Leilani waited until everyone was done with their breakfast, gathering her mug and gesturing them to follow her to the living room.

She stayed standing while she waited for everyone to settle down. "I want to start with you guys now."

Fon leaned forwards "You want to teach us how to use our flames?"

"Well… yes but not quite."
"I don't understand."
"I want to remedy the issue you all have. I want to undo the problem that lets you all shrink."
"And you plan to do that how?"
"Make your flames understand."

Lal had leaned back, interest in her face but doubt present as well "You want to talk to our flames?"

"Not me, you will talk to your flames."
"Come again?"

"Your flames aren't sentient."

"That is obvious." Verde uttered.

"but they should be."

"Excuse me?"

"They are supposed to be sentient but…they aren't."

"This sounds like nonsense."

"It's the truth. You all hinder them from their full potential. Not just you, everyone since they got discovered. I'm not sure why but… it wasn't meant to be I guess. Fate is a bitch like that but as I'm here I'm going to remedy it."

Verde just sighed, still listening but not really convinced.

"First of all. You imbue limitations on your flames that are bullshit. Your whole understanding of flames is flawed."
"You're insulting us now."

"I'm not trying to. I'm not saying it's your fault but…. well it's the stand of things. Your whole mindset of what flames do is wrong."

She placed her mug on the table "Alright. Your problem is that.. you don't use my flames. I gave it to you and you refuse to accept and nurture them. You're not charging it and nurturing it, instead you just let my flames linger in you and solely credit it to me but this isn't a one man job. If you want to keep the growth stable then you need to use them."

"The only one of us who has cloud flames is Lal." Viper threw in.

"You don't need cloud flames. I did the growth aspect, you just need to use it."

"this still doesn't make sense."

Leilani sighed "Okay well… flames are the same. You all constantly act like they are completely different things and the only thing connecting them is that they are dying will flames but…that's simply not true."
She paced around, her hands gesturing to stress her point "Flames overlap. Even the understanding of what property flames have is flawed. I don't agree with any of them and even then they overlap, they intermingle, they are one of the same, just different aspects. They are all flames with the same power just with a different specialisation. It doesn't change that it's the same thing. It's more like talents grounded by the same force."

Verde sighed, still not convinced "And what are the properties in your opinion?"

"Well again they overlap but I did find major themes in them. Sun flames are transfiguration not activation, they are good for healing and quite a few other spells. Pain focused ones are pretty significant.

Lightning is perfect for defence, they harden, they shield and well… quite a few uses of them are more focused on making things hard to hold on to or hard to use. The lightning part naturally can be used too but it's more of a byproduct.

Storm? Dark arts, curses and jinxes. You destroy and you end things. You undo what has been done and you push it further. A destructive unbending nature. Storm flames are incredibly final and forwards. You attack.

Rain is all about stopping things, to calm down things. You can relieve pain, bind people, take any kind of drive out of them and even force them to stop.

Sky flames are mostly just charms, just a bit darker in nature.

The overlap part is especially shown through cloud flames. While they are perfect for changing, growing and duplication, they are good for healing too.

So we got Sun and cloud that can heal. Rain aids healing as it can take pain away the same way sun can inflict pain. They are all playing with each other and overlapping as you can see. Just different aspects of a whole,

Mist is actually one of the most complex aspects. It's glamours, which does play in tune with the clouds changing aspects. It's mind arts, transport and even divination and while you can create illusions… it's not their actual purpose. You can summon and most importantly conjure."

She looked at all of the doubtful faces, the mere not understanding glances and she sighed "It shouldn't be too abstract."

Reborn had leaned forwards "Even if all of this is true… how do you expect us to use your flames effect?"

"Through sentience. You don't do it actively. It's what your flames should be doing."

"Skull… we have to tell our flames exactly what to do."

"That's what you think. I disagree though and this is what we're trying to achieve here. I want to give your flames sentience. I want them to be able to do what they can do. They are supposed to know, not you.

Don't get me wrong. It's not your fault. Nature should have done it. But… it just didn't. My closest guess is that Checkerface or the other true earthlings had a part in it. Not that I can say for sure… but something made your flames unable to awaken in the actual sense… maybe it was the limitation that was placed on it. Maybe it was something more sinister. I don't know."

"This sounds like madness, Skull. Like a conspiracy theory."

"But I know it's the truth. You saw me do it. You saw everything I did. You always knew it was possible as I did it. It's not nonsense,."

The hitman placed his fedora down to rifle through his hair "I still can't make sense of it."
"You're not supposed to. Flames aren't something you are supposed to understand. They are supposed to act and make the impossible possible. They are the ones that should understand, not you.

You don't have to understand the workings for it to work. It isn't methodically, it's magic. It's not science or rules and logic, it's magic."

Fon folded his hands in front of him "And how do you expect us to do it then? You simultaneously tell us our flames should just do it while criticising their non existent sentience. I don't see how this will work out."

"I have a plan. I think it can work. I mean it's the most I got and it should work in theory."

"Doesn't sound that confident."

"I can't be. I didn't study this. I never even thought about it. All of this was always a given fact for me. I never doubted it or questioned it. I never had to."

"Alright." Reborn pulled his fedora back on "I'm willing. How do you want to do it?"

She smiled thankfully at him "Well I figured if I can't awaken your flames sentience forcefully we can nurture it. Just showing you one or two skills does not do it but…. if we manage to achieve a level in all of you, a true understanding you might be able to do it consciously and therefore build your flame up on the level until it soaked all of it up.

Still I'm certain just by teaching you it won't work especially as this relies on the sentience of your flames… so… instead of going the typical approach and just showing you a new trick every day… We have to distance ourselves from the mafia. We have to start with the basics. How I learned to actively use it. If you manage to understand this matter, which is vastly different from anything that is essential for the mafia or builds on your flame beliefs…

well i think you will get there and therefore we will start at the exact same part where I started.

It's not about learning how to do it. To have a number of magic words or something you can practise until perfection. This isn't the purpose. Your flames are supposed to figure it out. To be set in front of the puzzle and be so engaged in it that they jump over the hurdle.

They can do it. I know it and when this is achieved? Then you won't shrink anymore.

I'm certain the moment they understand it and learn to actually manifest, they should do what they are supposed to do, they will get the hang out of sustaining the growth spell on you.

So… I will give you all work to do or well.. your flames. You just have to force them to figure it out."

Verde pushed his glasses up "Like you did with Tsuna and Ryohei?"

"No… what I taught these two is too closely related to what you're actually certain you can do. We go a completely different route. The moment your flames understand they can do things they weren't supposed to do? This… this will open the possibility and I'm more than just hopeful it opens up the sentience. If that isn't enough then I have to teach you but everything is riding on the sentience… and this is what we're trying to achieve after all."