A/N: I was rereading the Shimon Arc and how the heck did Julie's fellow guardians not see something was off about the guy? His attempt to charm Chrome in canon makes Shamal seem like a saint! Here's hoping I can break out of my writing dry spell I'm currently in.

As always, hope you all enjoy and feel free to leave a review!


Shizuka Ships It

True to what Tsuna said, Shizuka introduced herself to Enma the next day. "You're almost as adorable as Tsu-nii." She says, pulling him into a hug.

Enma took a look at the ring on Shizuka's hand and saw why there wasn't an internal fight over the boss position. Although she was his age, Shizuka reminded him strongly of his deceased sister.

"You're crushing me." Enma squeaked.

Shizuka released him with a confused look. "I am? You must be very thin. Are you eating enough?"

She went from overly excited to a mother hen in a second, giving Enma emotional whiplash.

"You're one to talk about eating." Tsuna says bluntly.

Shizuka pouted. "It's not my fault the cooking gene skipped over me. And you can do a lot with instant ramen!"

"I've seen your cooking make someone literally breath fire!"

As the siblings bickered, a melancholy smile crossed Enma's face.

"Tanuki." The siblings both froze, looking at Hibari nervously.

"Unless you are enrolled in Namimori Middle, get off of school property." The older teen states.

Shizuka stuck out her tongue. "Just wanted to say hello, no need to swing your tonfas. I need to investigate something anyways." She states, leaving Tsuna confused. What did she mean by that? And why didn't she tell him?

XoXoXoXoXo

"You think there's another dying will ghost in town possessing someone?" Verde asks, his glasses glinting. Shizuka had gotten Natsumi and Verde together since they had the most experience with the paranormal.

"Yeah, the guy hasn't done anything yet but he's been following Chrome around. It doesn't take a scientist to see she'd be a good medium for a spirit looking to possess someone." Shizuka says. As it was, Chrome already had members of Baku keeping an eye on her from the shadows.

The yakuza group observing the town, ready to retaliate if the transfer students caused any problems. There wouldn't be another Varia situation, not if Masahiro had anything to say about it.

Natsumi's eyes narrowed. "While I don't have anything that would extract a spirit, I think there might be a way that we can trap it."

"Wait, you weren't joking about that?!" Shizuka exclaims.

"You underestimate how annoying you can be at times, especially throwing yourself headfirst into danger. You saw what happened when the Cervello managed to hurt you."

Shizuka shivered. She hadn't known what a Cloud rage was before that happened and couldn't unsee the violence that occurred that night. At least her more gore-filled illusions would have more realism to them now. The only thing that could compare was how she reacted to Kyoya getting hurt, and he wasn't even one of her elements!

"Bonded elements are scary when someone gets hurt, noted." Shizuka says.

"What we need to do is lull them into a false sense of security. We already know their target, we just need to set the perfect trap."

XoXoXoXoXo

The transfer students got along with his guardians, much to Tsuna's surprise. Kaoru, a gentle giant, was perfectly content letting Lambo and I-Pin climb him like a mountain. Ryohei had found a fellow adrenaline junkie with a love of fighting and an inflated ego. Aoba would continually challenge Ryohei to anything that popped up in his head, much to the muscle-head's delight.

Adelheid was continually butting heads with Hibari, giving the prefect a much-needed challenge. Julie had tried approaching Chrome, multiple times, but ended up being rebuffed by Shizuka. If looks could kill the older teen would already be six feet under. Natsumi was with them as well, likely to make sure Shizuka didn't do anything rash like punching Julie in the face.

"With Shamal as a guardian, I thought you'd be more lenient with the guy." Tsuna says, Shizuka glared. "Shamal, despite his acting, actually cares about the women he's flirting with in his own weird way. Nothing that fedora wearing creep is saying comes off as genuine."

"Julie is not a creep, as you keep calling him." Shizuka met Adelheid's fierce gaze, refusing to back down. "Then get him to stop stalking my sister. It makes her uncomfortable and constantly trying to give a Cloud's ward gifts is implying that her family is lacking."

"Perhaps their egos shouldn't be so fragile." Shizuka's eyebrow twitched as sparks started to fly between the girls, figuratively and literally. "Given that you tried a hostile takeover of the Disciplinary Commitee I'm starting to think your self-preservation instincts are non-existent."

Natsumi just sighed in exasperation as her Sky was baited into a fight with the tessen wielding teen. Jealousy and pride are a horrible combination. She thought to herself. At the very least it drew attention of all the teens present, giving Natsumi a chance to observe the transfer students unnoticed.

Julie's default expression was one of amusement, smiling at Natsumi when he noticed her looking. Natsumi felt a shiver run down her spine, they needed to get the spirit possessing him to drop their guard. And she knew that Shizuka wasn't going to like their plan to draw it out.

XoXoXoXoXo

"Adelheid, there wasn't any need to pick a fight with Shizuka-san." Enma says. Adelheid narrowed her eyes. "Don't forget what Vongola did to our family, especially the bastard that's their father. I just wasn't expecting a Mist to have physical training." She says, her muscles feeling sore.

There was also the fact that while the actual heir didn't seem to find their arrival suspicious, their Mist was making it obvious that she was keeping an eye on the situation. A brain to the heir's brawn.

"From what Tsunayoshi told me, anytime there's visitors in this town they end up targeting him and his family. It isn't unwarranted." Ironically, Shizuka was the equivalent of Adelheid in the guardian group. Willing to work on the behalf of her older brother to get things done.

From what Julie had been able to learn, the local yakuza had a tentative alliance with Vongola to keep the heirs safe. Tentative due to the fact that Baku's leader had killed several Cervello agents under mysterious circumstances. All he learned was the moment that the blonde was targeted, Baku would make heads fly. It was an unforeseen problem they hadn't expected to run into.

Besides Shizuka's logical suspicion of the students, the other guardians had accepted the group with open arms. Maybe this generation of Vongola would have nothing to do with the rest of Vongola's bloody past.

"One chance. We'll give them one chance to prove they aren't backstabbing mafia like the rest of Vongola." Enma says.

XoXoXoXoXo

As anyone in a house with energetic children could attest, it was easy for anything to get lost. The only reason the note had stuck out to Shizuka was the Mist flames that were meant to obscure the note. "Tch, child's play. This Mist user is really grating on my nerves, whoever they are. A perk of being made of flames is I can sense things most humans would overlook." She says, skimming it over.

"Mafioso are threatening Enma and he went off on his own? My brother just found his soulmate and someone had the nerve to target him?!" Forget Julie, there was a mafioso that was about to find out that Tsuna and his guardians didn't get their positions through nepotism. Okay, maybe there was a lot of nepotism involved looking back on how everyone was almost identical to Primo and his guardians. But they still won against the Varia on their own, even when the assassins rigged the battles against them.

Tsuna and the kids were eating lunch at the table when Shizuka shoved a paper in his face. "Warehouse. All of us. Now."

Tsuna looked at her in confusion before his face fell. "We need to tell Enma's friends so we can all get him out of this mess. All I wanted was a friend, not to drag someone innocent in my problems!" Tsuna already had his phone out, texting his guardians for a meet up. As an afterthought he also mentioned bringing the exchange students as well so they'd know what was going on.

While almost everyone looked shaken by Enma's sudden disappearance, there was two reactions that stuck out. Adelheid was calm and Julie looked like he wanted to strangle someone.

Daemon was mentally cursing the teens. Even after doing everything he could to vilify the teens and deteriorate Enma's mental state, the heir was too much like Giotto to ignore a cry for help. He could've sworn that he made that note impossible to find! Unless...

He observed Shizuka using her Mist flames to create feline constructs to investigate the area, her use of flames as fine-tuned as his own. She was using them without a medium and it spoke volumes of her skill and creativity. Unrestricted by flame stereotypes and perceived limitations.

Perhaps I'm targeting the wrong Mist. He thought with a smirk.