, but bit back the words before they escaped his mouth.

… Or rather, wasn't close, if the friendly, open, honest way he'd spotted his teammate chatting with Sawada in the aftermath of the incident was any indication of things.

Yuuto cleared his throat as he addressed his brother again. "No, we're not close, but… see, he broke his arm at practice yesterday, and he was going to jump off the roof this morning. We didn't really believe it, a cheerful guy like him doing something like that, but he was really standing on the edge of the roof, and…"

"He didn't jump though, did he?" Sousei pointed out mildly, "From what I heard, someone stopped him."

"Sawada did." Yuuto ran a hand through his hair, "Sawada… Sawada has been doing some pretty insane things lately."

Sousei gave his little brother a shrewd look.

"This conversation isn't actually about Yamamoto, is it?"

"You've got me." The gray-eyed boy shot him a sheepish smile that disappeared just as quickly as it'd appeared in the first place. Fake. "… Y'know, he's… he's a pretty interesting guy. Sawada, I mean. Ever since Mochida challenged him and lost, it's almost like–"

"Would this have anything to do with why you aren't hanging out with your usual friends anymore?"

Yuuto stared.

"… How the hell do you know that?"

"Language," Sousei gave him a sharp look, to which the younger boy rolled his eyes. "And just because I spend most of my time studying nowadays, doesn't mean I don't still keep an eye out for you and Setsu."

…

He laughed.

He laughed.

Yuuto couldn't help it.

"Hey, hey, are you alright?" His older brother leaned over him, a bewildered look crossing his face along with the small, uncharacteristic flush of embarrassment that made Yuuto laugh even harder.

"Can't hide anything from you can I, onii-san?"

And so he talked and Sousei listened; just like he always did and always would.

XXVII.

"Working on the painting of that lake again now, are we?"

"Yes, sensei. I already finished the assignment you gave us today, so…"

The young art teacher smiled.

"I don't mind you working on side projects as long as you finish the actual work for this class… Oh, are you adding something new to it this time?"

"Mm-hm."

There was a tiny brush in the little girl's hand that traced out tiny pinpricks of light on the dark canvas.

"Stars, Nakamura?"

"Yes, sensei."

The teacher continued watching over her shoulder for a few heartbeats before she spoke again.

"Isn't that the water? Why are you putting the stars in the water with the fog?"

"Because that's where they belong, sensei."

"Don't stars belong in the sky, though?"

"But not all stars shine brightly in the sky. Sometimes only misted waters can reflect the light they hold."

XXVIII.

Reborn stood silently in the mouth of the cluttered alleyway, surveying the scene before him.

Blood. Splattered haphazardly everywhere, limp bodies lying on the ground. Arms and legs twisted at strange angles, as if someone had taken the pains to thoroughly shatter the bone. It was strange that these men were still alive and breathing despite the torture –yes, torture; there was no other way to describe this– that they'd been put through.

Reborn knew these types of men; small-time yakuza and underground scum who pillaged and coerced and raped without a second thought. It wasn't the fact that they were hurt that had his lips twitching into a small frown, but the fact that there was someone in Namimori capable of doing this at all, even if they weren't the best of fighters.

This certainly hadn't been in any of the reports he'd received from the Nono when he'd been given this assignment.

He'd kept an eye on the people who came in and out of Namimori. To his knowledge, there hadn't been any bounty hunters or mercenaries passing this way. That meant that the person who'd done this was a Namimori resident. As for people who were capable of this level of violence –Hibari Kyoya was the first person who came to mind. He was, after all, the protector of Namimori who never hesitated to use violence to keep its local yakuza in line.

However, none of these injuries had been caused by tonfas, if the jagged punctures on their bodies were any indication of things. Claws? Nails?

… His underlings, then, perhaps? If that was the case, then… hm. Perhaps it was time to take a look at the combat level of the Disciplinary Committee members…

It would serve as a good opportunity to test Gokudera and Yamamoto's skills, too. Even if the Disciplinary Committee members under Hibari were the ones who'd done this, there was no way they'd use the same force against registered students of the school. That, and there was also the added benefit of introducing Dame-Tsuna to his prospective Cloud Guardian. In order to engineer that meeting, all he had to do was…

…

Plan decided, Reborn turned and left the alley.

XXIX.

Setsu doesn't actually meet the boy called Sawada Tsunayoshi until a certain Monday after school when she's washing dishes at her mother's pastry shop.

"Yuuto! You're finally bringing friends over to the shop again!" Her mother sounds pleased, happy. So Setsu pushes a smile onto her face as well when she steps into the front of the shop, balancing a stack of plates in her hands as she peers over the counter at the new arrivals.

"U-um, Sawada and I have only been assigned to work on a project together." It's been a long time since she heard her brother sound so stilted and awkward, "And he's rather… uh, close with these guys, so we all ended up coming here together…"

"N-Nakamura, you don't have to be so formal with me!" There's a flustered look on the young brunet's face. It takes Setsu approximately three seconds to connect his face with that of the strange boy with a flame on his forehead who nearly knocked her down on the street, but she's tactful enough to remain silent on that matter. "Y-You can just call me Tsuna. All of my friends do that."

The last sentence was added with a shy, almost embarrassed tone, with the implication it carried. Setsu glances at her brother's eyes –he'd noticed it too.

… Was this why was he acting so strangely these days? Not strange, but... different?

"Then you can call me Yuuto," he said firmly, gray eyes glowing with something. Setsu couldn't quite put her finger on what it was, but she knew that she once had it, too. But what was it? "C'mon, let's go to one of the tables in the back so we can get started on this. Mama, do you mind if we get something with chocolate today?"

"Of course I don't mind, dear." The woman smiled, a knowing light in her eyes. "Setsu, be a dear and grab the brownies that are cooling in the back, will you?"

"… Okay."

She hears an offhand comment of 'Oh, Setsuko over there is my little sister,' as she disappears into the back rooms. She is pleasantly surprised to hear that Yuuto's tone is still light and relaxed –with none of that other tone that he sometimes unconsciously slips into when referring to her.

These new friends seem to be good for him. Better than his old ones, at least.

XXX.

Occasionally when she's feeling introspective, Setsu wonders if it's normal that she's so easily growing accustomed to these strange happenings in town. Random explosions going off in the middle of the day, purple food melting entire blocks of cement, Tsuna running down the streets in nothing but his boxers with a flame glowing in the middle of his forehead –and she doesn't even bat an eyelash anymore. Tsuna sometimes looks at her funny for it, as if he can't believe she doesn't say anything about all the insanity and general mayhem and destruction being caused, but she's always been good at adapting, and so that's what she does.

Fuuta is strange in his own way, too.

Setsu has always dreamed of flames and fighting and death, but she hadn't dreamed of 'Ranking' before. She doesn't really remember when it was that the boy showed up in Namimori, but she's perfectly content to sit and listen him ramble on about the Ranking Planet and about chocolate and about… well, about almost everything that comes to mind. He's sweet and endearing in a way Setsu imagines a little sibling might be (but not really, because Setsu knows a little brother who isn't exactly 'sweet'… unless the word is used in context of something along the lines of: 'He sweetly sliced a man into a hundred little pieces in the name of defending his sister's honor.').

So on a sunny day when her brother and his friends run off on another of their crazy (because there's no other word that describes what's happening in Namimori) exploits, she was in the middle of laughing with Fuuta when she felt it.

It being a blue-haired boy with dichromatic eyes (weren't they both supposed to be blue?), flanked by two other boys behind him.

"Ranking Fuuta," the familiar blue-haired boy (Mukuro, his name was Mukuro) smiled disarmingly at them, easily dismissing her after a cursory look. "I would like to do business with you."

Setsu glanced sharply at Fuuta, who was biting his lip and rapidly paling.

"Come," the boy beckoned to Fuuta imperiously with a single finger, his smile losing some of its charming edge and slipping into something darker when Fuuta hesitated and refused to obey. "… Come. Or do you want something to happen to your friend over there?"

And suddenly up is down and down is up and left is right and right is left and everything is being torn away from her. No family, no friends, nothing; nothing matters anymore but Mukuro-sama because she is only a puppet who lives to serve, a marionette dancing on strings to his tune and she would do anything for him in that drunken indigo haze–

She is not a doll.

She is not a plaything to be used and manipulated at will. Never has been and never will.

Breathe.

She is Setsu, born and bred in Namimori to an ordinary family with a father and a mother and two brothers who all love her and she loves them and this is her reality. She is Setsu, a girl who loves painting and always heads to her mother's pastry shop after school. She is Setsu, who isn't good at math but more than makes up for that deficiency in terms of artistic skill, who dreams of attending Midori Middle one day for their wonderful arts curriculum.

She is Setsuko, a young girl who dreams of blood but continues to smile each day as even as her mind is now crumbling down, down, down under the sudden influx of these foreign flames that don't belong in her world of star-filled waters and midnight skies and it needs to get out, out, out–

She is Nakamura Setsuko.

She is Nakamura Setsuko, once Stella Squalo.

.

…

.

Author's Notes:

Onwards Till Dawn, my other KHR fic written with XxZuiyun, has been updated earlier today, for anyone who's interested.

... So, we skipped through a lot of the Daily Life Arc, heading into the Kokuyo Arc. Does it ever mention in the manga how Mukuro acquires Fuuta as a hostage? If it does, then just consider what I wrote AU or something. xD

And speaking of AU, I received a question regarding the relation of Canopus to Polaris. I will restate my answer here: Canopus is NOT an OFFICIAL sequel to Polaris precisely because in Polaris Stella is DEAD. In Canopus, all the events of Polaris have occurred EXCEPT for the epilogue. Does that make any sense? Sorry I didn't mention it earlier, I kind of assumed it would be obvious. My bad.

Aaaand lots of responses to the pairing question from the last chapter. A large concern that kept popping up was the matter of Stella's age. She's, what… nine or ten at this point? Yes, way too young for a serious relationship. But she's also the reincarnation of Stella, which is hopefully made more evident in this chapter… although, the struggles of Stella vs. Setsu are far from being over.

... I think I'll stop here before I end up giving any spoilers. xD

So.

Kokuyo! Kokuyo. Anyone excited for the Kokuyo Arc? :3

QUESTION: What do you think of Yuuto and Sousei's characters, based on what you've seen so far?

Till next time

-XxZuiliu