Time

Time was different. The concept of spending more time in this world was odd and scary. Usopp didn't know if he would return to his world, if he truly happened to find the solution, how old would he be? Questions flowed into his mind, there were no answers.

The pirate was accustomed to this world. This world in which pirates belonged to the past, in which several governments coexisted with each other - despite the current wars between some nations - in which languages were different. Everything was different. There were almost no similarities. Time had passed - and before he knew it, one year passed. During this year, Usopp had gathered information about his surroundings, he had built a new identity for himself, and he had begun his search for a way back. Time was different. His body was reacting well to the different concept of time ; his hair had grown longer, he had now a small beard. Thanks to his dedication to languages, he was able to reach an acceptable level in Italian, French, English, and German. He had picked up some dialects and accents.

Time. What an odd concept, he kept thinking about. The days were longer than he was used to, he was getting older in mind.

A new identity

Usopp could not be Usopp. That was a fact he had accepted quite easily. After all, Usopp was a mask he wore every day in his world. But there, with the possibility of never coming back to his original world - he wasn't quite optimistic about this - he needed to have another identity.

In this world, he was a young man born into a middle-class family. At sixteen, he had run away after his family had been killed in a fire. Their bodies were burnt beyond recognition. The background was from an article of a newspaper in Austria, talking about the tragic death of a couple (with no child). To make sure that no one tried to see through his lies, with a little help from his heritage - even though he was already decent at it, he was able to reach the native speaker level of speaking. Of course, it wasn't perfect. To make it credible, he falsified school records, ID, and passport.

Usopp didn't know how he had gotten in the independant squad of assassination that served under one of the biggest mafia families, Vongola. He had been scouted at first by Hydra, then he had been engaged as an assassin. They had said nothing about his past, it meant that they saw nothing out of the ordinary. The young man was certain that the mist gift was helping in some way. He was a mook in the mist division, apparently his mist gift was used by many other people in this world. That was weird to know.

"Geared up, we have a mission." One of the high ranked members - beside the Officers - said as he strode past the door.

He hadn't a proper codename yet, that was why he was considered a mook. To get a codename, you need to prove your worth. Something that Usopp was familiar with. With three other mooks, he went to the meeting room in which some Officers were present. He recognized the Storm Officer, a blond-haired former prince of a kingdom, the Mist Officer, a floating baby, and the Rain Officer, a white-haired swordsman. The Sun and the Lightning Officers were on mission. The Sky Officer and boss of the Varia hadn't been seen for years. There was no Cloud Officer.

"Here, the file of the mission." Usopp zoned out as he realized that he was going on the mission. He knew that his identity was now the one of an assassin, he was quite amused by the fact he went from piracy to assassination.

Anton

It turned out, it wasn't an assassination mission. He was hired as a bodyguard for the civilian family of the head of CEDEF. Said family didn't even know about the man's employment. But according to the mafia laws, it was necessary for the civilian families to know if one of their close family members was part of the mafia. Usopp had decided to act as a tutor with cheap prices; it had turned out to be the best role as the next day Nana Yamada — not Sawada as Vongola thought as she had never married him — had called him. Her son, Tsunayoshi, was hated by his entire school. He was bullied, he was receiving no support from the teachers, and he was doing badly at school in general. He had no friends, he seemed to have lost the desire to live.

It would not be easy, he mused to himself as he straightened his back. Everything about the teenager and his mother seemed to be wrong. Usopp would need to observe them for the next few weeks in order to know what was wrong.

Usopp presented himself in front of a small house - large enough for two people - in the Japanese neighborhood. He knocked on the door, falling into his tutor's mask. Footsteps were heard, they were loud enough for him to hear with his sensible ears. The door opened. There was a brown-haired woman standing in front of him, she gave a delighted - and yet fake - smile.

"Hi!" She said, pulling him out of his thoughts. Something was definitely wrong with her.

"I'm Anton, the tutor for your son." He introduced himself, watching the woman's emotions change as she processed the information.

"Oh yes! Come inside the house! We were waiting for you!" Nana's smile was as bright as the sun, it held all the fakeness of the world.

She led him through the house, casually chatting about everything and nothing at the same time. She spoke about her son. She seemed to believe that he would be a change in her son's life. He would. Nana called her son downstairs. There was silence for several minutes then the teenager appeared at the top of the stairs and started walking down. He suddenly fell. Anton blinked. Could it be..? The brown-haired boy groaned in pain as he stood up while his mother asked in a flat tone if he was okay, he answered with the same tone.

"This is Anton, the tutor I talked to you about." The woman introduced him to her son with a small smile - that seemed for once truer.

"Nice to meet you." Tsunayoshi bowed politely to him, his face showed different emotions then settled in a straight face.

Anton was led to a small kitchen. There was a round blue table with three chairs at the center of the room, green walls circled it, and typical Japanese furniture was present. The two civilians sat down, he sat in front of them. The assassin noted how quiet the woman seemed — according to the file he had gotten — she was a loving, bright mother, always chatting with the neighbors, always smiling.

"Alright, I need to know about your current level. Also, I need to know about your feelings about school, what you'll need to develop, etc. Everything you feel is needed." Anton spoke, looking in the eyes of Tsunayoshi.

He narrowed his eyes on him. Anton was unfazed. He watched as several emotions went through the teenager. He could see hope before it got replaced by sadness and bitterness. Tsunayoshi began to speak about his school, the people that bullied him every day, the fact no one wanted to befriend him because of his lack of good grades, and the school materials that were difficult to understand. He spoke about everything, emptying what he had been bottled up for years. His mother supported him, gazing in hope at Anton. Once he was done, Anton thought for several minutes.

"Your school is useless. Perhaps, it will be better for you to quit it." He began to explain his process of thoughts, having heard about the reputation of the school from an outsider's point of view. "I'll go with you through the different years of material you've been missing due to the poor education of Namimori. Within the months, I hope you'll be able to join a better school."

"This is…" Nana trailed off, she was shocked by the statement of the man in front of her. Anton understood why.

Tsunayoshi was far behind his peers. It was worrying. What was more worrying was the fact he couldn't learn properly. His mother had mentioned that this situation had started at five years old after the visit of the absent father. According to Nana, he had been sick for three whole months before getting better, however every five months he would fall ill. The doctors couldn't find anything. In short, she would keep her son home every time he felt ill. Before the visit, Tsunayoshi was an average child learning like every child.

According to the file I've gotten from CEDEF, the Vongola boss has sealed him at five years old. He's a sealed sky. Seals are not to be used on Active flame users due to obvious reasons. And yet, he used a seal on the child. Anton mused to himself as he thought about the current event. Even though seals were not to be used on Active flame users, it was also not recommended to use on latent people. But the consequences are unknown since seals aren't used anymore.

Any information took time to be absorbed into the child's mind. The lack of coordination wasn't natural, it was another consequence. The harmony drew people to him, but in general they tended to bully him. As he analyzed the teenager more through the first few weeks, he noticed a similar pattern to Nana. Anton secretly planned to undo the seals. If in this world, there was almost no solution, in his original world, there were. Or at least, he knew solutions from his mother's teaching.

First, the seals needed to be taken off. Then, he would need to relocate the family to another house. The neighbors were toxic to the family. Anton didn't know why he was doing such things for them, he just felt close to them despite not knowing them.

"This is too much." The brown-haired woman said, looking near to tears as she stared at the plans of her new house.

"Perhaps. But I feel…" He trailed off, not sure how he would word it. A few moments later, he began to speak. "You feel like a member of my clan. And I want to help you as much as I can. You deserve it, you're worth it. Those people don't deserve you."

Perhaps, he was going faster than people would want, however his instincts told him to go in this direction. He would. He felt he would do anything for them, even betraying his current loyalties. The woman suddenly hugged, crying her soul as her sealed flames wrapped him, whimpering in pain.