Mafia x Vampire

by Nain Tarlow

He is no longer Vongola Decimo. He was a puppet, a bait no longer useful. Thrown to the wayside, his guardians, even his mentor left him. Wanting to get away, Tsuna left Namimori and was soon enrolled in Youkai Academy. With new friends, new enemies on the horizon, can the former mafia boss move on? Or will the Mafia once again try to take over his life?

9. Chapter 9

Hello everyone, sorry for the late chapter but that was one long chapter.

I mean seriously 18k, my wrist hurts from typing so much, but I didn't want to leave you with another cliffhanger, even though I didn't think the previous one was a cliffhanger. Sorry about that.

Now, most of the chapter is just talking, but I thought it was necessary to give you guys a rundown of the state of the mafia after the inheritance ceremony. Most of it's irrelevant for now but later they become really important. Also, I tried to define the youkai world and mafia interacting with each other, hope I made a good job with that.

We learn about the mafia, I even tried to give a little history of the vongola there and finally meet the mysterious mistress you heard about a few chapters ago. Feel free to tell me what do you think of them, I'm interested in your thoughts.

With this Tsukune's birthday is over and we are one step closer to things becoming serious.

Reviews:

Gold1992: Sorry for the cliffhanger wasn't intentional at all. It wasn't a message just my mistake, thanks for pointing it out.

LightJakRises: as you can see from enanza's reviews I make a lot of similar mistakes so no prob. But now that you got me thinking about it, narcissistic Tsukune will definitely appear in the story, maybe an omake or something

Bryan of Grimm: Happy to provide

DPSS: That's sure got to be interesting if/when the 'original' guardians assemble. Sadly that will have to wait for a while.

I really didn't realize how much a cliffhanger that was. Sorry :D

Enanza: I'm happy that I could surprise you. I went through many possibilities who would save the day before I arrived at Lambo. One of those ideas was Yukari being hit by the TYL bazooka and it's such an interesting idea I may use it later.

Lal Milch is an interesting case. For now, she doesn't have a big role, I mostly use her to show that Tsuna is not without allies and to force Tsuna to try and see through his own prejudices concerning cedef, vongola, his guardians, etc. I admit I'm also looking forward to playing with the others trying to figure out Tsuna's and Lambo's secrets and the two have a ton of fun. The next chapter definitely will have some scenes like that. As for Hayato, his entrance will be explosive that's all I can say.

The deal with Takeshi I can see both sides of the argument and I can tell all three of them (Tsuna, Kyoko, Takeshi) made mistakes that are gonna hang over them for a while. But that's confrontation will have to wait for a long time.

Also, I don't mind either way you decide to send the spell checks. We talked about it before, but I also have the bad habit of not noticing my pm's for a few days, so if you keep sending it with the rest of your review it will be fine by me. And before you ask this chapter doesn't have a cover since it's so connected to the previous one I didn't felt a need to give it one.

jetslinger333: for now the vongola will be the bad guys so to speak. As for what it will be after Tsuna's done with them, no idea.

Thanks, everyone for the reviews it means a lot to hear your opinion. Hope you enjoy this next chapter

Chapter 9: Shadows of the past part 2

"Sit down, Tsuna and have some breakfast." said Dino genuinely, through there was a hint of steel in his voice, telling him not to lose his cool as he gestured toward the table. There was a variety of foods laid down, reminding him he didn't eat before leaving school.

Deciding to do something productive, he grabbed a seat and picked a couple of toasts, and began to butter them. Though he couldn't help but take a wary look at the cedef agent sitting across him, who noticed and gave a wicked smile.

"You're still afraid of me, Sawada?" she asked with a prideful tone.

"That's not it." he denied instantly, shaking his head. Though he had a healthy respect for his trainer, similar to Reborn, his current attitude didn't stem from this fact. "The last time I met my father," he sneered the words, his anger breaking through his calm facade." he suggested sealing my flames away and practically leaving me braindead. So excuse me if I find myself distrustful of any subordinate of his." he explained as he put the toast down and took a deep breath, trying to remain calm.

Lal regarded him coolly for a moment, before a soft smile appeared on her face, taking Tsuna back. The words Lal and soft usually never appeared in the same sentence.

"Good, be wary but don't turn away from any possible allies." she praised as she slowly drank the last of her coffee."The reason I am here because my trust was shaken by Iemitsu's actions that day and the actions he took since then. As far as he and cedef know I'm currently at Mafia Island, spending my vacation time with Colonello." she explained, a little disgruntled.

Tsuna looked at Dino, silently asking with his eyes if Lal and the rain arcobaleno still danced around each other and he got his answer in the way of a bright, sunny smile from his older brother. He skillfully leaned to the side, just avoiding the cup Lal threw at his head.

"I can still run you through a few of my training exercises for old times sake." she said with a wicked gleam and was rewarded with an instinctual flinch from her former pupil. "Still got it." she murmured with satisfaction as she leaned back on her chair.

Dino coughed into his fist, hiding his chuckle, before he turned to Tsuna, an understanding look in his eyes.

"I know you are suspicious, it's understandable given what happened to you, but please remember you are not alone. Both Lal and I care about you, we are your allies in this, but most importantly we are your friends." Tsuna opened his mouth to say something, but he closed it just as soon, shoulders slumping as he had to agree with Dino's words. He had enough self-criticism to know he was acting like the whole world was against him. And that may be partly true since the vongola's influence could reach almost anywhere, neither Dino nor Lal gave any real reason to doubt them. He gave a small, but thankful smile to both of them."Now I know we have a lot to talk about, but before we go to grim topics, why don't you tell us about your new school? How do you like it there, have you made any friends?" he asked and seemed pretty interested in the topic, though Lal was anything but that. The Cavallone boss thought that they needed some easy topic to break the ice.

Tsuna instantly narrowed his eyes at his words, feeling something foreboding behind them. As far as he knew, Dino was not one for small talk, if there was something serious to discuss, he wouldn't waste time, preferring not to delay. That worried him, things must have been really not looking good in the mafia if he hesitated to bring up that topic.

"Sure." he said with just a hint of hesitation, forcing himself to adapt a light tone of voice and paste a painfully fake smile on his face."I accidentally got enrolled in a school for monsters, where the goal is to coexist with humanity, even though if they learn of any humans wandering on campus they execute them, but despite that, it's quite fun actually. I befriended an ordinary guy, who like me ended up there despite being human, a cute vampire with a split personality who regularly drinks my blood, a succubus who is desperate to get into the other human's pants, a perverted werewolf upperclassman, and a little witch genius who adopted me as her older brother. We make up the newspaper club of our school, and usually end up attacked at least once a week by some idiot." he said, and despite his attitude, he was watching the two of them closely for any reaction.

If the situation itself was not serious, it would have been hilarious. Dino who just happened to bite into an apple began choking, prompting one of his men to run over to him to try and help him cough out, while Lal simply clenched her fist, breaking the cup she was holding into pieces. Both of them gone pale, but thankfully Dino was alright and his subordinate left with a nod to them. It left both of them looking at Tsuna, demanding answers.

"Sawada! What have you gotten into?" the former military sniper demanded angrily. In response, the former mafioso gave a tired sigh and leaned back on his chair as he ran a hand through his hair.

"I would have liked better if you thought I made a horrible joke." he said before giving them a serious look. "How much involvement does the youkai have with the mafia?" he asked. It would help him a lot to know how much the omerta can cover in this situation.

Lal and Dino shared a look before the cavallone boss started to explain, losing much of his earlier cheer.

"Only the upper echelons of the mafia aware of the world of youkai, hidden away from ordinary humans. The involvement is minimal, the two groups tend to stay out of each other's ways, but there are still some overlaps. There are a few families that do business with them and vice versa. There are very few monsters who joined the mafia, though most of them hide their 'abilities' as best as they could since most of the mafia are still unaware of their existence. Similarly, there are hitmen and the like who work for monsters, or work exclusively in their world."

"Though, like the mafia, there is not just one faction at their side of the world." said Lal, looking over Dino."Mainly, you could separate them into 3 factions. One is the 3 dark lord faction. They follow the direction and teaching of the so-called 3 dark lords, who for some reason are hailed as the strongest monsters ever lived or something like that. They preach coexistence with humans but as far as I know, the 3 dark lords retired centuries ago. Or died. Not sure about that" she said, surprising both Tsuna and Dino with how much she knew.

"You sure do know your stuff." Tsuna commented with a grin, a little impressed. Though in retrospect he shouldn't be. Lal, despite some calling her a 'failure' was still an arcobaleno same as Reborn, and worked for what was basically Vongola's spy division.

"I hope neither of you forgot, but there was a reason the arcobaleno are called the seven strongest babies. Even though I am not one officially, the eight of us had more contact with youkai than most." explained Lal with a harumph, before continuing her explanation."The second faction is the so-called neutrals. They are content in ignoring humans as a whole, leaving peacefully in their separated worlds. We have more or less cordial relations with these two factions. The last is a scattered faction, without any union between them. Those are the ones who want to slaughter humans, to live without any restrictions. Thankfully the dark lords' faction keeps most of them in check. And if monsters try to rampage where the mafia is concerned, the vindice would intervene if they didn't have an in with a mafia family. If they had it falls to that family to bring order or suffer the consequences. That's the short story."

"Good to know." he was not so naive to think there were no problems in the youkai world, but from what he saw in the school, Tsuna was unprepared to the whole extent of it. He hummed in thought, thinking about looking into the 3 dark lords. It sounded interesting to learn about, it sounded as they were their version of vongola primo or something along those lines.

"Still, it isn't safe at all." Dino said, a hand on his chin. "I only knew about their existence, save for a few tidbits, since the cavallone doesn't have any contact with them. I think you should leave that school, Tsuna." he said, turning to his little brother, who instantly shook his head.

"Not possible." he denied instantly."Do you think I ended up there as a coincidence? Along with another human to boot? The headmaster, whoever he is, is aware of who I am and doubt that he will accept a simple letter of resignation. He obviously had something planned that involves me, and the easiest way to avoid whatever trap he may have for me is to walk into it." a grimace appeared on his face."Face it, without the vongola name I'm at a serious disadvantage. It's better I play by his rules, for now."

"I don't like it." countered Dino instantly, a frown on his face."It's dangerous, we have no idea what motives they may have or what they wanted with you. It would be best to-" he began to say, but Lal quickly cut him off.

"Forget it, Sawada is right." she said, giving her former student an approving nod."If he plays by their rules and knows what to expect he could avoid whatever is planned for him. As far as I know that school is under the 3 dark lords faction and out of all the youkai they have the most contact and connections with the mafia, so it's wise not to make them enemies unless it's necessary. Also, with him in that isolated school, he could be safe and protected in case what we fear happens." she added, looking at the Cavallone boss pointedly, making the young man hold his hands up in defense.

Tsuna gained a light frown as he tapped his fingers on the table at Lal's words. Whatever was going on, must be pretty serious. He understood why he might be in danger. Despite being passed over as Vongola Decimo, he still was one of Primo's descendants, as well as a person who had various connections to many high-ranking mafioso.

"Well, now the cat's out of the bag." he said softly, gaining Dino's and Lal's attention."What's going on that has both of you so worried?" He gave both of them a serious look, daring them to lie to him. They did not say it, but his stare reminded them of the old Vongola Nono whenever he needed to make his authority known.

"It's a long story, Tsuna." Dino said, at last, withholding a sigh. He looked tired, now that Tsuna looked closer to him. Worn, like it was weeks since he last slept without worry.

"I have time." he answered, raising an eyebrow. "I also have the feeling that quite a lot of things are connected, so it's better to get a clear picture." his older brother nodded at that, not able to refute him.

"Basically, the mafia is on the brink of a bloody civil war." Lal spoke up, looking Tsuna in the eye. "Ever since the inheritance ceremony, where Massino' she hissed the name with an angry expression and Tsuna would never admit, but it was touching." for all intents and purposes took over from Nono, everything changed. I would not dare to call the mafia peaceful, but before, during most of Nono's reign, there was a tentative stillness. There were no overt takeovers, violence was on a much smaller scale, it was as close to peace as we can get. Yet, now it looks like it's only a question of time before a lot of blood will be spilled." she said with a solemn expression.

"What do you mean?" Tsuna asked back, confusion in his voice. He went through a couple of rough and violent adventures himself, namely the trip into the future and Reborn also made him study the past of the mafia, and it was pretty bloody itself. But what Lal was talking about was much larger in scale, possibly worldwide. Just what happened in a few months?

"Well," Dino began to talk, taking over for Lal. "until now, for the last few generations while Vongola was the strongest mafia family, it was not without any possible opposition. Aside from the triads and the yakuza who had varying degrees of connections to the mafiosos in Italy, the vongola was not the undisputed strongest, at least on the outside."

"I knew about that, Reborn's lessons were nothing but thorough," Tsuna commented, nodding to himself. Reborn did not leave anything out when he taught him about this topic. The Vongola wisely didn't control anything. There was a valid point to the existence of the vongola alliance. Instead of conquering other famiglias, they made deals with others, while seemingly isolated others. As his tutor explained, it would have others openly and ruthlessly oppose them, feeling if they had nothing left to use. Instead, the Vongola ruled from the shadows, ensuring some families' loyalty through treaties, bribing and blackmailing others, leaving a scattered opposition that was there but not able to do anything. It was ingenious and mostly the work of Vongola Secondo and Terzo, to ensure the superiority of the Vongola.

There was a reason that the position of the Vongola Boss was so coveted. Respected by the mafia, triad, and yakuza alike, with the might of the vongola alliance at their beck and call, connections through the underworld, military and civilian sector with assassination squads like the Varia and intelligence organizations like the CEDEF able to reach where simply the name Vongola couldn't go farther. The Kingpin of the criminal world.

"But that's completely changed overnight." said Dino, handing Tsuna a few documents. He only briefly skimmed through them, to catch any name that would ring a bell, before looking back to Dino, a hard stare in his eyes. He didn't like what he found."Several famiglias suffered heavy losses out of nowhere, while other, disgraced famiglias got invited to the new decimo's inner circle. I also had my men make some discreet investigations, finding that Massino was getting heavily involved with the drug and prostitute markets, something all other vongola bosses avoided before him." seeing the unbelieving look on Tsuna's face he elaborated."Though the vongola always oversaw these markets, since they are a source of huge income, it was always the Vongola stance to heavily control, to avoid things like mistreatments of the women or raving addicts. Massino seemed to decide to go in the opposite direction."

"Several people who tried to oppose him ended up in incidents or just plain dead. He's not very subtle about that. It's like he wants the whole world to know that Massino Vongola is here and on the rise." Lal said, grumbling to herself."The last time the vongola was this aggressive was during secondo's rise of power and a lot of famiglias are being wary. There are rumors, comparing him to Secondo and you to Primo, saying it will be another bloody chapter of the vongola's history." Tsuna scoffed as he heard this and her expression told the same."Still, he alienated a lot of allies with this, even the Cavallone are trying to distance themselves." she added with a smirk, nodding to Dino who looked a little uncomfortable.

"How can Nono allow that?" Tsuna asked with narrowed eyes. He may not have a lot of flattering feelings about the old man, but according to what he knew he always belonged to the more moderate mafiosos. This unsubtle behavior was not something he would condone, he was a much sneakier, back-stabbing type who would make everyone think that you were the heir, only to rip everything you held dear away from you, revealing he never cared about you and only used you as a convenient bait.

Okay, admittedly, he kind of held a very big grudge against the old man and other involved parties. Sue him.

"Officially, old Timoteo is still the one leading the vongola, though he has been slowly begun delegating duties to the heir, Massino." Dino took over, an uneasy grimace on his face at the mention of Massino."His age and the worsening condition of his legs forced him to a wheelchair and he retreated to his summer retreat, which conveniently only the heir and the external advisor know the location of. In truth with Iemitsu providing reports and advice, it is Massino who leads the Vongola with Timoteo acting as an advisor and mentor. Because he isn't showing himself to the public, we have no idea if he has any idea of the full extent of what Massino is doing or if he supports it at all."

"I see." Tsuna hummed in thought."What else happened?" he quirked an eyebrow at their surprised expressions and elaborated."Don't give me that look. It sounds bad but only this much isn't enough to bring the mafia on the brink of war so soon."

"Sharp as ever." Lal snickered to herself with a proud expression on her face."You are right. We have no idea if it is connected to Massino, but several people disappeared during the last few months." at this Dino handed another document to him, that he took with a brisk nod."Some cases show signs of struggle while others appear as if the person in question was simply spirited away. We have yet to find some connection between them."

He looked over the names and relevant information on the missing people. It was a little more than fifty people and the sheer amount was worrying. Some were rank and file mafiosos, at first glance nothing important about them, those may be explained as nothing really serious since they were talking about the mafia. But others he recognized, like Naito Longchamp from the Tomaso Famiglia, Scorpion Bianchi, Lancia, and Visconti, Nono's cloud Guardian. He also noticed something alarming, a few of Byakuran subordinates from the future also disappeared like Genkishi and Glo Xinia. But the real shock was at the end of the list.

"Wait, Uni is missing?" he cried out in shock. After quick mental math in his head, he remembered Uni should be around 4 years old now, living with her mother Aria who's health was not looking good the last time he saw her after the inheritance ceremony, free of the mafia. He read further, his eyebrows rising."Aria and Gamma too?"

"Yes, though we believe it is deliberate in this case." said Dino, gaining a questioning look from his little brother."They went off the grid not long after the first disappearances happened, though when I talked about it with Reborn he didn't seem overly concerned before he went off to investigate on his own. I looked into it and while the Giglio Nero seems to be worried and trying to find them, it more of a token effort than anything."

"It seems logical, what with Aria's health problem and the need to slowly induce Uni to the mafia to be ready her for her role of sky arcobaleno." said Lal, looking just as relieved by the knowledge of Uni being safe as Tsuna."Hide away for a while, so they can prepare in peace."

Though it left a sour taste in his mouth, the thought of Uni being involved with the mafia at a young age, especially when he thought of the Uni he met in the future instead of the bright, happy girl who took an instant liking to him when Reborn dragged to him to meet her and Aria. Still, at least she was safe and for now, that's all that mattered.

"There's more." Lal spoke up, a grim expression on her face."A few other people also disappeared who aren't on the list for security reasons. Those most notably include Reborn and Byakuran."

"Bykauran?" he leaned forward, eyes wide in shock. Instantly, his mind jumped back to the future where he fought the wearer of the mare ring who was intent on conquering the world. He knew his present counterpart was heavily monitored by the Vongola in case he tries anything, but as far as he was aware, the other man didn't seem to have any intention of once again creating millefiore and waging war against the Vongola and the world. He wasn't even sure if he even unlocked the ability to see parallel worlds."How did this happen?"

"No idea, he just disappeared as if he was never there in front of his watchers." answered Lal with an irked expression since it was the cedef who mainly kept their eye on that particular sky."The Vongola is obviously keeping quiet about it, but Cedef is trying to find him, keeping a close eye on all of his future subordinates, particularly the real funeral wreaths. Unfortunately, we have yet to find any leads."

"Sounds terrific." grumbled to himself the former mafioso, before looking at Dino with a raised eyebrow. "I assume that was what Reborn went out to investigate." he said as his mind quickly went through the clues his former tutor left for him.

"That's what I thought, but I am not certain. You know as well how secretive Reborn is. All we know that it's been almost a month since he last made a contact with anyone and none of the usual ways we could reach him worked." explained Dino with a troubled expression."What's most worrying is that he is usually very prepared. He didn't even leave behind anything to indicate what he was working."

"That's not exactly true." Tsuna cut him off with a small grin. Both of them looked at him in question, prompting him to explain."Not long after the start of the school year, Lambo showed up with a bag full of my stuff, saying Reborn sent them to me. At first, I thought nothing of it, since it only contained things like my gloves, dying will pill, and the like. But there was more to it. First, there was a note with the words Remember Kokuyo on it." he said, earning a surprised look from Dino, while Lal immediately began to ponder its meaning.

"Kokuyo? Does he mean your clash against Mukuro and his gang?" she asked out loud."Is Mukuro behind this?"

"It could mean a lot of things." Tsuna argued, leaning back on his chair. "But the more important thing is this." with that, he held out the memory card Reborn left it. "He left it inside the charm Kyoko made me, one I remember throwing into a river. It's encrypted, so no idea what is on it. And knowing Reborn it would be no small easy feat to decrypt it." he said as he placed down the card, both Dino and Lal looking at it with completive expressions.

"That's Reborn for you." said Dino with a small grin."It makes sense. Most people wouldn't think of you when they think of who would Reborn contact in case of an emergency. No offense." Tsuna shrugged his shoulders, showing he was not offended."I'll have a few of my men see what we can learn from it."

"Forget it, I could use Cedef's resources and we would have it cracked open in no time. Worst case scenario, I talk with Verde." Lal objected as she held out a hand for the memory card, but he only flipped it over his hand.

"I'd rather not." Tsuna said, shaking his head."No offense to you Lal, but I don't trust anyone at Cedef right now, save for you and we don't want anyone to get a look at the files on it. Verde is also too high profile, if we don't want whoever is after Reborn to catch onto us, we need to avoid tipping our hand. Thankfully, I know who to ask." his words caused both Dino and Lal to raise an eyebrow in curiosity.

"He does make a good point." Dino said, conceding the point."Who do you have in mind?"

"There was a phone number with the card. It was Gokudera's." Tsuna tossed the card to Dino who caught it with a blink. "I asked him to visit you in a few days, please give it to him. I'm pretty sure it was designed to be decrypted by him, and this was the best way I could think of getting it to him." he explained as leaned back, his face impassive, not showing any emotions.

"Your storm guardian, Gokudera Hayato? It's not a bad idea." Lal said thoughtfully. She pulled down her visor to her eyes and a few images flew by through it, too fast for Tsuna to see anything."After the inheritance family he went around Italy, visiting a lot of former allies of yours, but soon fell off the grid, the cedef losing his trail several times. It was not a priority to observe him, still, we have no idea what he was doing."

"Knowing Reborn, he had kept tabs on Gokudera." said Dino, mulling over the thought. "It' true that despite his usual temperament, he is a genius and I'm sure Reborn is completely aware of how his mind works. All right." he said, pocketing the card into an inner pocket. "I'll give it to him. It's best not to show our hand too soon and avoid alerting whoever is behind all of this. But Tsuna," he turned toward his pseudo little brother with a worried look."How do you truly feel, involving one of your former guardians?"

"Pass." he replied with a stony face before his will apparently run out and he slumped forward tiredly."Don't know. Don't want to think about it." he said, looking up and meeting Dino's eyes. He was tired, his mind was whirling around furiously at the things he has yet to properly process. "I have a lot going on right now, I'm simply not in the correct frame of mind to think about it. When things settle down a little I can answer that, not now. What else do you have for me?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

"Shamal." Dino said, a frown appearing on his face. "I tried to find him, but when we got to his last known location we found it in ruins. No idea if it is connected to the other disappearances, but he is gone, we couldn't find him. I'm sorry." he added sincerely.

"I see." Tsuna replied just a bit too calm, trying to hide the turmoil that went through him. But no matter how many emotions ran through him in the span of a second, he had to remain calm and find a solution. He felt responsible for Tsukune, no, he was responsible for the situation he was in. And he would be damned if he didn't find a way out of this mess. "It's kind of a big coincidence that Shamal disappears just when I'm in serious need of his help." he added with a thoughtful frown.

"I doubt it's that." Lal disagreed, shaking her head."Trident Shamal has a lot of enemies and he has a vast array of skills that could be useful for anyone for several reasons. There are too many possible reasons for his disappearance."

"Still, we shouldn't exclude the possibility just because it's far-fetched." objected Dino, a thoughtful frown on his face."It's pretty obvious that a lot of things somehow boil down to the Vongola and well, you." he said apologetically, but Tsuna simply shrugged it off, before the older man gained a worried look."Are you alright? What did you need Shamal's help for?"

Tsuna was silent for a moment, debating with himself how much to tell them. It was pretty clear that he trusted them, he wouldn't be here otherwise, but honestly, the inheritance ceremony and its aftermath left him with a lot of emotional scars. Still, after a long moment, he began to explain.

"Wel, first off, since the inheritance ceremony I lost the ability to use my sky flames and go into hyper dying will mode." he admitted and he noted both Lal's shocked gasp and Dino's never changing expression. He was not very surprised about this. It was just like Reborn, who was aware of his condition to inform his other student so he could keep an eye out for him if he was not able. That crafty tutor from hell.

"You don't have access to your flames? And you went to a school filled with monsters?" asked Lal, outraged at his apparent stupidity."What were you thinking?"

"It was pretty dicey a few times, but I made it work." he admitted with forced nonchalance, though inwardly he winced at what he had to tell them. "Thing is, there's another human in the school, Tsukune and I sort of ended up looking after him, one thing led to another and had to use the dying will bullet on him a few times." he forced himself to look at Dino who only wore an expression of silent reprehension, instead of Lal, whos glare he could easily feel on his person. "The problem is, he is an unlucky kid, so Ihaveuseduptenbulletssoheprobablywillcatchtheskulldisease." he mumbled out under his breath, aware of the impending explosion.

"I didn't catch that. What was that?" Lal asked with a dangerous edge to her voice, making Tsuna reflexively lean back on his chair. He knew from experience that making Lal angry never boded well for him.

"I may have used ten bullets on him, well nine bullets and one pill and he probably will catch the skull disease and die in a few days if I don't think of something quickly." he admitted, ready for the ensuring scolding, but even he was caught off-guard when he found the small arcobaleno suddenly standing in front of him on the table, grabbing his collar and began to shake up furiously.

"What were you thinking you stupid idiot!" she demanded as she began to throw him around like a ragdoll, much to Tsuna's shock. Sometimes he forgot that she was just like Reborn in so many ways."You used the dying will bullet on a civilian! What would have done if the Vendice came to take you because breaking Omerta? You were lucky the monster world is a literal gray area. But you had to go even further, you reckless, unthinking idiot! Ten bullets? Why the hell would you use all of those bullets if you were aware of the consequences?" by the end Tsuna's eyes were swirling wildly, he was at the edge of losing consciousness.

"Calm down, Lal Mirch." as always, Dino remained cool and tried to keep things peaceful."I'm sure Tsuna is aware of how recklessly acted, but it's no use beating him up over it. I will have some of my men look into how we can acquire the opposite of skull disease to save him, but it will help no one if you beat him up." he then made in Tsuna's humble opinion one of the most dangerous things in the world and grabbed the chibi by the collar of her cloak, holding her up and away from Tsuna.

Predictably, that simple act transferred her ire to Dino, so Lal began to kick, punch and even bite the poor cavallone boss everywhere she could even as he tried to keep his grip on her collar. None of his nearby men were brave enough to come and help him. Tsuna meanwhile looked up at the admittedly funny scene, still dazed and unfortunately couldn't stop the words from coming out in time.

"Huh, if we could film this, we could sell it to Colonello for a lot of money." he noted absentmindedly, before sheer survival instinct forced him to duck down below the table, just a moment before 3 bullets went through the place where his head was a moment ago.

Cautiously he peeked out from under the table, meeting the sight of Lal pointing her gun at him with a furious expression. Dino no longer had his hands on her but sat there with hands held up in surrender.

"Care to repeat what you just said?" she demanded in an angry voice, prompting him to furiously shake his head. She glared at him for a very long minute before she gave a sigh and put away her weapon, walking back to her seat. Both males let out a very audible sigh of relief, before returning to their seats properly.

"Tsuna." Dino said softly, the younger teen turning to him in question."If you accept one advice from your older brother, it's not wise to make a woman angry at you, especially those who can back it up." in response he nodded his head, the inner side of Moka coming to mind almost instantly.

"Damn right." Lal hissed out as she refilled her teacup. Apparently, she heard them.

"Anyway," Dino once again spoke up, when he said that Lal calmed down for the most part."I don't have to tell you how reckless it was that of you since it's clear that you already understood that. Still, without Shamal, it will be a little harder but I will have my men reach out to a few of my contracts. The largest obstacle is the time." as if on command Romario stepped into the room and went to his Boss's side. After given instructions, he quickly left, already in the middle of making a call."Now, was there anything else you wanted to talk about?"

"Well, I have one last option I could look into." Tsuna said, thinking about the invitation he received a few weeks ago. "But there is something else." he looked at both of them carefully, his face void of emotion, but his eyes still betrayed how uneasy he felt. It took a long moment until he finally decided to speak up, shocking both of them with two simple words."I'm dying."

"Sawada! What are you joking about-" Lal immediately snapped at him, before Dino silenced her with a simple gesture, before piercing Tsuna with a surprisingly cold gaze. Gone was the smiling older brother figure and sat there the boss of the cavallone family, the third strongest in the vongola alliance.

"Now, now. I doubt Tsuna would ever joke about something like this." he smiled, but there was no denying the cold edge it had, promising retribution if it turned out to be anything but serious. "Tsuna, what happened?" he asked turning to the silent teenager.

Tsuna simply sat there, looking down on the table, deep in thought with a small frown on his face. He didn't mean that to slip out, he never intended to say anything about that, convinced that they could be no help to him. He noticed his right hand shaking, so he clenched his fist, cursing himself to this show of weakness.

But he also had to admit, he had no other options. There was no Reborn miraculously appearing with a cure, no technique that he had to master to get better and no Vongola related power-up to solve things. He was alone, without much support save for the two people here. He leaned back on his chair tiredly, running a hand through his hair before looking at them.

"Whatever happening is related to my flames. I can feel them, beneath my skin, but I am unable to release them. It's as if a dam was about to break, I feel as if my flames are destroying my body." he admitted, trying to find the correct words for what was going on with him."It's as if my blood is on fire, what's worse it's even affecting my temper."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Lal after she calmed down a little and tried to remain objective. It worked more or less.

"All of us are perfectly aware that I am a mass of traumas and emotional baggage waiting to explode." he admitted with a straight face."Ever since the inheritance ceremony, my temper was a lot more haywire and I thought it was because of what happened, but whenever I lose my temper the feeling of being boiled alive just strengthens, so it is a safe bet that anger could shorten whatever time I have left."

"You should have told us a lot sooner." Dino shouted angrily, losing his cool for a moment. He took a big breath to calm down, before turning to Tsuna."How are you holding up?"

"For all intents and purposes I should be dead already." he answered back a little flippantly, absently rubbing his neck where Moka usually bites him."My body probably would have already failed if I hadn't discovered that a vampire sucking my blood regularly could keep the symptoms down. I'm alright for the most part, the worst things are bouts of tiredness or simple irritability."

"And soon not even that. Now that we know, we could help you." finished his older brother for him, his mind already thinking up what they could do."Shamal may be one of the best doctors in the mafia, but he is not the only one. I can reach out to every one of them that I have something on. I will have them brought here to Japan and ready the best medical facilities to make sure you are alright. Then they can look into making a cure-" he began to say before Lal quickly cut him off.

"And will end up finding out nothing." she objected, making both Tsuna and Dino look over."There is a reason why the Vongola stands above most families. A large part of it is the access and, knowledge regarding dying will flames. Most other families' knowledge is vague, gappy, and based on theory. I doubt you could find anyone who could come up with anything without contacting Vongola, which I'm pretty sure we want to do if we want to cure Tsuna of this flame-based poison." she explained to them.

"Are you sure it is poison?" asked Dino with narrowed eyes."Couldn't it be a disease that only affects flames?"

"No, that's the same conclusion I arrived at." disagreed Tsuna with a thoughtful look on his face."It's the most logical assumption, especially if we think about the timing."

"Precisely." Lal said, giving him an approving nod."Think about it. After the inheritance ceremony, Tsuna lost his free access to his flames then he develops this condition which could have already killed him if not for unique circumstances." she said, not quite sure what to think of the whole vampire drinking his blood daily thing just yet."He is the descendant of Vongola Primo and the only other contender for the title of Decimo to Massino. And despite being declared the heir, his position is still shaky enough especially with recent happenings for him to fear Tsuna."

"That actually makes sense. Too much for me to like it." Dino admitted though he looked quite disturbed by it."So we need to find somebody who is an expert on dying will flame and not tied to the Vongola at least not too close to the current administration." he summarized."What about the arcobaleno Verde."

"I would leave him as a last resort. He might be an expert at flame related tech and have more than a rudimentary understanding of the human mind, Verde is more of a typical mad scientist. I wouldn't leave Tsuna's health to him until we have no other choice." Lal disagreed instantly.

"I want to live." Tsuna spoke up solemnly, not looking at either of them but at the ceiling. His eyes were far away."If you asked me a few months ago I wouldn't have cared either way. I had no place in the world, I was lost and I just went through the motions. But it's different now." he lowered his head, meeting Lal's and Dino's worried eyes. His eyes brimmed with determination and resolution. A light orange color coated his otherwise brown eyes, surprising both adults."For the first time in a long while when I wake up, I'm not expecting Reborn to pop out of somewhere to torture me with some made-up Vongola tradition only to realize that there's no Reborn and I'm alone after my guardians, my friends left me behind. I'm not even sure what to think of them anymore. Lambo is still with me, being his annoying self, while Gokudera sounded so genuine when we spoke on phone. Was I wrong about the others too?"He gave a loud sigh, feeling drained from admitting this."I've made new friends, strange, sometimes bizarre friends. I found the will to live again, to start walking forward instead of looking behind, lamenting what I lost. I won't give up so easily." he declared to them.

"I'm glad to hear it, Tsuna." Dino agreed with a soft smile. "We will help you, you won't have to face this alone." he promised, prompting Lal to nod, though she seemed a bit unease at them expressing so much feeling. This just wasn't how the mafia worked, usually.

"You have something in mind?" she asked with narrowed eyes, prompting Tsuna to gave her a small smile.

"I'm not ready to roll away and die just yet, so let's try out every possible option." he muttered as he pulled a small card out of his pocket and placed it on the table, in front of Dino."I was given this business card a few weeks ago. Do you know anything about the place?"

"Treasures of the seven world?" he read out loud before his eyes widened along with Lal as the meaning of the words reached them."How did you get this?"

"This place is the black market of black markets. If you are someone in the mafia, this is the place where you want to reach someday. Its location changes periodically and even if you knew the location, without a precise invitation you could never find it. All sorts of people tried before from simple grunts to bosses themselves. Yet none of them were successful, some even dying in the process." just like Dino, Lal was also in a state of shock."And you said you were simply given one?"

"Yes. A girl showed up at school, a human and a powerful mist user at that. She said that her mistress would like to meet me. For some reason she used the title Decimo when referring to me." he explained, before he narrowed his eyes, remembering one particular detail."What's more, she specifically told me their shop has the angel disease."

"The merchant of truth is said to use a collection of young girls with very strong flames to carry out messages." Lal mused, deep in thought."Still, it's strange, people rarely got invited to her shop, even of the arcobaleno only Reborn and Viper got an invite to one visit. What's even more strange she doesn't ask for money. She asks for sometimes random things, sentimental or even simple junk. No one understands why she asks for certain things, but all agreed she holds up her end of the bargain if the asked compensation is delivered."

"That person almost literally stands in the grey area between the criminal underworld and the world of monsters." Dino took over."She has deep connections with the mafia, the triads, the yakuza, but she also has frequent contact with the three dark lords fraction, and if the rumors are believed she also supplies the so-called rogues of the monster side though there' no evidence of that. She is also said to be over a thousand years old. You can say she invented the black market." he said in the end with a rueful chuckle.

"So that my only choice." Tsuna said quietly, standing up from the table. "Then I guess it's time to meet the mysterious merchant of truth." before he could go far, Dino was at his side, grabbing his shoulder.

"Not so fast Tsuna." he smiled at his younger brother, though for some reason a shiver ran through Tsuna."If you are gonna meet such a prestigious member of the mafia, you better look the part. Also, we have to get through a quick lesson so you wouldn't do anything embarrassing."

"I'll pass." he tried to get out of his grip, but the boss of cavallone held on to him with an iron grip, his cold smile promising pain."You are got to be kidding me." Tsuna muttered sourly even as Lal began to laugh to herself.

-0-

"I feel stupid." Tsuna muttered with a sullen frown on his face as he tugged on the orange tie around his neck, trying to loosen it, before Romario who sat in front of him leaned forward, gently slapping away his hands and began to set the tie properly.

They were sitting in an expensive limo, with Dino sitting next to Tsuna and Lal facing the tenth generation boss of the cavallone. Aside from Romario, one of Dino's men was driving the limo, while there were three black cars following them, full of his subordinates. Talk about paranoid.

Just like Dino and Romario, Tsuna was wearing a very expensive looking tuxedo, complete with an orange tie, giving him the look of a proper mafioso. It was uncomfortable, it reminded him too much of the one he wore at the inheritance ceremony at Reborn's insistence. At least, Dino was gracious enough to not put the symbol of Vongola on it, instead, the small cavallone crest was sewed on the collar, to show his support without being overly dramatic.

It was a little shocker that Dino brought with him a tailor who exclusively worked with dying will flame-resistant material and his older brother had him measured and soon the tailor with his team went to work. Amazingly, by the time lunch was over they had the whole outfit ready, complete with a small hat similar to reborn with an orange stripe and black dress shoes that looked more expensive than the house he lived with his mother and the others.

The time until then was spent with Dino and Lal Mirch drilling him how to act when he arrived, though he found little point to the whole thing. They also just talked, staying away from serious topics, letting him relax and think of the times where everything was easier and he did not need to look over his shoulder constantly.

"Please, Tsunayoshi-dono, don't ruin your clothes. As they say, first impressions could make or break a deal and we want you to have a most desirable outcome of your impending meeting." scolded Romario gently as he fixed his tie and leaned back on his seat.

"Can't help it. I just don't see the point of all of these posturings." he muttered as he looked away, prompting a chuckle out of Dino who until now was silent, deep in thought.

"Now, don't say that. I thought Reborn taught you better." his smile widened as a visible shiver through Tsuna, before he looked out the window."We are here." he announced just as the limo stopped.

Following his lead, Tsuna also looked out, though he only saw a busy street in the middle of Tokyo. He strained his eyes, but he didn't spot anything extraordinary, nothing screaming secret mafia shop or anything like that. Turning back to Dino, he raised an eyebrow in question.

"According to the address, it' just down the road." explained Dino."But you are the only one who was invited, so to avoid making the wrong impression I thought it would be better to drop you off here." Tsuna nodded in silent agreement and went to step out of the car but before he closed the door behind him his brother once again spoke up."Please be polite Tsuna and watch your temper." he warned."Don't forget that your friend's life hangs on your success. When you finish, call me and we will pick you up until then we stay in the area."

"Don't worry about it so much, I know what to do. I will be back before you know it." he promised with a small smile.

"Sawada." Lal, who until now was silent spoke up suddenly before he could close the door behind him. She looked at a loss for words but after a moment she continued."Don't do anything foolish."

Tsuna only smiled at her, remembering her inability to wish her students good luck, before giving a careless salute, much to her annoyance, and closed the door behind him. He looked after them a long moment as the limo drove away, the 3 black cars faithfully behind, though he caught Dino's men nodding respectfully to him.

Despite being early afternoon, before school ended, the street was full of people, many of them his age, so he didn't stand out very much, save for his attire, which gained a few surprised and confused looks around him.

Pulling out the business card he was given, he quickly checked where he was before he started walking. As he dodged the large mass of moving people, he absentmindedly noted it was a very strange place to have a shop that served exclusively the human underworld and the monster world. It was a busy street, filled with various stores and warehouses.

As he walked around, a little distracted by the sights, Namimori was never this busy after all, he got the sudden urge to look to the side. He did so and he stopped in shock, eyes wide. Between an ordinary convenience store and a hardware store stood something really out of ordinary. First off it was made of wood, but what really set it out from it's surrounding was that it looked like a small Buddhist temple. It even had a small traditional garden surrounding it.

What made the whole thing even more ridiculous that a giant neon sign was hanging from the gate, that even during daylight was shining with the seven colors of the rainbow, proclaiming the temple as the Treasures of the seven world. And for some hard to grasp reason all other people walked past it, not even looking at it.

"I'm not sure, but I think that's the place." he deadpanned to himself with an unimpressed frown."Nice to see the consistent ignorance of subtlety in the mafia shows up here." he mumbled to himself as he purposely began to walk towards it, Natsu giving with a small growl from his ring. "I know buddy, thanks for having my back." he said smiling at his partner.

Tsuna approached the entrance, trying to ignore the weird feeling crawling upon his spine as he walked through a wall of thick mist flames, probably what kept other people from noticing this place. before he could knock, the door opened, the form of a familiar figure appearing in front of him. It was the girl who visited him at school not that long ago.

"Greeting Sawada-dono." she greeted him with a low bow and Tsuna immediately knew something was off about her. "Our Mistress was looking forward to your visit." she informed him as she led him inside, speaking all the while in a humble, respectful way.

Giving her a wary glance, he soon concluded that even though she looked remarkably similar, she wasn't the girl he met before. The differences were subtle, but they were there. She wore the same clothes, though hers had a light blue color and her eyes were similarly light blue instead. She had a slightly more muscular build if he had to guess she was more used to close-combat. The feel from her was also different, instead of the subtle chaotic feeling that he tended to feel around mist users, her whole demeanor was much more calming and in control.

"You have a name that I can call you by, or like your twin, you prefer to remain in silent anonymity?" he asked curiously as she led him through a long corridor. The silence was his only answer, making him sigh to himself."Okay then, anonymous girl in blue."

They walked in silence, through a long straight corridor, that was definitely longer than the dimensions of the small temple would permit, though Tsuna wasn't surprised by it. He long ago let go of any expectation of normalcy, since it seemed his current life didn't permit any semblance of it.

"We arrived Sawada-dono." She spoke up as they finally arrived at a large wooden sliding door. Opening it, she gestured for the former mafioso to enter.

He stepped into a spacious room, looking around in interest. Despite being no visible lighting and no windows, he could see easily. The room was full of various objects. He saw antique weapons hanging from the wall, armors of various eras standing guard, bookcases full of old, worn, and probably priceless books. He saw a clear pacifier hanging from the neck of medieval armor, a stake that had blood dried on it and he even spotted what might be a portrait of Vongola Primo standing with his arms around a shorter man that had short, spiky red hair and red eyes.

But the antique objects are not the only thing filling the room. He also saw machines the like that would leave Spanner and Irie drooling, tubes filled with various chemicals. There was even some kind of robot armor, that bore an increasing familiarity with some of the mangas he read when he was younger. The room gave a sense of containing everything one would desire. Tsuna supposed it was the whole purpose, to entice potential buyers of all that little shop can offer.

After he had a quick look at the room his eyes widened as he noticed the other people in the room. At the other end of the room, there was a lavish desk, filled to the brim with strange trinkets, a few books, and most interestingly, a few cubes that he quickly recognized as box weapons, a technology he only found in the future ruled by Byakuran. As far as he was aware, this technology wasn't even in a research stadium in the current era, so it begged the question of how did they get here.

As he walked forward, he saw someone sitting behind the desk, but most of his attention was diverted by the five girls standing before the said desk. Most importantly the fact that all of them looked like the girl walking behind him.

The first one was the mist user girl he met at his school. She wore the same violet clothes and stared at him with an impassive gaze. She stood at the right side of the desk, hands behind her back. Next to her stood an identical girl, with her clothes bearing the color purple. Her eyes were also purple and though unlike her siblings, her hair seemed a touch more disheveled, something that seemed to be at odds with her impeccable clothes.

On the other side of the table, three girls stood next to each other. The closest to him had green clothes and green eyes, while the one next to her wore a crimson red color, complimenting her red eyes that seemed to subtly glare at him. What raised an eyebrow from him was the last girl, the farthest from him. Her clothes were bright yellow, just like her eyes that seemed to almost literally shine with excitement. Instead of the stoic demeanor by the other girls, she seemed to vibrate in her place, gently rocking back and forth on her heels.

Tsuna narrowed his eyes as he arrived to an uncomfortable suspicion, but the small warming of the ring on his finger, made his shoulder relax slightly. That's right, he was not alone in this.

His attention was pulled toward the woman behind the desk, their so-called Mistress most probably. She was sitting leisurely in her seat, taking her time studying him with her, shockingly enough pure white eyes that seemed older than she appeared. As he got closer he felt as if she was seeing everything that he was and by the small smile on her face she seemed to approve. He honestly wasn't sure if he should be happy about this.

She looked like a slightly older version of the girls that she was surrounded by, with long black hair that fell in waves on her shoulders. She wore a cheongsam similar to what the other girls wore in white, though hers seemed a touch or two more risque, to show off her more mature body. She was resting her head on her right palm as she watched him with an amused smile. She had a silver bracelet on her left hand that interestingly enough had a small cross attached to it.

Despite her misleading looks, Tsuna could feel without even trying to concentrate on it the waves of power rolling off of her, a strange mixture of dying will flames and what he began to call youkai energy. She was strong, far stronger than him at his peak with the vongola ring. She was not one he should make an enemy out of in his current situation.

Tsuna stopped in front of her desk, the rain girl who led him here stepping next to the mist user, the six of them forming some sort of guard. He repressed a snort at that thought, very much aware that with his body in its current condition he would be a very small threat to anyone in the room.
His posture was relaxed, at least on the outside, though he sincerely doubted that if she was really doing business with the mafia and other criminals for as long as Dino's information implied, she could see through him no problem.

"You are finally here, Decimo-kun." she greeted him kindly as she leaned back on her expensive chair, moving in such a way that her, cough, assets practically tried to force his eyes to move toward them. He ignored the seductive smile on the older woman's eyes, the only proof that he was having a hard time with his hormones were the reddening of his cheeks, as he met her eyes."I was looking forward to meeting you. It's nice to meet you."

"I guess I should say the same." Tsuna answered with a controlled voice, not lowering his guard down even for a minute as he stared at the mysterious merchant of truth. "Though I'm kind of skeptical what would you want from a non-entity like me." he asked, getting to the point, seeing no point beating around the bush.

In response, the woman only blinked once in surprise, before she grabbed a beautifully decorated fan from her desk, unfolded it, and hid her face behind it as she began to laugh loudly. Tsuna tried not to tense too much as he felt a small killing intent around him, the storm, and cloud girls if he had to guess based on what he saw of them and what was typical of their flame type.

"No tact at all, Vongola Decimo-kun." she said as she finally calmed down, folding the small fan and placing it in her lap. Despite her demeanor a moment ago, now she looked genuine and none of that seductive vibe remained. Apparently, he passed some sort of test."Didn't your mentor taught you how to manage political talks?" she asked, though she quickly amended her words with a smile. "Not that I don't find it refreshing. When you get to my age you just lose patience to all those posturings people are so fond of." she said reminiscing.

"But Mistress..." spoke up one of the girls, the one with the hard to mistook feel of storm flames, before she was silenced with a wave of her mistress's hand.

"Well then, Decimo-kun, if you came all this way, the least I could do to be an accomodating host." with another wave of her hand, a chair appeared in front of Tsuna she gestured for him to take a seat. Just as he sat down, Rain as he began to call her in his mind, appeared with a tray of tea in her hands and began to serve it to them."This is our first proper meeting isn't it?" the woman asked, but soon went on, not letting him answer."I go by many names, the mafia is most found of the merchant of truth, a bit pompous, but I was stuck in a phase like that at that time. Please call me Arikura for now." she said as she thanked the tea and took a sip from it.

"If you know anything about me, I'm a terrible student." he answered her earlier question, even as he pondered about the strange name." Why do you insist on calling me Decimo? I'm no longer the Vongola heir." he said, perhaps a little harshly, even as he murmured a soft thank you as he lifted his teacup.

"The title Vongola Decimo defines your character in a way that even if you are no longer the tenth vongola boss, most people will continue to associate that prestigious title with you." she explained and though there was a harsh reply at the tip of his tongue, Tsuna decided to bit it back and drink from his tea instead. It had a sweet taste to it, and despite his paranoid nature he fond himself slightly relaxing."To answer you, the reason I invited you was because I found you interesting."

"Interesting?" he asked back with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm really old you know, Decimo-kun." Arikura answered with a faraway look in her eyes. Tsuna remained silent, waiting for her to elaborate."I saw most things in the world repeat themselves over and over again. It got boring after a few hundred years you know. It's still the same, humans, youkai, all of them crave power, they make alliances, they stab each other in the back then the cycle starts again with those who survived. That's why I only care about those who don't fit the mold, who are able to amuse and interest me." she turned her ageless eyes to him and suddenly he felt her immerse power roll off her in waves. It seemed endless, his breathing became labored as he hunched down, trying to withstand this unbelievable pressure. He tried to gather his flames in feeble hopes that they could help him, but he knew it was useless. He had nothing to stand against her, an ant against a raging hurricane, he was gonna-"That's why I opened the shop." she said, suddenly cheery, her power practically disappearing. Tsuna just panted in his seat, sweat pouring down in his face as he tried to calm his raging heart. Arikura acted obviously to his state as she continued talking."All those I find interesting are get invited here, so I can take a measure of them. If they prove me right, then a trade can be made and I can watch on and amuse myself with what new twist their life and those around them will take." she looked like an excited kid as she began to ramble off the many interesting people she met, before snapping out of it and pointing at him with an eager look on her suddenly much younger looking face. "But out of all of them, currently, I find you the one with the most potential to amuse me." she declared proudly.

"Why is that?" he asked, trying to recover from the feeling of how utterly helpless he was against her.

"Well, you are the descendant of Primo and by my experience, most of his descendants proved to be interesting." when she saw his displeased expression she hid her smile behind her fan and continued."But it's more than that. Despite being a clumsy kid, who had his flames sealed most of his life, in a few years you accomplished so many things that could easily rival most other mafiosos accomplishments in their whole life. You especially impressed me during that whole future debacle. Don't act so shocked," she added with a small smile at his surprised look."I was very much aware of your little war against Byakuran. Truth be told, even I didn't think you could do it, I was debating on either stepping in to help out or just watching things happen, but you surprised me. And I very much like being surprised." she revealed with child-like glee."

"Is that so?" he asked with a small frown on his face.

"Of course that alone wouldn't be enough to interest me. No, the one who really interests me is the current you." she said as she reached forward, grabbing his chin and leaned forward looking deeply into Tsuna's eyes, ignoring how uncomfortable the young teen looked."Everything you knew, everything that made you who you are now, was taken away from you. You saw the true face of the mafia, no the world, and yet here you are. Most other people would have surrendered to the darkness clinging into them, would have become a shadow of themselves, but not you. You may be jaded, paranoid, yet you are still the same young boy who would risk everything for his friends, who would wage war against the world for their happiness. You are still shining with such a beautiful light." she finally let go of him as she reclined back in her chair."Now you are attending that school that contradictory brat Mikogami along with Nyu-chan made in an attempt to make peace between two worlds. It's cute if a little too hopeful for my taste. You and your friend are not even the first humans he roped into attending, you know?" she gave a secretive smile to him as she watched that she piqued his interest."Of course, most of them died or ended with ha fate worse than death, so you are doing comparatively good so far." it took a lot of Tsuna's control to prevent giving out any kind of reaction to her words."And there's an interesting company you keep. Especially that little vampire, did you know that-" she was cut off by Tsuna who gave a small growl.

"I don't care." he said with a hard look in his eyes, prompting Arikura to raise an eyebrow in question.

"You don't? Even if you have no idea what secrets your little girlfriend and her family hold? Aren't you at least a bit curious as, why she had a rosary sealing her powers off? And why she even had two personalities? It's not at all common among youkai." she informed him with an impish smile, looking forward to his answer.

"Of course I want to know." he answered, looking down at his clenched fists. "But, like Moka, I have my secrets. Until I can't answer her questions about me, I have no right to find the answers for my own about her." he declared with a resolute voice.

In response, she gave him an uncharismatically somber smile, before she gave a single clap. After she gave the signal, the cloud girl stepped next to them, holding a small vial with some kind of blue liquid in it that she handed to her Mistress with great care.

"It looks like the time of small talk has ended. Let's began bantering" she said with a serene expression as she gently showed him the small vial."This is what you came for right? The angel disease. I find storing it in a liquid is a much more sophisticated method than the mosquitos of that doctor of yours, but each their own, I guess."

Tsuna stared at the vial, deep in thought. He had no doubt it was a real deal, one thing both Dino and Lal made sure he knew that Arikura's goods were always the real deal, that made it such a big thing to be invited here.

"What do you want in exchange?" he asked quietly at last. He already knew she was not interested in money and he didn't have many other options, something that he was sure she was perfectly aware of.

"So straightforward." she giggled to herself as she once again shielded her face with her fan. "Is that the way you charm that girlfriend of yours?" she seemed to take pity on his red face and soon turned serious, looking him straight in the eye."1 ounce of your blood that's the price."

"My blood?" he asked with narrowed eyes, deep in thought. At first, he didn't see much point to it, but he quickly remembered who he was the descendant of. He carried the blood of Vongola, the requisite to wield the Vongola Sky Ring. He had no idea what use could it be for anyone, but he was no longer naive enough to not expect almost anything from both of these hidden worlds. He cursed in his mind, lamenting the fact that neither Dino nor Lal was with him, he could have used their advice.

Ultimately it all boiled down to either accepting the proposition or reject it. From the looks of it, he doubted she could accept anything else and it was that or let Tsukune die. That was simply not an option. With a sigh, Tsuna quietly nodded with his head, while he pushed back the sleeve on his right arm.

"Alright, take it." he agreed, prompting a large smile from the woman sitting before him as she folded her fan with a cheer.

"Excellent, Tsunayoshi-kun." without a signal, the rain girl stepped next to him, holding a small injection in her hand. Tsuna was not surprised by the small layer of rain flames that surrounded the needle, he didn't feel anything thanks to the tranquility effect of the flame as she took his blood. It was not a very big amount, he still felt a little dizzy as she finished and gave the vial filled with his blood to the waiting hands of Arikura.

"The blood of vongola. So many delicious secrets in such a tiny bottle." she muttered in a revered tone as she examined it before she remembered she still had duties as a host. She placed the vial of blue liquid before Tsuna. "As promised, a dose of angel disease. Please be careful with it. You are already immune to the skull disease so finding a cure for you would be hard." she laughed at her own joke, before adding."Your friend, Tsukune-kun should be alright as soon as you administer this to him.

"Thank you." he said sincerely as he placed the vial in his inner pockets, making sure it was secure, before turning back to Arikura.

"I always love to see a satisfied customer." she boasted with another laugh before she looked serious."Now is there anything else that your heart desires?" she asked as gestured at the many objects inside the room.

Tsuna thought for a long minute. He would have loved to ask if she knew anything about whatever poison was affecting him, or maybe information on Reborn, after all, according to Dino her information network was what Mammon modeled after theirs. Still, he also knew he had very little else he could or would trade away. Also with Tsukune's cure in his hand, his primary objective was completed and it was time to hurry back to school.

"No, but thank you for your hospitality." he answered, at last, lifting and drinking up the last of his tea."It was an interesting visit."

He was only able to stand up before another, stronger dizzy spell hit him, forcing him back to his seat. His head, no his whole felt heavier, sluggish and he felt his mind slowly but surely blackout. He forced his head to look up, into the eyes of Arikura who had something close to pity in her eyes.

"What did you to me?" he hissed out, even though staying conscious was proving to be a challenge in and of itself."Was it in the needle?"

"No, it was in the tea." she answered, honestly, going around her desk and stopping next to him. She crouched down to get to his eye level, before holding up the vial holding his blood, looking very serious."You have a very interesting poison inside your body. It is a poison youkai developed after the mafia discovered dying will flames and made contact with various youkai. It is designed to target people with dying will flames, breaking down their body from inside, by using their flames against themselves." she explained.

"How did you know about this?" he asked, even as black spots appeared in his vision, he was at the edge of losing consciousness.

"It's pretty obvious when you take one look at your blood. Also, you displayed plenty of signs that narrowed down the possible list." she explained and Tsuna felt a hand almost lovingly caress his face."Though thanks to your vampire friend instead of a quick yet painful death you seem to hang onto life by a single thread. The special herbs in your tea will force you into a regenerative sleep, so your body will be in a slightly better state."

"Why?" he ground out, having trouble forming words. In response, Arikura gave a gentle smile as her hands wandered to his hair and began to run her hands through it. It was a soothing feeling, making it harder for him to stay awake.

"I felt like helping. You are interesting to me and I want to see the life you will make, so take it as me helping you along, making sure that you will interest me for as long as you can." she said as she let go of him."But fate's really cruel you know? You have that same heartbreaking face that he had, unknowingly charming ladies and breaking their hearts in the process. You are the same as him, just like when Giotto-kun and Akasha-chan first met." he felt a pair of lips on his forehead before darkness enveloped him."Good luck, Tsunayoshi-kun." she whispered in the end.

-0-

The first thing that Tsuna noticed as he slowly woke up that he felt rested. In the last few weeks, such a phenomenon was impossible to achieve for him. Most times he woke up plagued by nightmares or simply feeling like his body was overheating just by doing nothing. There were days when he only woke up with a feeling of fatigue, a soreness over his body. Those were the days when he felt he could get out of bed.

He slowly opened his eyes, enjoying this feeling of peacefulness before he looked around trying to determine where he was since he didn't remember getting to bed. He was in a large, luxurious room, lying in a large double bed. As he looked around, he noted the sun was still up, so he must not have been sleeping for loud, and the room he was reminded him of the hotel he met Dino and Lal Mirch.

He slowly sat up, letting the blanket placed on his fall to his side as he experimentally moved his body, marveling how effortless it felt. He noticed that his suit and tie were lying on a chair, folded, and also the lack of weight on his right hand. He was scared for a minute, looking around frantically before he caught the sight of Natsu's ring at the bedside table.

Giving a relieved sigh he picked up his partner's ring and put it on, the weight of it calming him down, letting him think rationally.

"Now to find out how I got here." he mumbled to himself, trying to remember what happened. He remembered arriving at the Treasures of the seven worlds, the talk with the mysterious shopkeeper Arikure and the deal he made. His blood for Tsukune's cure. After that, it became a little blurry.

The tea. With a start he jumped out of the bed, looking around frantically. He remembered being knocked out by the tea, Arikura saying something about a regenerative sleep. That didn't explain how he got here.

He was about to further investigate when the door opened and Romario stepped into the room. His eyes widened for a moment when he met the frantic eyes of Tsuna before his expression smoothened out. With a habitual fix of his glasses, he turned around and spoke a few words to a nearby man, before he turned back to the young teen, a relieved smile on his face.

"It's wonderful to see you up Tsunayoshi-kun. We were getting worried about when you will wake up. How are you feeling?" he told the teen as he walked closer, offering help Tsuna picked up his suit and tie.

"Actually I feel good like I got a good night's sleep that I desperately needed. How did I get here Romario?" Tsuna asked as the older man helped him fix his tie. He was relaxed, his intuition confirming he was in no danger and his body felt better than ever before.

"That was actually what we wanted to ask of you." Dino said as he entered the room with Lal following him. He had a worried frown on his face as he looked over his pseudo little brother."We were waiting for you to finish your business, when my men called me, saying you appeared in the hotel room, unconscious. We hurried back, but when we examined you, nothing was wrong. You were just in a very deep sleep." he explained when he caught Tsuna's curious look.

"Do you remember what happened to you?" Lal asked, looking just as worried as Dino. Tsuna felt touched by the care but he was wise enough not to point it out. He liked his head where it was after all.

"Let me think." he said as he sat down at the chair his clothes were on, a hand on his chin. "I've made a deal with the merchant of truth for Tsukune's cure." he said, holding up the small bottle that was in his inner pocket where he put it."There was something in her tea that slowly knocked me out."

"Why would she do that?" Dino asked with narrowed eyes, obviously trying to keep himself calm.

"She seemed to know about the poison in my body." Tsuna revealed much to the others' surprise. He then proceeded to tell what he learner from Arikura. "She told me the herbs in the tea would force me to a regenerative sleep." he added as he clenched and unclenched his fist."Seems to have worked, it's been a while since I felt so good."

"But why would she do this?" Lal wondered out loud."The merchant of truth simply doesn't hand out things just out of the goodness of her heart."

"Who knows?" Tsuna shrugged."But it's no use speculating. Anyway how long was I asleep? Must not have been very long if the sun is still up." he commented, looking out a nearby window. Indeed, the sun was still up, though it was going down steadily. It must be around the late afternoon, he guessed.

Though he raised an eyebrow when Dino got a nervous look in his eyes and Romario discreetly coughed into his fist. In the end, it was Lal who chose to tell him the truth.

"You were asleep for a whole day Sawada." she stated plainly and quickly, like ripping off a band-aid."That's why we were so worried about you."

"What?" he asked in shock, not wanting to believe it. If he slept for a whole day, that meant that even at the best-case scenario Tsukune hardly had a lot of time, until the skull disease ran its course.

"Tsuna? Where are you going?" Dino cried out in surprise when out of nowhere his little brother stormed out of the room, heading for the elevator. He went after him, Lal and Romario following not long after.

"What do you think? I'm going back to the school." answered Tsuna as he let the others pile into the elevator, before sending it to the lobby. "I didn't sell my blood only for that idiot to croak before I can arrive." he stated as he leaned back on one of the walls.

"What do you mean by blood?" Dino stuttered, looking at him in worry."And how do you plan to go to your school at this hour?"

"Knowing that crafty bus driver he will be waiting for us in front of the hotel." he said, completely ignoring the first question. He looked at Dino and Lal an apologetic look in his eyes."Sorry to storm away just like that, but that forced sleep took more than enough time off my hands."

"We understand." Lal said, the calmest out of all of them."Now that we know where you go to school, I'll find something for us to keep in contact and send it to you." she promised. It meant a lot since that meant she had to dodge and trick her comrades back at Cedef.

"Thanks, I'll appreciate it." he said with a small smile, before turning to Dino with a serious expression."But I have a question I would like to ask before I leave."

"What is it?" the boss of the Cavallone family asked back in curiosity.

"I know one person can have affinities to multiple flames. But answer me this, can someone with two different personalities have two different flames that are equal to each other?" he asked a serious glint in his eyes.

"Equal flames?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. Tsuna only had to look at his face to give a smile and turn away from him just as the elevator finally arrived and the doors opened.

"Forget it." he said with a simple shrug as he walked out, heading in the direction of the door.

"Tsuna, wait." Dino called after him as he followed him after a moment of confusion with Lal shaking her head at both of them. Romario only looked at their way with a small smile as they followed Tsuna out of the door.

Just as he stepped out the door, Tsuna immediately stumbled into a person who tried to enter the hotel. Acting on pure instinct, he grabbed onto the person's hand, catching them around their forearm, to stop both of them from crashing into the ground. Thankfully they were stronger than their thin frame suggested because they also gripped into his arm and used their own strength and weight to counter his. Thanks to that, neither of them fell.

"Sorry about this. My bad." he apologized with a genuine smile as he stepped away from the person he ran into, getting a good look at them.

She was a girl who appeared around his age, almost a head shorter than him. She had a pale complexion, a doll-like face, and black eyes that held a cold edge to them. Her ebony black hair was pulled into a low ponytail, complimenting the black sleeveless dress she wore. She had light make up on her face, just enough to highlight her overall cold sense of beauty.

"Don't worry about it, I was in a haste as well." she said with a friendly smile, waving away his apology. It seemed to be in contrast with the two big gorillas in suits standing behind her, who seemed to growl at him.

Despite her friendly demeanor, Tsuna was not fooled. She looked vaguely familiar as if he saw her before, or at least someone resembling more than that, Tsuna's hyper intuition practically screamed at him to get away, stay away from her. She was dangerous, the subtle aura of power was practically rolling off of her, making him wary of her.

She was also aware of it as her smile turned into a cocky smirk just for a moment before her features smoothed out and returned to a friendly one. Tsuna was certain that he was no match for her at his current form, no he doubted that even the version of him who fought Byakuran with the vongola ring could match her. That intense pressure reminded him of Moka's unleashed power.

"Don't let me get in your way." he said in the end in a courteous tone as he stepped away, allowing her to enter the hotel.

"You won't." she said with confidence and for a moment Tsuna could see her eyes change from black to red with slit pupils. Just like a vampire. Then the moment ended and the girl entered the hotel with her bodyguards, leaving Tsuna looking after them with a thoughtful frown.

"Sawada?" Lal spoke up, looking questioningly at him."Is everything alright?"

"Looks like things are getting complicated." he answered cryptically before turning around and spotting the school bus waiting by the road, the bus driver amicably waving to him with his cigar. "My ride is here. Thanks for everything. Stay safe and take care." he said to Dino and Lal with a small, but a true smile on his face.

"That's our line." Dino said with a wry smile before his face sobered. "Tsuna..." he began to say, but he was cut off by Tsuna.

"I know." he gave a final wave before he walked over the bus driver, Nyubari smirking at him ominously.

"Ready to go back to school, boy? Done everything you wanted?" he asked with an eery laugh as the young teen boarded the bus."After all, Youkai Academy is a really scary place."

"Let's just get going already." muttered impatiently Tsuna as he took a seat at the back."I would rather like it if Tsukune didn't die just yet." The bus driver only laughed before getting in as well and soon the two were on their way.

Tsuna remained silent as he watched the landscape slowly change into the long, foreboding tunnel that led to the academy. After a while, he pulled a small white envelope out of the inner pocket of his suit. The words 'to Moka' were written in an elegant script.

"Talk about troublesome." he muttered to himself as he leaned back in his seat and put away the letter."Should have guessed these peaceful days will end sooner or later." he gave a smile as the bus finally exited the tunnel and he spied the distant form of the academy."But then again, I kind of missed this excitement.

-0-

"We are here." Nyubari announced jovially as he parked the bus. It was night, the moon was shining brightly that somehow made the dark forest surrounding the school even creepier. Tsuna had to hold back the smirk on his face as he exited the bus, the school sometimes seemed to go overboard on the creepy scale.

"Thanks for the lift." he thanked the bus driver with a simple wave before he began to walk towards the school. "Wonder what trouble Tsukune got to." he wondered out loud.

"You should head for the infirmary." the bus driver called after him. "I heard your friend got into some trouble with a teacher and has yet to awake. You should hurry though, you don't want to run out of time." he cackled to himself as Tsuna began to sprint toward the school.

'If you die on me Tsukune, I'll revive just so I can kill you myself' Tsuna promised silently in his mind as he ran through the forest and reached the school building in record time.

He only just entered the building that housed the infirmary that still had lights on, when a sudden twin cries of Tsuna-nii caught him off guard. Turning around he only just noticed the two missiles heading towards him before Lambo's and Yukari's relatively small bodies impacted him in the chest and sent him to the ground with two pairs of arms circling around his waist.

"Tsuna-nii! You are finally back. We missed you so much." Yukari declared with a bright smile, happy that her big brother was back. Hearing Yukari, Lambo gained a small bush, before he hastily let go of Tsuna, standing up and turning away from them.

"B-Baka! I didn't miss nii-san, I was perfectly fine by myself. You were the one crying that you missed him." he denied instantly, even as he had tears in his eyes.

"So I came back and got greeted with broken ribs? I feel the love." deadpanned Tsuna as he stood up, dragging Yukari with him as well, who was still clinging to him. It was then he noticed another person there who was watching the scene with barely hidden amusement."What are you doing here Gin?" he asked curiously.

"Someone had to look after the kids." answered the club president with a lazy smirk, ignoring the voices of protest from said kids."After all, with you away and Tsukune being a moronic idiot, someone had to."

"What did he do now?" he asked with a raised eyebrow after Yukari let go of him and stood next to Lambo.

"Besides landing in the infirmary?" then he proceeded to tell Tsuna about the missing girls that the newspaper club was investigating, it later was revealed that the art teacher, Ishigami was behind it, who had Moka captive and Tsukune went to save her, but in the end was almost turned completely into stone because of the teacher's power, but was ultimately defeated.

"Lambo just ran forward with all of that lightning around him and rammed into Ishigami-sensei who was knocked out by that." Yukari told him excitedly, for a change looking like a kid of her age. Lambo was looking away, a bashful blush on his face.

"Is that so?" he raised an eyebrow in question, before giving a pat to the cow boy's head."Good job Lambo." he praised him. He really came far from the annoying little boy who always tried to assassinate Reborn.

"Of course, the amazing Lambo-sama can defeat anybody. Bow before me and bring me lots of candies." the young boy declared with an uppity tone, causing Tsuna to lose the proud smile from his face. It's just regular, bratty, annoying Lambo.

"I see. Was there anything else?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Aside from Tsukune gaining some kind of weird tattoos?" Gin asked back, a searching look on his face. Before Tsuna could answer, Lambo tugged on his suit's sleeve, gaining his attention.

"Tsuna-nii, Tsukune-san has the skull disease just like you did. I don't know when it appeared, but I told the others about it." he admitted, worried about his older brother's reaction. Thankfully he did not need to worry.

"I had a feeling that Tsukune had caught it." he said before patting the boy's head once again."Thank you, Lambo, you did well."

"Of course, I'm great after all." he boasted before Yukari, angered at him for hogging Tsuna's attention sent a washbasin to crash into his head.

"What are you guys doing here anyway?" he asked from Gin as the two younger kids began to squabble among themselves.

"Tsukune still hasn't woken up, but Moka told us tomorrow is his birthday so the kids got the idea to make things ready for a party and I was roped into overseeing things." he said with a shrug before he gained a smirk. "Of course, as soon as Moka sees how good I am with little kids, she should see I am perfect for her." he snapped out of his daydream to see Tsuna calmly walk away from him."Don't ignore me Sawada!" he cried after him, the former mafioso not even bothering with a response.

He walked up to the infirmary, a small smile on his face at the thoughtfulness on the others' part. Truthfully, he forgot about the raven-haired teen's birthday, though he could be excused, he had a lot on his plate the last few days. Mainly keeping said teen alive.

He blinked in surprise when he arrived to the door of the infirmary, finding Kurumu leaning next to the closed door. What surprised him the most was the tears gathering in her eyes.

She didn't notice him as he walked up to her, though he could hear Tsukune's voice clearly from the room. He tended to raise his voice when he got overly emotional, it reminded Tsuna of himself when he began to train under Reborn. Still, he got a gist of it from Tsukune's words to understand the situation.

"Let me guess, Tsukune's confessing to Moka?" he asked with a casual tone, making Kurumu look up in surprise.

"Tsuna-san?" she asked in shock as she hurried to wipe away her tears.

Instead of answering he leaned on the wall, listening to the sounds coming from the infirmary. As he heard the soft voice of Moka, he couldn't help but cringe in sympathy.

"And from the sound of it, it completely went over her head and she rejected him without even aware of it. Damn, that's tough. And almost literally on his birthday."

Despite his words, Kurumu didn't rejoice, instead, she looked down, depressed.

"I mean, it's not like I didn't know...the way he always acted towards her...even though I hoped..." she murmured to herself, she was on the verge of crying. But she was shaken out of it, by Tsuna gently bopping her head.

"You know from what I saw of you until now, I wouldn't have thought you as the kind of person to give up so easily." he stated so bluntly that Kurumu looked up in shock. His expression softened slightly as he looked away from her, his mind far away. "They say love is blind, but I think what's truly blind is a crush. If you have a crush, you will easily ignore what's in front of you, even if you later curse yourself for your blindness." he said before he moved to the door, his hand on the handle, turning back once more to the succubus."Ask yourself this. Are you a coward who gives up without really doing anything, or are you gonna show him what's in front of his face?"

He was about to open a door when Kurumu's quiet voice stopped him.

"Which are you?" she asked him, looking at him in curiosity. Tsuna had a bitter smile on his face as he opened the door.

"I'm the coward, what else?" he murmured, a soft understanding in his eyes before his face went impassive as he opened the door and stepped into the infirmary.

Inside he found Tsukune sitting in one of the beds, a blanket covering him from the neck down, though he still caught sight of one of the many skull faces covering the teen's body. He narrowed his eyes at that, a little angry at himself for letting it progress to this state. Still, he made it back in time and that was all that mattered.

Moka was also there, sitting at his side, smiling gently at the teen who had a downtrodden expression. He could sympathize with Tsukune, he knew how it felt when your confession was thought to be a joke. As he stepped into the room, he also noted some kind of picture next to the vampire, but he couldn't get a good look at it from where he was.

"Man, you look like you're on your deathbed. Cheer up, it's your birthday." he said with a snicker as he walked up to them, causing the two of them to turn toward him in shock.

"Tsuna-san?/Tsuna-kun!" the two cried out in surprise as if they hadn't met in a long time. Well, it was a few days, but he didn't think it was that long.

"Heard you got into some trouble without me here." he commented as he looked over Tsukune who was still hiding behind covers."How do you always end up in these messes? he asked, sounding genuinely curious.

It was uncanny how unlucky the guy was. At least for him, his bad luck steeped from Reborn's machinations, but Tsukune seems to do just fine on his own in the trouble department. Maybe he was some kind of monster magnet? He saw weirder things.

"Well, you see..." the raven-haired teen began to sheepishly think of some kind of excuse, that distracted him long enough for what Tsuna needed to do. Grabbing the injection, filled with the angel disease from his inner pocket, he quickly snatched the blanket away from Tsukune and just as quickly thrust the injection into his left shoulder."What are you doing?" Tsukune yelped as he grabbed his shoulder in pain.

Instead of answering Tsuna intently stared at his skull covered chest. There were a lot more than he figured there would be, showing that he was cutting it a little too close to comfort. Still, with a feeling of relief, he noted that as soon as he administered the 'cure' the skull faces along with the speech bubbles began to slowly fade away.

Though he couldn't help the small amused smirk on his face as he read one or two of those speech bubbles. It was a lot funnier when it wasn't happening to him.

"Looks like I made it just in time. Congratulations Tsukune, you are not dying." he covered up his expression with his dry tone.

"Tsukune-kun, look." Moka spoke up suddenly, diverting the attention from Tsuna as she pointed at Tsukune's body.

"That's the skulls disease or the shame to death disease." explained Tsuna."It's an illness that targets people like you and me and it's fatal there is no cure." he smirked at their alarmed expressions. "That's why I had to call in a few favors to have something that can negate the disease, so you're welcome." he decided to leave the bit out of selling his blood or everything mafia-related, it was better to keep them out of whatever was gonna happen.

A part of him, the sadistic one that sounded suspiciously like Reborn found their reactions hilarious. Of course, he was worried about the boy, but now that was over and behind him, he could see why Reborn trolled him so much in his younger years.

Before he could enjoy himself more, a hand lashed out grabbing his cheek and pulling it quite harshly. He cried out more in surprise than pain, before his eyes followed the hand holding him, meeting the eyes of an angry Moka. And despite it being her outer self and looking quite cute with that blush on her face, he still felt a shiver of fear creep through him.

"Moka-chan! It huuuwts!" he said as small tears gathered in his eyes. He had to remind himself that the girl was certainly a lot stronger than she looked. Moka continued to pout angrily at him.

Before anything could happen, Tsukune burst out laughing, holding onto his stomach. Surprised by the sudden action Tsuna and Moka looked at each other, though the latter was still holding his cheek before they both began to laugh with small smiles on their faces.

As the others began to pile in, Tsuna stayed back a little, watching his friends having fun he couldn't help but feel a little retrospective. After what happened to him, the betrayal from his father of all people, feeling abandoned, he never would have thought he would once again feel like he belonged somewhere. When he started school he did not have any high hopes for his high school life, save for staying out of trouble and anything related to the mafia.

Yet here he was, having fun with this new group of friends, who proved to be just as insane as the ones he left behind. These peaceful days he wanted to experience them as long as he could. But he knew sooner or later it will end. He wasn't sure if it was his intuition or simple pessimism, but he vowed to get ready because just like he told Dino, he wanted to live. He wanted to treasure moments like this for as long as he could.

A gentle tug on his jacket drew his attention to Moka who was standing next to him, with a small frown on her face. He gave her a single nod, his face instantly sobering as he followed her out of the infirmary. They stepped out, the door closing behind them, instantly softening the sounds of their friends.

The vampire stood at a window, looking out at the night sky, deep in thought. The moon was out, not a full moon but pretty close to it and as it shined down on her it gave her an ethereal look. Tsuna walked next to her and looked out as well, content to remain silent until she decided to speak.

"Why didn't you tell us?" she asked in a whisper. Her tone wasn't accusing, more like disappointed and full of hurt, and Tsuna lowered his head, feeling bad for hurting her, no matter how unintentional it was.

"Would it have changed anything?" he asked back just as softly, bracing himself on the window frame, looking out, not wanting to meet her eyes."The skull disease is not a normal illness. Resting, staying in bed, any form of medicine, none of them would have worked. If that's the case, wasn't it better that he was able to live his days just like usual instead of worrying about something that he has no control over."

"That's not the point." Moka cried out in frustration, turning to him with distraught eyes."Even if nothing could be done, Tsukune deserved to know what's happening to him. You are always so secretive, not telling us anything until it's absolutely necessary. Even then, you act as if there was nothing wrong about it." she panted, tears gathering in her eyes."If you had arrived a little later, if Tsukune had died without even knowing why, what would you have done?" she demanded, stepping closer to him, searching his eyes for an answer.

"I would admit my mistake and face the consequences." he stated with a firm tone. He was already prepared for it since it was his lapse of judgment that landed Tsukune into this situation. During his trip, he thought a lot about what he could have done differently. Maybe he should have used the dying will on himself on that first time he shot Tsukune in the fight against Saizou. He shouldn't have been so careless with the use of bullets those other times the raven-haired teen got into trouble. But ultimately, thinking of what-ifs accomplished nothing. "The thing is, as a dying will user I'm intimately familiar with regrets." he said as he looked at the moon once again, his mind far away."When you use the dying will, for a horribly long moment you truly die." he revealed and he heard a soft gasp from Moka."You are at the end of the road, filled with nothing but various regrets, that sense of accomplished nothing worthy with your life. That's a terrible thing to face. Trust me, sometimes ignorance is truly a bliss."

"Just who are you?" she asked after a long moment of silence, looking at him intently as if she saw him for the first time.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out." he answered honestly."I thought I had a good idea of who I was and what I was gonna do, but out of nowhere, everything I thought to be true turned out to be a lie. Guess, right now I'm trying to pick up the pieces and see what remained. It's not as easy as I thought." he looked into her eyes, trying to convey with his eyes what he couldn't with his words."But believe me, I am your friend, I know that for sure." he reached out to her, trying to place a hand on her arm to reassure her.

He kept his face carefully blank as she stepped away from him, not meeting his eyes, one hand holding onto her rosary. She hesitated, not knowing what to say. In the end, he sighed, and pulled out the envelope from his pocket, handing it to Moka who looked at him in question.

"Here. Someone placed this into my pocket while I was in the human world, it's addressed to you." she accepted it, looking at it curiously before she decided to simply put it away for the time being.

Without saying a word, she turned away from him and walked to the door to join and Tsukune and the others.

Tsuna watched on with a frown on his face, not moving to follow her. In the end, he simply turned back to the window, looking at the sky with a forlorn look on his face.

"Who am I? I'm the guy who has too many regrets." he said to himself before he glanced down at his ring."You think I was wrong as well?" he asked, but huffed when no answer came."Suit yourself." he muttered.

He quickly chuckled at the way he was acting, knowing if his tutor were here, Reborn would have kicked him on the head for acting so unfit. He stepped away from the window and went to join the others, pasting a painfully fake smile on his face.