"Hibari?" she asked. Her helmet laying next to her as she looked up at the teen.

His eyes wandered towards her.

"I was wondering about something…" she tilted her head slightly, not looking at him but contemplating her words "You claimed Namimori as yours, right? With all the students, the buildings, the people in general and especially the school, right?"

He grunted.

"Then why don't you claim Tsuna?"

He raised an eyebrow.

"He's one of yours. He belongs to the school, to Namimori. He's part of your territory. Furthermore he gives you opportunities to fight."

He stared wordlessly at her.

"I'm not saying that it would make sense to follow him around like a duckling but… I'm kinda confused why you don't claim him while you say you claim Namimori.

I get that he breaks the rules but well… an apex predator, a wolf or a lion has a pack, right? Or a territory and they claim it which in other words means they protect what is theirs."

She stood up, stretching her arms "Just some food for thoughts."

She had been right. The reason why Yamamoto passed his trial didn't actually have anything to do with his strength. He was strong, sure. But it wasn't the deciding factor.

Sure, Hibari wasn't easy in any way with what she had to do and again the time was way too thinly stretched but she would do what she could. No reason to beat oneself over it. She had always been better at winging things anyway.

She balanced on the railing. "Hibari? You hate relying on others, right?"

Hibird had again found himself on her head but she didn't mind while stretching her arms out to make the balance easier. "Do you realise that's a weakness?"

She didn't have to turn around to know his eyebrows were furrowed. "I get you have the urge to pay them back and you try not to have to but… what if…" she jumped over the corner, wiggling on her toes to keep her balance "You end up in a situation, where there is nothing you can do? I mean it. Nothing. I don't say you're standing around being unable to do anything but in the end there is nothing you can really do. Imagine a creature, a monster… a ghost. Yeah, a ghost. You can't hit a ghost, only petrify and that's lightning and rain."

Maybe she could even do it on one leg?

"But yeah imagine that but you're in a room with someone else. Who cares who? Maybe Tsuna? Maybe your maths teacher? Maybe the Brazilian president? And they have a skill, a skill that can finish it but for that they would need someone to bash the ghost and doze them in flames. Something you excel at."

Jumping on the railing was quite tricky.

"So my question to you is… would you really refuse to take part? To let the other person help if it leads to the same goal? Protecting your claim? Your territory? You pack? Would you let your pride rule over or would you accept the necessity of teamwork?

I mean you both did the part you could. You probably did even more but without the other person you would literally either die or never win. Would it be really that shitty to work together then?"

Before she could do the next jump she was pulled back by her collar and sat back on the ground.

"Small animal."

"Yeah?"

"I can protect my claim alone. I don't need anyone."

"But what if you do? You really gonna lose just because of your pride? You really prefer losing?"

"I don't lose."

"Sure. You know it's hypothetical. Apex predators hunt in packs too. It's more efficient and gets bigger loot as well… but yeah, just some food for thoughts."

She raised her hand to slowly pet Hibird. "I think I became his nest."

Hibari looked at her for a moment longer before going back to his usual spot, closing his eyes this time and she settled down herself. After all, no one should disturb the cloud from sleeping.

Lambos' trial was actually the best example why she had been accurate. Sure, he was a child and therefore it was good that he didn't have to fight but she still took it as an indication why the trials weren't about strength.

It was whatever the first generation picked. For all she knew Alaude could want Hibari to pick strawberries and make tartlets out of it or just test how good he was at filing paperwork.

Maybe she should ask him if he was interested in learning how to bake? Not that it would have any use within the short period.

Still, she didn't think she was doing a bad job. Colonnellos training hadn't achieved much besides the talk the two had and Verde hadn't even tried to train the lightning. Who knew what the rest was doing?

Reborn stepped next to her "Shouldn't you be with Hibari?"

"Should, could, would… who cares?"

"This is serious, Skull."

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry. Hibari gets iffy if you bother him too much."

He sighed "How is it going?"

"Hibird made my hair his nest."

"Excuse me?" his eyes snapped towards her again.

"Yeah, we have become wonderful friends. I think Hibird really cherishes the time with me."

"Did you do anything productive? Has he learned something?"

"Maybe? I was considering if I could get him a baking crash course."

He stared at her aghast "...you… you have impeccable flame control and you haven't used it to teach him anything? You taught Tsuna a new skill in a matter of hours."

"Ah yeah. That was what I came up with. Honestly Senpai? A test about charisma? What did you expect me to do?"

"Skull. I need you to take this seriously."

She tilted her head "Sure."

"Please teach him something. It's-.. it's important Skull, please."

She hummed "Do you have any clue what kind of treats Hibird prefers?"

"Skull."

"Yeah?"

"Please."

She grinned at him "Why the long face? You seem like you're panicking. Just trust me a little, yeah? After all, you're dealing with the great Skull-sama. I'm pretty sure that at the end of the day Hibari and I will have matching flower wreaths."

She glanced a last time at the dark look in his eyes before starting to turn around "Bye bye Senpai. I need to search for some ribbons that match Hibari's eye colour."

She might have been mean to Reborn but… she couldn't give him what he wanted. She wasn't about to teach Hibari fatal moves with his flames, she had no interest in teaching him the actuality of what flames could do. She wouldn't unleash that on the world.

She would aid him in his trial, at least after she actually found out what his challenge would be. Until then… she would wing it.

She had actually brought the ribbons with her to school, settling in front of the cloud "You hate illusions, don't you?"

He grunted but his eyes were focused on the small bird on her head that she occasionally handed bird treats too.

"And that's why you don't use them, right?"

He grunted again.

"You know there is a saying; pride comes before the fall."

He narrowed his eyes slightly.

"I mean you make yourself weaker. You don't use the full end of your abilities. Sure, you're strong. You got good cloud flames and physical abilities but… what if that's not enough one day?"

He tilted his head slightly.

"I mean I am able to use all flames and I use them. Not because my sky or cloud flames are too weak but because of versatility. I have something prepared for every situation. It pays off. I can't get caught redhanded like this."

She carefully sorted through the ribbons she had brought. "But well that's your own issue. I just think it would be funny if you could pull one over Mukuro."

He stilled completely.

"Well to be honest. Mukuro doesn't fully understand his flames. I actually despise how mist users say the ability is illusions. It's wrong. Pretty wrong. I have quite a few terms for it. Conjuration, mind magic… the list goes on. Actually mist flames are quite versatile. But illusions? That scratches the bare minimum, even less so.

You know how Mukuro and Viper always gloat about their real illusions?"

Hibari's eyes narrowed again.

"Well it doesn't change that they are producing an illusion. Nothing more and nothing less. But well if you actually know what you're doing it's real. Not a real illusion but the real deal."

She raised her hand and a flower appeared in it, mist flames leaking out from it. "it's an illusion, right? It's not real but…" she conjured a tulip in her other hand. Starting to rip it apart, squishing it between her fingers "This one is real. This is why I call it conjuration. You can create anything you want even if you just imagine it. Have you seen the skill I thought Tsuna? Against dementors? Rotten pieces of flesh without eyes and wrapped in a coat?"

She carefully conjured several flowers before starting to make a wreath out of them.

"Well you could actually imitate it. it wouldn't be an exact same copy but it could fake it well enough. It would be real, created and imitated but nonetheless real. Way less effective but still close enough to the real deal."

She didn't look up, still focused on wrapping the ribbons around the flowers "In all honesty? You can almost conjure anything and they don't realise it. They are so certain that it's just illusions, that a skilled illusionist can see through them. But that's not it. They stand in their own way. So certain what they do is illusion that they themself limit them to that.''

She lifted her finger up from the wreath, holding it up as a small indigo flame burned and with an avis a flock of birds flew out of the flame, some flying up in the air another hoping in front of Hibari.

She still didn't look up though, not even when she started to make bubbles float up "You know these birds are real. The only way to get rid of them flame wise would be with storm flames, not mist. You can see the difference, can't you?"

She finally finished her wreath. slowly laying it in front of Hibari "You can have it. But the flowers will dry out. So.. you know, throw it away, keep it as a reminder that Mukuro has no clue about his flames and dry it or just leave it here."

She stood up. Still not looking at his face to give him some privacy "As always just some-"

He cut her off "Food for thoughts?"

She laughed and finally looked at him, his face in deep concentration as he stared at the wreath.

"Exactly." and with that she strolled off the roof.

It was slightly disturbing to watch G impersonate Gokudera but she didn't stay to watch this time. She had more important things to consider. For example, what kind of cookies Hibari would prefer.