There will be brief mentions of FMA in here.

There was a finger on fire, a poke in the middle of his head, and the unpleasant feeling of something being forcibly clamped down. Where the pretty fires inside had been a raging blaze that went throughout his entire body, now it was a bare ember. One that did not like being caged.

It hurt.

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Tsuna blacked out.

The small child woke up to a really weird scene. At least it would be if the boy didn't have a splitting headache...and memories that belonged to another life.

He looked at himself in the tiny mirror to see something floating above his head as if it had always been there.

Tsunayoshi (Tsuna) Sawada

The Gamer

Level: 3

Status: Sealed

There were boxes everywhere, but he barely paid them any mind.

For the next week, he adjusted to his new life.

First was the never ending series of "Quests". They ranged from minor to extremely annoying in their repetitive nature.

Then there was the status page, which had weird things like "DEX", "INT", "WIS"... he didn't get it and he didn't know what the points were for at all.

And don't get him started on the dungeons. He wandered into one once, and made a point to avoid them for a long time.

But the thing he hated the absolute most was his fellow classmates, save for one or two rare exceptions.

Thanks to the "seal", his physical ability was the absolute worse as the flames were too sporadic for him to be able to keep up. And the less said about the migraines he got from trying to understand things the better.

Dame-Tsuna was the name they saddled him with, and he loathed them all for it.

It wouldn't be until he was around seven that he figured out how to distribute those points that kept accumulating for two long years.

Thanks to the seal, his "DEX" was -20 and his "WIS" and "INT" were both -25 for every level gained.

And considering he was the second highest level among his peers (barring one oddity named Hibari Kyouya who was always ten or so levels above him) that meant he had a lot of work ahead of him.

Good thing he never really messed with the points until now.

He really needed to find a way to improve his "DEX" points until he figured out how to get rid of that stupid "Sealed" status. The other two were easier... the library became his refuge, even if all his constant reading almost got him saddled with a pair of glasses.

And what the heck was with that stupid timer that always popped up whenever he opened up the status page! It was always counting down to something, but from what he could tell the dumb thing was years away!

Tsuna fumed, before calming himself.

He walked home alone, for once devoid of his ever present book. People didn't notice him when he had a book, and he never heard the awful teasing of those around him whenever he read.

Perfect Concentration: +100 to information absorption -100 to Outside Taunts was awesome like that.

He would have had to use a lot more points to "WIS" and "INT" if he didn't use that as a way to ignore all the cruel remarks of his peers.

He was almost through the main district when he saw him.

It was a toddler by appearance, but the description he got from a silent "Observe" almost had him drooling.

No way was that kid a normal one, not with a level over 500!

Tsuna followed the red-clothed "toddler" without hesitation, and a few times the toddler diverted his path, but eventually he went to the park.

He very clearly knew someone was following him.

Tsuna looked around for the toddler and almost gave up... then he looked above him and found the 'toddler' with the weird pacifier above him. The 'boy' chuckled with amusement.

"Good instincts, little one," he said, falling to the ground without concern. "Why were you following me?"

"You looked interesting," replied Tsuna honestly.

That, and he really wanted to find out how this toddler got to five hundred when he was lucky to eek out a level every few months. Stupid daily quests and tasks had topped out, leaving him without a steady stream of "EXP".

The toddler chuckled.

"My name is Fon. What's yours?" he asked.

"Tsuna."

Fon had looked for the boy's parents the second he realized who, or more specifically "what" was following him. He didn't see a single adult stop the obvious child once, or call out to him.

"Where are your parents?" he asked.

"Momma is probably at home and hasn't noticed school already let out... and Papa never comes home," said Tsuna.

Fon narrowed his eyes a bit, catching the obvious hint of bitterness at the mention of the boy's father. Clearly there was something there the child didn't like but was powerless to do anything against. And what sort of mother let a child this young wander around after school hours without an adult to watch them? The boy couldn't possibly be older than six or seven.

"What about your friends?"

"I'm Dame. I don't deserve friends," Tsuna said duly. He had been told it often enough that he was starting to believe it was true.

Fon was already suspicious, but there was something definitely off about this situation. It was abundantly clear the boy was starved for someone to talk to, and had followed him on a whim.

So he let Tsuna lead him back to his house, if only to get a better grasp on the situation.

It was worse than he imagined.

There was no outright neglect or abuse... but the mother was so lost in her own world that she failed to notice something was terribly off about her child. Tsuna worked around her with far too much ease.

The woman tutted about her son being clumsy, and he ignored the way she treated him like a child with the ease of unfortunate practice. But it was the pain in the boy's eyes that told him another story.

His mother never noticed the obvious signs of bullying.

Well, that was one thing he could help correct, or at least bolster the child's confidence a little. Besides, it had been some time since he had an apprentice.

Which was why the first thing Fon asked Tsuna once they were safely in his room was... "How would you like to learn Chinese Kenpo?"

Tsuna, age 10

He had done it. He had done the one thing he had been working for since the first "memory" from the older soul in him had managed to break free of that blasted seal. Thanks to the mastery of the other soul, he could now craft items without a circle... unless it was really tricky or too high for his level.

Alchemy Forge- Unlocked

Alchemy Forge- Alchemy is the ancient art of Transmutation. The act of changing one thing into another through the force of one's will upon the world. There are no limits except your imagination. But remember the cardinal Rules of Alchemy.

"To Obtain, Something of Equal Value Must Be Lost".

Warning: Human transmutation skill set is Locked.

Tsuna wanted to laugh. All that hard training with Fon had helped a lot. Thanks to the tiny martial artist he was able to overcome that stupid Seal Debuff.

Of course he had a bit of trouble proving the whole "Gamer" thing to the cursed man. But after seeing Tsuna execute a basic series of stances from a scroll that abruptly burst into orange flames without having opened it to memorize them, he was a believer.

Though he seemed unusually angry over the fact Tsuna's father and another sealed his "Flames" when he was only five. Fon-sensei wouldn't explain why, but finding that out (and Tsuna explaining about the "debuff" as he had learned it was called) meant that he increased his training to the point he could at least consider himself a threat.

Something some rather stupid kidnappers found out the hard way. Tsuna had broken their bones and escaped before Fon found him and decided to teach them to not press their luck.

And now he had finally unlocked the ability to use Alchemy. Stupid level lock.

The other seemed unusually giddy, but it had suffered withdrawals without it's usual ability to fight back sealed.

Tsuna eager went to transmute a simple origami crane.

He deflated immediately upon realizing with open annoyance that just because his "Alchemy Forge" was finally unlocked didn't mean he could use it as frequently as the other did.

He really hated that Seal. First it made him "Dame-Tsuna", now it was deliberately restricting his ability to craft using the Alchemy Forge! This sucked!

His FP was pitifully low, especially compared to Hibari's...but this was the first time he had a chance to even use it!

"You looked rather vexed, little lion," said a familiar voice in Cantonese.

"Stupid Seal is ruining everything again. I finally unlock the ability to craft items, and I can't even make a simple crane from paper because the Seal is blocking Active Flame abilities!" said Tsuna in the same language.

Fon patted his head with sympathy. While he had shared several Useful techniques involving Flames with the boy, mostly as a precaution for when Iemitsu finally found out that the Storm Arcobelano was training his son in how to fight, the seal had made it all but impossible for Tsuna to train in anything save for the weakest techniques.

On the plus side, Fon shamelessly abused this "Gamer" ability to shove as many languages and other useful pieces of knowledge into the kid's head. Once he achieved a "Mastery", he moved on to the next one.

The boy was a voracious reader, and he learned them very quickly.

Suddenly Tsuna froze as he heard an unwanted and unwelcome voice.

"Where's my little Tuna~!"

"Oh god, it's the parasite..." groaned Tsuna. Fon grimaced.

He already had a low opinion of Iemitsu Sawada for not realizing his presence within a few months, and that was before Tsuna trusted him enough to explain about the Gamer ability...and the damn seal.

Fon had to leave shortly after to deal with Triad business... but if he happened to use the assassination as an excuse to vent, well, no one was stupid enough to comment on it within his hearing.

Tsuna quickly grabbed one of his many, many books and hid behind it the second the door opened. He once again thanked whatever gods were listening for Perfect Concentration, because it allowed him to firmly ignore the "Parasite" as Tsuna had taken to calling him.

Besides...it was in Iemitsu's description.

Iemitsu tried a few times to get his son's attention, except Tsuna was firmly engrossed in a book. Finally he gave up, before going to pay attention to his wife.

Tsuna thought that would be the end of it...except the window opened a few seconds after Iemitsu was firmly in "love-love" mode with his mother Nana and a girl who was the same size as Fon-sensei came into the room.

She looked beyond irritated for some reason.

"Who are you?" asked Tsuna curiously, even if he could read her description perfectly well.

Lal Mirch

Former COMBUSKN Captain/Failed Arcobelano

She ignored him, which Tsuna thought was very rude considering she had come into his room without even asking.

So he tried another tact.

"Who are you and why are you in my room?" he asked in Italian.

Her eyes widened and she turned to stare at him.

"You speak Italian?" she said in shock.

He nodded.

She cursed, only to get a head slap from Fon.

"Not in front of my apprentice. He's not even eleven," said Fon in Italian.

She glared at him.

"Fon. Why are you here?"

Fon's eyes went half-closed, meaning he was enjoying himself. Tsuna had become very good at reading his teacher's mood.

"Why trying to help Tsuna overcome the Seal the parasite downstairs so foolishly demanded be placed on him."

Lal's eyes narrowed.

"What seal?"

Fon had a very angry aura around him, but he kept it in check. Tsuna didn't need to explain the damage done by Storm Flames to his room. Iemitsu would almost certainly recognize it.

"The parasite (Fon spat out the nickname Tsuna had given his father like a curse) convinced someone with Sky Flames to seal Tsuna when he was five."

Lal's eyes widened in horror. The only reason you would need to seal Flames would be if they were active. And to do it so casually to a child... it was a miracle the boy was even functioning! She looked at Tsuna with wide eyes.

"I noticed Fon-sensei when I was seven and he looked more interesting than reading so I followed him," said Tsuna in Japanese quietly. He shrugged. "It's not much, but training with him has helped my balance since the Seal makes any physical activities difficult at best."

Lal breathed through her nose with repressed rage.

"I am going to kill him. That ass goes on and on about his kid but never said anything about sealing him."

"Oh, it gets better," said Fon, his amusement fake and everyone knew it. "Tsuna is a Sky Flame."

Lal really looked pissed. Skies were to be cherished, and having that Flame was akin to being royalty among Flames. To seal it away at all, especially so young... it went against everything they believed it that it simply wasn't done!

And Iemitsu did it to his own son.

Parasite didn't begin to describe what a fool he was.

"I'll keep my silence on your presence here," promised Lal.

And after her current contract was up with that idiot, she was quitting CEDEF. Maybe Colonello wouldn't mind some help training the morons in Mafia Land? She couldn't look at Iemitsu now without wanting to kill him.

Fon, hearing someone come up the stairs, disappeared. If Lal had followed Iemitsu here, she could easily claim she thought she saw an intruder or something to explain her presence. Or that she thought the poor kid looked bored.

Iemitsu truly was an idiot. Not once did he bother to look around for why Lal would break cover and enter Tsuna's room...if he had he would have noticed Fon hiding on the rather tall bookshelf.

Instead the man gave Lal a look that made her scowl before returning to his wife without caring about his son.

"God I hate that idiot. I'd rather put up with Reborn than his stupidity..." muttered Lal with a growl.

"Who's Reborn?"

Lal looked at Fon.

"I was more interested in training him than telling him about the others," he shrugged.

So apparently there were others like Fon and Lal, except with different Flames.

Reborn, who had the Yellow Pacifier of the Sun, worked occasionally for the Vongola but was currently training someone else under contract.

Skull, who had the Purple Pacifier of the Cloud, was a coward and an inverted Cloud. He was working under a family he didn't like, but his real job was acting as a stunt biker.

Viper, the Indigo Pacifier of the Mist, had gone missing for some time but it was suspected they had changed their name and gone into hiding.

Colonello, who had taken Lal's place as the Blue Pacifier of the Rain, worked as a trainer on an island where Flames users could relax without having to hide what they were.

Verde, who had the Green Pacifier of Lightning, was a scientist who had few qualms about experimenting on anything and everything...including humans.

Aria, who held the Orange Pacifier of the Sky, was the second one to hold it. They didn't really know her very well, having left soon after she grew up.

Tsuna absorbed this knowledge with ears wide open. He loved learning new things, since every step he took was another step to overcoming that stupid Seal.