Will of the kirin

by 1458

Name: Sawada Tsunayoshi. Occupation: Full-time kirin, part-time Vongola Decimo. No one else has quite the same CV.

3. Chapter 3

Every kirin has the knowledge of the past kirins. Kinda.

Since there could only be one kirin at a time, there was no way for them to directly teach their successors what to do and expect.

Most of the information was already in the clan archives, all 4 of them, which give personal accounts from each of the current guardians about their kirin's legacy. However, there was always some more personal information that the kirin would want to share with themselves and not anyone else. Hence their ingenious memory imprinting system.

The current kirin would imprint a thought or a memory onto a trigger, showing any future kirin information that they would need to know. That such trigger could be anything: a key phrase, an item, a thought. The memory would then be set to play automatically in their mind. Instantly. They would essentially black out until the memory stopped playing. Their system wasn't perfect yet.

(This could get quite annoying, considering the vast number of memories. It is especially so if the memory was triggered unexpectedly. Part of the guardian's job was to make sure that the kirin doesn't trip or crash into something while they view a memory.)

That was how the kirin always seemed to 'know' things. They were constantly being taught on the spot.

And the very first message that all kirins receive is the warning to never get involved with the Trinisette.

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"Good evening."

"Good evening, Kirin-sama. How are you doing?"

The kirin sat against the wall holding his phone, keeping as still as possible while his turtle attempted to shift a sleeping Yuni from his lap. "I am doing fine. I should be asking you that instead."

"…" There was a brief pause. "I am fine."

Tsuna sighed. "Please tell me if it gets worse. You do not need to endure it."

"I… Everything is fine Kirin-sama. You have done more than enough to help me. I need to do this on my own."

A huge pout formed across Tsuna's face. "Takeshi, she's lying to me again."

Takeshi gave an awkward laugh, uncertain whose side he should take given the fact that he had no idea what they were talking about. He couldn't even hear what was going on on the other side of the line. "I'm sure Akai has reasons. She has always been the most reliable and competent of them all. You should trust her more."

"…Fine." Tsuna closed his eyes. "Actually, I called you for a favour."

"Understood, Kirin-sama. I will arrange for it right away."

The kirin gave an amused expression. "I haven't even told you what I wanted yet."

"Please ask, Kirin-sama. I will do everything you want me to do. I owe you my life."

"You don't need to exaggerate. And call me Tsuna, Nagi."

"I speak the truth. I do owe you my life, Kirin-sama."

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"Fon-san~"

Reborn swore that, though Fon would eternally deny it, the storm arcobaleno shuddered at the tone of Hana's voice.

"Tsuna wants to go camping. Told mama last night. We'll leave the rest to you. Thanks bye." Swiftly, the girl turned around and walked away.

Fon blinked once, acknowledging the randomness of ths situation but easily pieced together what had happened. Suddenly, everything that Fon saw last night began to make sense. "…Reborn…"

The sun arcobaleno hid his smirk under his fedora.

"Fon." Tsuna entered the room carrying a pouting Yuni. "I would like to go on a trip with Reborn, my guardians and priests."

"Hana has informed me. Please enjoy yourselves, Tsunayoshi-sama. I will assist Kusakabe-kun in the paperwork."

"Actually, could you also babysit Yuni? Mama is busy." Tsuna ignored Yuni's teary puppy dog eyes and set her down beside the baby. "We will be back tomorrow."

The kirin patiently waited until Fon gave the slightest nod before continuing.

"Thank you Fon." He reached over and brushed the girl's hair. "Yuni, I will be back soon ok? In the meantime you can play with Fon."

"…" It is a blessing that Yuni is a very obedient child. "Ok. I'll be a good girl."

Tsuna smiled and hugged the child, who clung to him for dear life. He looked over at the arcobaleno with golden eyes. "Fon, Yuni is your new boss. I'll leave the rest to you."

This arrangement was set despite the fact that Tsuna knew that Fon had no potential in developing an affinity with children.

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"And that should be Shimon Island." Shoichi looked down at the control board. "We arrived at record time as usual thanks to Tsunayoshi-san."

Tsuna hummed. "Shoichi-san is the one who did all of the work. This boat has a lot of potential. I am always amazed at how much potential you have."

Shoichi blushed at the compliment. "T-thanks."

At the back of the boat, things weren't nearly as pleasant. Reborn blinked at the uncomfortable faces almost everyone was making. Everyone save Kyoko. "…Kyoko, what's wrong with them?"

The girl giggled cheerfully. "It's malice. There is a lot of darkness in this area. Any normal human would be affected by this much malice." She blinked. "I've never felt such a high concentration before. This is pretty cool."

Evidently no one agreed with her remark. The turtle gave a nervous laugh and swung an arm around his shadow's neck. His shadow didn't respond to the sudden contact, too preoccupied with trying to hide his discomfort. Both the dragon and his shadow had their heads in their arms in failing attempts to sleep. The two of them had spent the night arranging the sudden trip and the effects of the all-nighter were starting to kick in. The high level of malice did not help. The loud extreme counts did not help either. The tiger was loudly doing sit ups, counting each one as he progressed. The tonfas and stones tossed in his direction only served to make him count louder.

Reborn blinked, curious. "Only 'normal humans' are affected by malice?"

"Yup. You are not affected because you are like Fon-san. Tsuna-kun is the kirin so it doesn't affect him. Do you see those symbols beneath Irie-san? Tsuna-kun put them there to form a barrier around Irie-san so he doesn't feel the malice either. This level of malice does affect me but not as badly as everyone else because of my purification abilities. Malice is automatically dispelled when it touches me."

So there was a side benefit for being an arcobaleno. "I see. That is convenient."

Kyoko smiled and got up, walking over to join Tsuna and Shoichi. "Tsuna-kun, should we purify this island?"

"Actually…" Tsuna looked out into the dark forest. "This looks more complicated than I predicted. Nii-san might be personally involved."

"Shall we just ignore the malice then? It is contained on this island. It won't spread to anywhere else."

The kirin shook his head. "We need to stop it before it gets out of hand. Nii-san is in no condition to control this much malice. Shoichi-san, I'll call you later."

Shoichi nodded. "So I get in touch with Akai-san?"

"Please. Kyoko, start setting up the purification seals just in case. I'm going explore the island with Takeshi. Kyoya's on vacation."

"Ok. Leave it to me."

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Reborn, not wanting to stay with the gloomy teenagers for more than one reason, quickly hopped onto Tsuna's shoulder as he left the boat. The turtle, who looked much better than earlier, trailed behind the kirin laughing merrily.

"Tsuna, I overheard your conversation earlier and there is something I am wondering about." The baby continued after hearing Tsuna hummed in assent. "Is it not your job to purify the malice? It sounded like it was a choice."

"It is a choice." The kirin silently bounced on top of the grass. "Purifying malice and the entire priest system were added to the kirin's temple as a favor for my nii-san. I [the kirin] volunteered to watch over the malice at the East while nii-san controls the rest of the world."

Reborn blinked. "Is that related to why you are not affected by the malice?"

"No. Malice, and other forces for that matter, do not affect me because I am not human. Related to that, any humans who are closely connected to special forces, like yourself and my celestial beasts, are not affected by the malice either. Well other than Kyoya. He was unfortunately born with no potential against malice. It overrode Sei-chan's protection."

"Then..." The baby glanced back towards Takeshi. "Why were Sasagawa and Yamamoto affected?"

"No, they weren't." Tsuna brushed off the idea. "The large amount of malice merely surprised them. Takeshi, it shouldn't have bothered you. I told you what would happen last night."

"Ahahaha," Takeshi sheepishly scratched his face, rustling through the tall grass as he followed. "Oh yeah. I forgot. I was too busy trying to memorize the map."

Tsuna rolled his eyes. "You don't have any potential to even read maps."

"Maa maa, I'm not that bad. I figured out that the blue things are water! Besides I though it would help find the thing we are looking for."

Reborn turned to Tsuna. "What are you looking for?"

The kirin shrugged. "I am not sure... but I know it is somewhere on this island."

"Oh." The boy's expression suggested that he was not going to share anymore more information with the arcobaleno. Which was fine, considering a different observation Reborn picked up. The silence. "Tsuna." Reborn jumped off his shoulder and stared at the boy's feet, confirming his suspicions. "You are floating above the grass."

"Eh? Oh. Yeah." Tsuna crouched down to speak directly to the hitman, still hovering above the grass. "It's a habit I inherited as a kirin." The boy patted the greenery. "I don't like hurting anything that has potential."

"Even grass."

"Grass has potential to grow, like all other living things." Tsuna straightened. "Potential comes in many forms…" He blinked turning towards the forest. "Please excuse me, Reborn-san. I need to check out something."

"See ya, kid." Takeshi waved before running after the flying kirin, leaving Reborn to himself.

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"Yuni-sama, have you eaten already?"

The girl silently nodded, eyes fixated on the sky.

In hindsight, that was a stupid question. Tsuna and Kyoko had already addressed all of the girl's needs like they did every morning. This left nothing for Fon to do except watch Yuni stare out the window. Well... he also had the option to play with the child.

"...Yuni-sama, would you like to play?"

The girl shrugged.

The arcobaleno quickly ran through his choices. He didn't want to leave the temple because he still had a lot of work to do. Letting Yuni play in the yard was also dangerous due to the large forest surrounding it. Takeshi got lost in there far too many times for Fon to trust a young girl alone near it. So that left staying inside the temple. Now was the question of what to play. Fon glanced at his trusty sidekick.

Lichi cocked her head.

Nodding to himself, Fon lifted the monkey off his shoulder. "Yuni-sama, Lichi will play with you for a bit."

There was a long moment of silence. Yuni gently petted the monkey twice before staring once again out the window.

At this point Fon couldn't take it anymore and escaped the room. He'd much rather do paperwork.

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Kozarto Enma was not having a good day. Well, none of the days were actually ever good, especially after that one day where the air suddenly darkened slightly and everyone in the village began to bully him. At first, it was little things. Name calling. However, that quickly escalated to something entirely different after some men in suits entered the island and thoroughly interviewed all of the villagers before leaving empty handed. Enma was naturally blamed for the strange occurrence and now it has become a daily routine to run and hide from everyone.

"KOZARTO!"

Enma flinched before quickly tumbling out of the tree and sprinting off into the forest. He had a few preplanned escape routes. All he had to do was run-

Bam.

-and not crash into people. Enma tried to scramble up but was unable to under the weight of another boy. That said boy was staring at him in a trance, fixated at his eyes. "U-um…" These people were not from around this area. So they were probably not infected by the weird air and wouldn't hit him any time soon. While that was relieving, Enma still needed to get moving before people who would hit him arrived. "E-excuse me?"

"Tsuna, are you ok?" The boy's companion helped him up, who was still staring intently at Enma in trance. "Tsuna?"

The boy's eyes suddenly cleared up. "Eh? Oh. Yeah, sorry, what's your name?"

Enma blinked twice before scrambling up, glancing around the area to see if the area was still clear. "K-kozarto Enma. S-sorry for running into you."

"Kozarto Enma." Tsuna repeated. "Enma, w-"

"I FOUND HIM."

Enma instantly scurried off into the forest like a squirrel. Tsuna continued to stare at the direction he disappeared to, not reacting the slightest as his turtle knocked out all of the bullies that heard the shout behind him. "Takeshi."

"Did that guy just now have a lot of potential? Can I stalk him?"

"…Tell Ryohei he's in charge of the purification. I'll call Shoichi-san later. Don't say anything to Kyoya, he is on vacation right now." The boy lifted himself into the air, glowing gold. "Ki-chan, can you help me?"

Tsuna was answered with a chime. A sphere of light formed around the kirin before he shot off into the clouds.

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Like Tsuna, Reborn was also looking for something.

Evidence. A trail. The reason why Shimon was linked to the flood of blood. Perhaps… a hidden heir? There must have been a reason why Iemitsu was personally involved. The man was not known for acting rashly unless it involved people he was close to. Like family.

Sadly, this was all speculation. Unlike Tsuna, the sun arcobaleno was scouting the island figuratively blind.

Through eavesdropping, he was able to confirm that members of CEDEF and Vongola had entered this island recently and interrogated a lot of villagers but left empty handed. In general, the villagers were very closed and suspicious of outsiders. The appearance of the suited men only heightened their defences. However, their current behaviour was very strange even for suspicious people. It seemed as if the villagers didn't have full control over their actions...

A shadow caused Reborn to divert his attention into the forest. And that was when the sun arcobaleno came eye to eye with someone who looked very familiar. He had passed by his portraits quite a couple of times in the Vongola mansion. "...Daemon Spade...?"

The man responded to the name. "Nufufu... Who might you be? It's rude to call out to someone without an introduction."

Reborn gave a puzzled look, not at all acknowledging the question. "A ghost?"

"How rude, calling people ghosts." The ghost(?) drew out a few cards. "Unfortunately I am on a tight schedule. I have no time to entertain you, child."

Reborn quickly shot the cards down. "This is not an illusion, it doesn't even feel like mist flames." He paused, remembering the information he had gotten from Kyoko. "...Malice?"

Daemon narrowed his eyes. "It seems like we will need to... converse." A massive black aura dispelled from the former mist guardian. "Fear not, you won't feel a thing... ever again."

The arcobaleno took the malice in stride. Though he was initially surprised at the sight of the ghost, it was nothing compared to the dragons, turtles and tigers he has already seen. In fact, this big dark cloud was quite boring. Plus it seemed like Daemon was not aware about Reborn's apparent resistance to malice. The baby made note to thank Kyoko later. "The feeling is mutual. Let's have a long conversation."

"Nufufufu-"

"Stop."

Both combatants jumped apart as a sudden shadow arose between them from the mist. "Vendice..."

The hooded figure ignored the arcobaleno. "Daemon Spade. Ignore the intruder. Malice is futile against him."

Daemon obediently backed down. "It seems that I have no choice." The ghost turned around walked into the forest, not looking back.

Turning around, the guard stared at Reborn. "Arcobaleno. State your purpose."

"...It does not concern you."

Surprisingly to Reborn, the guard reacted well to that statement of defiance. "This island is under the watch of Vendicare. Your actions will be monitored. Do not interfere." The darkness swallowed the cloaked figure, leaving Reborn to himself once again, more confused than before.

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"Uh… um..." Enma glanced nervously at the imposing bodyguard behind him. He should be thankful, since the boy had knocked out his assailants. However...

"Hahaha, shhh, I'm stalking you right now."

"...D-do you need to be... t-this close...?" Enma tried to inch away from Takeshi, who happily followed his every movement well within Enma's personal bubble. Takeshi was so close that he was almost touching him. Enma wanted to cry. At this point, he actually preferred being chased by the bullies.

Suddenly, a figure jumped out of the tree and landed in front of them. Enma flinched, praying to all gods that he did not just jinx himself.

"Oh hey Hibari."

Kyoya appeared quite stressed and sleep deprived. "Where is Tsunayoshi."

"Haha, sorry. I was told to not say anything to you. Tsuna wants you to enjoy your vacation."

The dragon narrowed his eyes in annoyance before shifting his gaze from the turtle to the very nervous redhead. "Who is he?"

Takeshi merrily slung his arm around a terrified Enma's shoulder. "This is our new friend~"

Kyoya blinked once and stared, carefully surveying the redhead up and down like an auction display. "He is not Suzaku."

The turtle looked highly disappointed. "Awww, I wanted to see you rip his shirt apart."

Kyoya completely ignored the remark, instead placing a hand on a nearly hyperventilating Enma's chest. "..." He shifted his hand to Enma's forehead. "...Hn. Tell Sasagawa Ryohei to draw the awakening circle. I will call the Akatori. Watch this herbivore carefully." He removed his hand from Enma's forehead and turned towards the sky. "Seiryu. We are going after Tsunayoshi."

Enma freaked as Kyoya leapt onto a huge blue dragon that had appeared out of thin air. He nearly fainted as the dragon turned and stared at him for a few seconds before flying off into the distance.

"Haha, that was Hibari and Seiryu. Oh, you should meet Genbu and Kogenbu!" The huge turtle appeared with a small tremor to the ground. Takeshi was basically holding Enma up at this point. "This is Genbu! Genbu, say hi~"

The turtle nodded.

"And this is Kogenbu!" The black snake crawled up from the hand around Enma's neck and licked his cheek in greeting.

At this point, Enma couldn't take it anymore and fell into a dead faint.

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The Vendice were involved with something happening on this island. And it obviously was related to the high levels of malice.

Reborn exited the forest deep and headed to the beach in thought. Judging by the guard's demeanour, the Vendice were unaware of the other 'intruders' on this island...

It would be wise to leave immediately.

While it would be interesting to watch, the arcobaleno was not prepared to have Tsuna and his guardians fight the Vendice. For starters, Fon would probably kill him if it actually happened. Aside from that, judging by the powers the guardians carry, Reborn estimated that sinking the entire island would be quite likely. That is a bad idea on several levels, the top being Reborn's desire to hide the existence of the kirin from Nono and the rest of the mafia before he develops a strong bond with the boy, ideally also get the boy to agree on being Decimo.

"Oh you're back, Reborn-kun."

The baby walked up to Kyoko, who was sitting happily on top of a picnic cloth eating cake, and looked around. The others were crowded over a map, with Hana and Kensuke arguing about something while Ryohei was drawing something in the sand. "Where's Tsuna?"

Kyoko giggled. "Tsuna-kun ran off again. Hibari-san just flew after him. They'll come back later."

"...Why don't we leave as well? This isn't much of a vacation spot."

"No, it's wonderful, Reborn-kun. The forest and beach are quite pretty. I haven't had the chance to look around yet too but I'm sure the village would be lovely as well." The girl was smiling flowers and sparkles. "Besides, this is quite a learning experience. Thank you for telling Tsuna-kun about this place. We would have never found it on our own."

For the first time, the strongest hitman in the world was rendered speechless by the honest words from a pure heart. "...I'm glad you like it, but we happen to be trespassing on... a gaijin's land."

"Eh, a gaijin's?" Kyoko looked genuinely confused. "No, actually this land is inside Tsuna-kun's territory so it is perfectly safe. Even though the origins of the villagers trace back to the West it doesn't matter. We don't refer to all foreigners as gaijin."

"It's not the villagers." Reborn made note to research what their definition of gaijin was later. "There's a different group that is here... the Vendice."

"Venice? Oh I heard that was a beautiful place as well. Tsuna-kun wanted to go there after he saw a documentary. Hopefully we can visit one day."

"Ah, no. Not Venice, it's the Vendice. They are like policemen in the mafia."

"Mafia policemen?" Kyoko blinked. "Like secret police in the movies? That's so cool. Hibari-san would surely love to meet them. Are they in Venice?"

Reborn had remembered too late that the girl standing before him was a complete airhead.

"Um, Sasagawa-san..."

Kyoko turned around. "Irie-san! Did you bring Nagi-chan- oh hello Kikyo-san."

The green haired teen bowed before the priestess. "Greetings, Kyoko-sama. I am here on behalf of Nagi-sama at her request."

By now, the others had noticed the newcomers and walked over. "Is Nagi-san busy?"

Kikyo nodded. "That is correct Hana-sama, Akatori-sama had requested for her presence. Nagi-sama wished to be here and deeply apologizes for her absence."

"We haven't seen Akai in an extremely long time."

"Nagi-chan didn't go to the last few festivals, either." Kyoko frowned. "I was looking forward to seeing her today."

"Is she planning to go to the next one?" Kensuke asked. "Or is 'something' going to come up again."

"..." Kikyo averted his eyes from their gazes. "Nagi-sama tries her best to fulfill her duties regardless of- regardless of her personal needs."

"U-um..." Shoichi spoke up, clutching his stomach. He really wanted to get rid of the tense mood. "Akai-san gave me this." He showed them a vial of blood. "She said that this was all Tsunayoshi-san needed... apparently Hibari-san had called her and... yeah. So um, why don't we, err deal with those people over there while we wait for Tsunayoshi-san to get back?"

That was when the rest of the group, sans Reborn, had noticed the villagers at the side of the beach. Their eyes were dark and their minds were evidently incoherent, side effects of consuming large amounts of malice. And they appeared to not like outsiders.

"See! That's why I said we should've put a bigger seal there." Kensuke picked up his wooden sword. "Gah, where is Takeshi when you need him."

Hana glanced over the map. "Stupid monkey, the seal is perfect the way it is. Putting a larger one would be a waste of energy. Use your brain and strategize."

"Does it matter?! You're not the one who set up the seals anyways. Kyoko-chan and I did all the work."

"I don't care about you but I didn't want to overwork Kyoko. Now shut up and go."

Kensuke rolled his eyes. He turned to the tiger, who was staring intently at his little sand drawing. "Ryohei, are we going?"

"...Extreme! Kikyo, watch that area. Takeshi should be around there. Kyoko, Hana and Irie, draw this awakening circle over there. Kensuke, let's purify those people to the extreme!"

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"You two always end up destroying my mountain." The UMA of creation walked past the remains of large boulders and towards a strangely shaped tree. "Boy, you manage to anger your dragon quite a bit this time. There are trees sprouting out of the branches."

Tsuna groaned exhaustively from the ground. "Jiii-saaan... Kyoya cheated. He kept trying to grab me with plants. That's foul play. He knows I don't want to hurt them."

The dragon, back rested against Seiryuu, did not even open his eyes to acknowledge the complaint.

There was a small sigh. A certain kirin and his dragon had trashed this old man's home so many times that the poor victim ended up being their mediator. "So what was the cause of the argument?"

"Ah no, we weren't arguing this time." Tsuna sheepishly smiled at the look of disbelief. "Actually I just wanted to confirm something with you." Glancing at the remains of carnage, he gingerly scratched his cheek. "Sorry jii-san. "

"I don't mind. It happens every time you two stop by." He sat down on a boulder fragment. "And I have nothing better to do anyways. So what is it that you would like to know?"

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"Yuni-sama, Lichi, how is everything-" Fon closed his mouth at the sight of the little girl sleeping on top of Tsuna's seat. Lichi had dragged a blanket from a nearby room and draped it over her.

The monkey ran up to her master and gave a concerned look.

"I see." Fon whispered. "Wha-"

"Nii-chan..." The arcobaleno instantly went into a state of internal panic when he heard the tiny moan. Yuni rubbed her eyes. "...Nii-chan?"

"Tsunayoshi-sama has not returned yet." Fon walked up to the girl. "Did you have a good rest, Yuni-sama?"

The girl once again turned towards the window and stared outside, eyes tearing up. "I had a dream."

Fon was uncertain how he should respond. From the very beginning, the only person Yuni would ever speak to about her dreams was Tsuna. It certainly would not change just because he was out temporarily. "Was it... a nice dream?"

Yuni merely shrugged.

At this point, all Fon could do was internally put his hands up and surrender. He took out his phone. "Would you like to call Tsunayoshi-sama?"

The girl instantly turned to him and shook her head. "Tsuna-niichan is busy."

"I'm sure he has time to listen-" Fon paused as Lichi crawled up his arm and began browsing the contacts on the phone. She squealed. "...Colonnello? Yes, that is a good idea. Yuni-sama, would you like to speak with Colonnello instead? He hasn't stopped by in a while."

"...Ok."

Fon could not have pressed the call button any faster. "Colonnello, do you have time to talk with Yuni-sama?"

"I always have time for her, kora." The sniper waited until the phone was put on speaker. "Yo, Yuni. How are you?"

"...Ok."

"Oh. Did Tsuna do anything crazy recently?"

The girl blinked her tears away. "Tsuna-niichan and everyone destroyed the school yesterday."

"Yesterday, huh? Isn't that a new record?"

Yuni nodded. "Nii-chan's goal was to not destroy the school within the first 3 months... He almost succeeded!"

"I'm surprised they lasted that long, kora. Didn't they destroy the middle school within the first week?"

Once again, the little girl nodded. "Hana-oneesan and Kyoya-oniisan got into an argument with the previous mayor."

"Haha, right, I remember now. Those two started a war, kora." Colonnello smiled, reminiscent. "Kurokawa had called asking me the quickest way to obtain firearms. Ah, good times."

Fon had never learnt of the outcome from that conversation. He had never saw whatever gun Hana obtained if she did and hopes that he would never see it ever. If the gun was ever used, it was never traced back to temple. "Colonnello," Fon sighed. "Please use some common sense and refrain from giving such information to Hana, to anyone really."

"Don't worry about it, kora. Those guys are smart. Besides, a gun is nothing compared to their powers and stuff. It doesn't even work on Tsuna-"

"Nii-chan!"

Fon turned in time to see the kirin fly into the room through the open window. "Tsunayoshi-sama? Are you done already?"

"Nope. I'll return tomorrow as planned." Tsuna landed on the ground and picked Yuni up, who had her arms in the air demanding for a hug. "Hey Yuni, how was your day?"

"Nii-chan, I had a dream..." The child hugged his neck. "There was a sad doll. She was hurt... She was crying."

"I see." Tsuna hummed, bouncing her up and down. "Don't worry. Your nii-chan will take care of everything."

"Will she be happy?"

"Yes." He closed his eyes and sighed. "She will be happy. But for now, Yuni, would you like to go on a little trip with me?"

The girl's face lit up instantly. "I want to go! I want to go!"

"I'll take Yuni with me, Fon. Reborn-san led me to my shadow. Please tell mama for me."

Fon smiled. "That's wonderful, Tsunayoshi-sama. I will complete all of the preparations."

"Thank you. We'll be off now." The kirin turned around and merrily flew out of the room carrying his sister.

"...Did Tsuna just say Reborn, kora?"

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"-right? By the way, are you sure you don't want to eat any snacks, Kogenbu? We could go fishing, or do you prefer frogs? Haha, I love you too. Hmm? Don't worry, we aren't lost! I know where I'm going."

The snake slithered once around Takeshi's wrist before travelling up his arm. She stopped at his shoulder and stared curiously at the redhead Takeshi was carrying on his back.

"What's up? Oh! You're right. This guy can't sleep forever." Takeshi set Enma against a nearby tree. He poked the redhead's cheek. "Haha, wake up."

Enma slowly opened his eyes. He had be feigning sleep for the past while to prevent himself from needing to face the reality in front of him.

Takeshi laughed. "You're a really funny guy, falling asleep in the middle of an introduction. Anyways, this is Kogenbu." The black snake peaked her head out of Takeshi's collar and nodded.

"A-ah hi." Enma apprehensively smiled back. The snake is quite tiny and seems harmless enough. More importantly, "U-um... w-why is my shirt u-unbuttoned?"

"Oh I did that! I wanted to see if you had any marks or tattoos."

"E-e-e-e-eh?" The boy quickly straightened his clothes. "I-I don't have any!"

"Yeah. It would have been cool if you did though." Takeshi scratched the back of his head. "Maybe you had a dragon or something on your chest. There wasn't anything on your back either... Oh! I forgot to check your legs."

Why did Enma fear the snake in the first place? That cute little thing is so harmless compared to this crazy person.

"Well anyways, we should regroup with senpai and the others." Takeshi cheerfully grabbed hold of Enma's arm. "Let's go~"

The snake instantly poked her head against Takeshi's cheek repeatedly.

"What's up Kogenbu?" Seeing the snake turn her head, Takeshi followed her gaze. "Oh, you want Enma to be our guide? Haha, sure. Enma, how do we get to the beach?"

"E-e-err... It's just beyond these trees. You were about to go the w-wrong way..."

"Oh. Well lead the way!"

Enma gingerly pushed aside the branches in front of them. "U-um, see... we are here?"

"You're awesome, Enma! It's like we just teleported! Oh, I see senpai and Ken and is that Kikyo?" Takeshi dragged Enma along with him to the beach towards Ryohei. "Heeeey-"

Bam.

And that was the second time Enma crashed into someone. This time, it wasn't in any way his fault. The turtle had somehow dragged the redhead straight into this man with weird hair that had appeared literally out of nowhere. "S-s-s-sorry!"

The man was not impressed. He glared at the two boys. "Nufufufufu... today is just not my day. Children, disappear from my sight!" A huge black cloud erupted from the shadows and lunged at them.

The rest was a complete blur to Enma. Takeshi had quickly pulled his friend behind him and instantly slashed at the darkness with Kogenbu. The malice broke into pieces, the bits slowly swallowed by the shadows.

"Humph. So it seems that you are another one of those beings that malice is futile against." Daemon flipped his hair and walked off. "Pointless to waste time on you. Nufufufu... I have much more entertaining toys to play with."

Just as he said that, the malice which Takeshi had scattered floated off and entered the villagers. The extra malice proved to be too much for the humans. They became incoherent, unable to even distinguish between friend and foe, and instantly started turning on each other.

Enma trembled, heart dropping at the sight of the people he grew up with turn even more insane. He turned to Takeshi. "P-please, can't you do something?"

Takeshi clenched his black katana. "The only thing we can do is try to use force. We aren't able to clean malice. Tsuna said something about conflicting powers. So all we can do is… put them to sleep. Is that ok?"

"…" There wasn't much of a choice. At their level of insanity, they would easily start hurting themselves and each other to the point of death. The boy tearfully nodded, biting his lip and looking away. They can hate him all they want later, even haunt and curse him, as long as he can preserve the last bit of their dignity.

The turtle patted Enma's back, not any happier with the situation. He summoned Genbu with a tap of his foot. "Senpai! I'm going all out."

Ryohei frowned but followed Takeshi's decision regardless. "Byakko! Let's go to the extreme."

Byakko appeared with a roar, slowly creeping towards the malice. She turned back and stared at the two guardians, silently asking them if they were sure about their decision. Both of them averted their gaze. Seeing their hesitance, the huge tiger promptly sat down at the middle of the field and yawned.

Genbu, on the other hand, decided to not give her master a hard time and paddled into the battlefield. She poked the tiger with her nose, causing it to flinch. Annoyed, Byakko proceeded to climb on top of the turtle and lie over its shell. Genbu tried to shake the enormous cat off its shell, not in the mood to give it a piggyback ride. The two of them began rolling around, battling for dominance. They have evidently forgotten why they were summoned in the first place.

At the side of the wrestling beasts, Kensuke facepalmed hard. "...Why does this happen. Every. Single. Time." Kikyo patted his back consolingly.

Kyoko giggled. "Byakko-sama and Genbu-sama look like they are having a lot of fun!"

"...Yeah. Those two are at it again... Oh, you're almost here? Good. Tell Hibari to step on it." Hana hung up and turned to the humans around her. "Move out the way. Tsuna needs room. Oi, Yamamoto, Ryohei, redhead move it."

The two guardians moved Enma just in time before a strong wind picked up on the field. Seiryu descended onto the ground, carrying her master, the Kirin and little Yuni on her back. Tsuna flew off the huge dragon and drew a symbol in the air. At once, the malice gathered together, forming a large cloud above them. The people, having lost their energy source, collapsed onto the ground unconscious.

Daemon quickly snapped out of his surprise and lunged towards the floating figure. "You- how dare-" He didn't make it far. Tsuna easily forced him down onto the ground by reallocating his potential.

The kirin blinked at the appearance of his attacker. "...Eh? Roku- no. You're not. A descendant?" Tsuna stared at Daemon a little longer before shrugging. "I'll ask nii-san later." He flew down in front of Enma and gave an exasperated laugh. "I don't know what to say... Hi Enma, my name is Sawada Tsunayoshi, just call me Tsuna... Ah... this is quite awkward."

Tsuna received a blow to the head. Kyoya rolled his eyes at the kirin before bending down and modifying the awakening circle with a stick.

"Ow... Ok. Um. I'll start with a brief explanation I guess. I am the kirin. I am protected by guardian beasts. Five to be exact. Aside from Seiryu, Genbu, Suzaku and Byakko, there is also Ouryu, my void and essentially my shadow. The void is not part of any bloodline, rather it determined by 'bond' towards the kirin. As such, there is no clan dedicated to find the void. Instead, the kirin is supposed to summon their void using the blood of the four guardians. The summoning process also gives the void knowledge of itself... Enma, you are my void. You don't know that, though, because I kind of found you the unconventional way."

Enma blinked twice, not even vaguely understanding what was going on. He was still lost at the sight of a floating person in front of him.

"Well it's good that I found you. Now all I need to do is summon Ouryu and maybe that can help with this weird situation." Tsuna glanced at the markings on the ground. "Enma, could you please stand in the middle over there? Takeshi, Ryohei, I need you to stand on a side like Kyoya is is doing. Yuni, go stand with Nagi-" The kirin turned around. "Where's Nagi?"

"Akai-san said something came up..." Shoichi walked over to Tsuna. "She gave me this..."

The kirin stared at the vial of red liquid in the boy's hands and frowned. "...Nagi... Nagi lied to me again."

Kikyo rushed up to Tsuna and bowed. "Kirin-sama. I have been sent on Nagi-sama's behalf. She regrettably had to attend to some urgent business."

"Please lift your head, Kikyo." Tsuna sighed. "I know that she's busy. It's just that... It's just that I haven't seen her for so long..."

"Tsuna-niichan," Yuni pulled on Tsuna's robe. She patted his head after he knelt down. "It's ok."

The kirin gave a loud sniffle and hugged the little girl. "Nagi's avoiding me..."

"Tsunayoshi. Later." The dragon tapped his foot in annoyance. "Irie, stand there."

The kirin sighed as Shoichi scurried off to the final corner followed by Yuni. "Anyways, I didn't know how to summon Ouryu so I went to search the archives. There was no information there, unsurprisingly, considering how this is unprecedented. So in the end I decided to ask jii-san about what I should do. That was when Kyoya found me and tried to bite me to death... Well anyways, we figured that the blood of a clan leader, which is the strongest and closest to a guardian's, can work as a substitute by speeding up fate a little bit. Nagi said that she would be here." Tsuna pouted. "I guess she meant that the Akatori's blood will be here."

"Maa maa, Akai only said she would prepare everything-" Kyoya threw the tonfa too late.

Tsuna collapsed onto the ground in despair. "Nagi planned to not be here from the very beginning!"

"That is not the case, Kirin-sama." Kikyo quickly spoke up. "Believe me, Nagi-sama truly has a lot of work-"

"Come to think of it," Ryohei gave a thoughtful nod. "Akai hasn't showed up ever since that day to the extreme!"

"You guys! Stop adding oil to the fire." Hana ordered. "Tsuna, snap out of it and go summon Ouryu."

"..." The kirin sat up properly. "I don't know how."

"Oh." Everyone quietly copied Tsuna and took a seat on the floor. The dragon even closed his eyes. The rest of them began introducing themselves to Enma, who felt awkward at first but quickly got along with them, Yuni and Shoichi in particular. The others were still quite scary.

Reborn, on the other hand, blinked confusedly at the lack of outbursts from anyone, having fully expected for Kensuke to at least facepalm. Instead, he was calmly sitting down on the ground, like everyone else, and staring at the circle. "...Tsuna, what are you planning to do then?"

The boy shrugged. "We wait I guess. It should happen at any second. I have everything I need." He looked around. "Three guardians and a substitute... the circle is perfect, Enma is sitting perfectly still..." Glancing at the priests and priestesses, he shrugged. "Maybe you guys should go in as well?"

They stood up as prompted and also sat down in the crowded circle.

"Nope, still nothing. Hmm... I shouldn't need to go in myself..."

"Tsuna-kun, why don't we use that?" Kyoko pointed to the forgotten cloud of malice in the sky. "Kozarto-kun is your shadow, so maybe we need a shadow."

That remark caused some heads to turn, in particularly the other priests and especially Enma. The kirin, on the other hand, completely ignored their sentiments. "Oh! Good idea, Kyoko." Without any warning, the shadow came charging down at the circle, stopping centimeters above their heads.

None of the guardians or priests and priestesses reacted, fully knowing that Tsuna would never crash land a cloud of malice into them. Shoichi had squirmed a little and held his stomach but did not freak out either.

Enma, on the other hand, flipped out entirely. He instantly shrieked and curled up into a ball. At that moment, unbeknownst to him, he summoned a shield in the form of a large winged yellow dragon that ate the darkness. Enma peak his eyes out at the sound of cheers and applause. "...Eh? What? Ah!" He came face to face with the huge yellow dragon. "...Y-you are... Ouryu...?"

Ouryu stared at Enma for a long moment before beaming brightly and ruffling his red hair with a claw.

The void looked around the circle, recognition in his eyes. "Seiryu... Genbu... Byakko... and Kirin-sama."

"Please call me Tsuna." The kirin stood up and walked towards the circle. "Do you know everything?"

"I-I... uh... there are still some blanks..." Enma dipped his head, ashamed.

"That's not a problem. We can teach you the rest. What's important is that we are together again." Tsuna turned to the winged dragon. "We finally meet, Ou-chan."

The winged dragon smiled brightly, circling the Kirin several times before she gave Tsuna a high five and ruffled his hair. Satisfied, she flew off to bother the other guardian beasts.

"Haha, all's well ends well." Takeshi laughed cheerfully. "Isn't this a great vacation, Hibari."

Kyoya gave him a look.

"Takeshi." Tsuna pouted. "I told you not to tell Kyoya anything. You're supposed to obey the kirin."

The turtle laughed sheepishly, scratching the back of his head as he watched his dragon counterpart whack Tsuna with a tonfa. "Sorry Tsuna, I didn't know that you liked the rules so much."

The tonfa came in contact with Tsuna's head once more. "It is against the rules to let the kirin travel without a guardian."

"Ow." Tsuna winced, rubbing the bump. "I would've been fine. Relax, Kyoya, forget about the past. Isn't it great that we found Enma and Ou-chan? That's one big burden off your shoulders already. You can sleep better tonight~"

Kyoya rolled his eyes. "The herbivore will need a lot of training."

"Maa maa, at least he's here. Besides, Kozarto is a fun guy. I stalked him for half a day and I'm still not bored of him."

"…U-uh…" Enma moved behind Tsuna in attempts to be shielded away from Takeshi. "…T-thanks?"

"Haha, no problem. Let me stalk you again some time."

The void pretended that he never heard the comment.

"All right! So let's go camping to the EXTREME!" Ryohei slapped Enma's back loudly and ran over to their bags. "BYAKKO LET'S GO EXTREME SWIMMING!"

His shadow took off after him. "Onii-chan! You'll get sick!"

Takeshi laughed, merrily following them to get his fishing rods. "Alright Genbu, we're going fishing. Maybe this time Ken would actually catch something good."

"Huh?!" Kensuke elbowed the turtle. "If you didn't have your snake you wouldn't even catch anything."

"Maa maa, Kogenbu and I are a team~" The snake nudged Takeshi's cheek, evidently in agreement.

All this time, Reborn was completely speechless. "...You were serious about going camping."

Tsuna nodded. "Of course! That's what Reborn-san suggested, right? We had to do a minor errand first, but there's still half the day left." The arcobaleno would later learn that Hana and Kyoya's all nighter was actually spent on finding the camping equipment. That girl was currently sleeping on a lawn chair set up under a beach umbrella. She even set up a small side table with a drink and a book on top.

"Nii-chan, can we go swimming?"

"Sorry Yuni." Tsuna ruffled her hair. "The water is too cold. Why don't you go fishing instead? Take Enma too. I'll join you guys after I'm done here."

"Ok! Let's go, Enma-niisan. Takeshi-niisan, Kensuke-niisan, wait!" The little girl dragged the void off.

"Shoichi-san, Kikyo, are you going to stay as well?"

"I can't today. I promised the mayor I would help him out. I'm going to bring Kikyo-san back as well." Shoichi glanced at his watch. "I'll return tomorrow morning to take you guys back."

"Thanks. You've worked hard today, travelling back and forth. Thank you too, Kikyo, for making the trip out here."

Kikyo shook his head. "It wasn't any trouble, Kirin-sama."

"Still, thank you. What was Nagi busy with, by the way? Was there a problem?"

The green haired boy hesitated. "...Akatori-sama had wanted Nagi-sama to help her with some business."

"Is that so." Tsuna frowned. "I had something I needed to tell her. It would probably be faster if I went to the Akai mansion, huh."

"Would it be more convenient for me to pass the message to her?"

"No, it is something I need to tell her in person." Tsuna glanced at the sky. "Well you better get going now. Thanks again for the help."

"Kirin-sama..." Kikyo opened his mouth before he remembered his orders from Nagi. He slowly nodded. "I bid you farewell. Take care on the way home."

Meanwhile, Reborn had slipped away from the conversation, distracted by the lack of outside interference. His eyes scoured the surrounding area. Everyone was gone. The unconscious villagers were nowhere to be found, along with Daemon Spade. The arcobaleno grumbled with annoyance. He lost his chance of questioning the former mist guardian. Well, it's pointless to cry over spilt milk. Might as well enjoy the rest of his 'vacation' and go fishing on the Genbu-boat as well.

.

.

.

"I won't fly away, ok? Go back on vacation. Take a nap or something." Tsuna sighed as he continued to walk deeper into the forest. "Stop following me. You know what I am doing."

Reaching an area with no light, the dragon leaned against a tree and closed his eyes. "You always take too long."

"No I don't." Tsuna pouted. "Who was that?"

"…Daemon Spade."

While it was nice that Tsuna was provided a name, it was pretty much useless to him due to his poor memory. "Did you know who he was?"

"We were aware of his origins. That was why he was chosen."

"I see." Tsuna was in no position to complain about the treatment of Daemon Spade, considering how that person would at worst find this whole situation amusing. "Was he your experiment or nii-san's?"

"I take sole responsibility."

The kirin nodded. "My system was used as inspiration, wasn't it. You infused a spirit with malice to see how much power he can develop. I apologize for stopping the experiment prematurely but it did not have the potential to succeed."

He rustled. "The wrong spirit was chosen."

"No, the nature of the power is the issue. Unlike potential, malice grows exponentially. The spirit will lose control of the power very quickly even with a lot of safety precautions." Tsuna held his hand. "…Nii-san is sleeping more and more now, isn't he. I will try to gain my power as fast as I can. Reborn-san will lead me to Suzaku. I know he will. Nii-san will be fine."

"The Sun arcobaleno… I apologize for the disturbance, Kirin-sama. I will do my best to assist you. Enjoy your time and have a safe trip home."

Kyoya opened his eyes as Tsuna walked towards him, blinking at the boy's amused expression. "Hn?"

"No, it's nothing." The kirin walked on, not looking back. "Let's go fishing."

---

Author's note:

Omg... my chapter length is multiplying. What on earth happened, I wanted balanced chapters... Anyways, I'll add this character list as requested by Guest.

Thanks for reading.

-1458

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Kirin's bloodline:

Tsuna: The UMA of potential aka the kirin. Has been the kirin since the moment he began existing. Calls the celestial beast Kirin Ki-chan.

Nana: Tsuna's mama. She only gave birth to one person; everyone else calls her mama at her request. On a related note, anyone who Tsuna refers to with the English title, like mama or aunty, are part of the kirin's bloodline.

Mao: The previous Kirin, Tsuna's predecessor and great granduncle. He will be mentioned a few chapters later.

(not part of the kirin's bloodline but close enough...)

Enma: Ouryu, the kirin's shadow. Traditionally the Ouryu is summoned in a ritual after all four guardians have been gathered. During the ritual, the shadow would learn about himself. Since Suzaku is missing, there are blanks in his knowledge. Tsuna calls Ouryu Ou-chan.

Aoryuu clan:

Kyoya: Seiryuu, the kirin's mind. The nephew of the current Aoryuu (clan leader) and thus his identity as Seiryuu was discovered basically on the first day of testing, before Tsuna was even born. (testing will be explained later as well) In a tolerable and why-are-you-such-a-herbivour relationship with Seiryuu (Sei-chan)

Hana: Kyoya's shadow. The first shadow to be chosen, which is not a surprise considering Kyoya's nature to get things over with as soon as possible. Child prodigy. Kyoya chose her for her brains, not her purification abilities. (he doesn't give a damn about purification)

Fon: Tsuna's mentor and essentially bodyguard. Fon is supposed to teach Tsuna, the guardians and shadows what they are expected to do and protect them while they are at their most vulnerable. His status as a bodyguard is more of pretence than anything else.

Kurogane clan:

Takeshi: Genbu, the kirin's strength. Grandson of the current Kurogane (clan leader). His identity was also discovered early on but he stayed at the Kurogane mansion for most of the first half of his childhood due the death of his mother and uncle. Yamamoto Tsuyoshi married into the family. Wields Kogenbu (Bu-chan) which can turn into a black katana, black baseball bat, black fishing pole etc. Genbu (Gen-chan) can shrink into a shield and grow into a little island.

Kensuke: Takeshi's shadow. Has a crush on Kyoko.

Shirotora clan:

Ryohei: Byakko, the kirin's voice. A distant relative to the Shirotora (clan leader) and was discovered much later as Byakko. All this time, he thought that the huge white tiger tattoo on his arm was an extreme birthmark. (he's not exactly wrong)

Kyoko: Ryohei's shadow. After learning that her brother was Byakko, Kyoko went through serious training as a priestess and worked very hard to gain her abilities so that she could stay with her him. The hard work paid off and no one ever had any complaints about her status as Ryohei's shadow.

Akatori clan:

Suzaku: (It's obvious...)

Nagi: Daughter of the current clan leader. She is highly respected and deals with most of the clan's internal and external affairs. She has not physically met with Tsuna ever since that day where he drastically changed her lifestyle. Tsuna is worried.

Kikyo: Nagi's cousin. Acts as her secretary and proxy. (I can't wait for the future arc)