There wasn't a day that went by that Sirzechs didn't curse the blessed marriage contract between his sister and that idiot Raiser from the Phenex clan. He could get that there weren't many pure blooded devils left, but that didn't mean he wanted them to try and use his baby sister to bring the numbers back up!

Honestly, they could have picked someone better than that glorified moron Raiser! The idiot was gathering a damn harem and couldn't keep his hands off them, for Maou's sake!

Sirzechs sighed, rather than continue fuming. At this point it was going to take a freaking miracle to save his sister from having to marry that bastard.

As if God was still alive and heard the prayer of Lucifer for help, he stumbled across a kid who looked way too familiar, despite never having met him.

As in he had seen that face and hair before, but in different proportions and with someone he knew was allied to the Gremory clan, though not as frequently of late.

If that kid wasn't a descendant of Giotto Vongola, he'd bat for the other team or cheat on his wife with her in full view.

So in the interest of observing the kid to see if he was anywhere near as charismatic as that blessed Giotto was, he discreetly followed him.

And what he saw had him frowning.

The kid was overly clumsy, harassed by almost the entire school, and not very bright.

Now normally this wouldn't get his attention, except he could feel something trying to surge in the kid's body, but couldn't. Like there was something deliberately holding him back from his full potential.

Sirzechs watched the kid (Tsuna, according to the others around him) and an idea slowly formed. One that was risky as heaven, but could reap rewards for a long time. Best of all, it was a possible solution to getting Rias out of her contract without losing too much face.

The only question would be if the kid or his guardian went for it.

Nana Sawada looked at the man in her home with an odd expression on her face. Gone was the ditzy, oblivious woman who welcomed everyone with a smile and in it's place was a confused and wary Fallen.

"Let me get this straight. You want to make an agreement with my son and marry your sister off to him in the process. Why?"

Sirzechs kept his most charming smile on his face, though inwardly he was cursing. He didn't expect the kid to be half Fallen!

"My father foolishly promised my sister's hand in marriage when she was a toddler to another pure blood clan of great prestige. However the Devil in question is an arrogant prick who has little to no respect for women and is a lecherous brat to boot. Because of my position, I am unable to help her directly, or it would only blow up in my face politically. However... from what I can tell your son is a direct descendant of a man our family helped several centuries ago, and still owe a great favor to for their aid in a few delicate matters."

Nana narrowed her eyes at him.

"What would he get in return?"

"I can remove the seal on him. At least I hope it's a seal, because there's no other explanation for why he felt like his body was straining to let something out and causing his current behavior. And from what I can tell he won't treat Rias like some sort of commodity and would show her more respect than Raiser ever would."

"And you said your family helped my husband's some time in the past."

"Enough that I could claim I'm ending a long standing debt between us by marrying my sister to the family. The fact he's half Fallen makes it easier actually... my sister's Queen is half Fallen and she could help train him."

Nana thought it over. On one hand, she would essentially ruining her son's chances of ever living a human life, and bringing him to the attention of some very scary individuals.

On the other hand, he was never going to be normal, not with her blood in his veins, and she was still beyond pissed Iemitsu sealed his full powers away without even telling her anything. More than that, the idiot didn't even have the balls to tell her he was involved with the mafia, with one of the major families! And from the sounds of it, Sirzechs Lucifer was more than happy to train her son in how to reach his full potential in exchange for helping him save his little sister.

"I would like to meet the girl and her Queen first, before I agree to this."

"That can be arranged. Once Rias hears what this is about, she'll jump at the chance to be rid of Raiser."

"That bad?"

"You have no idea," grimaced Sirzechs. He'd sooner hand his sister over the son of an unknown Fallen who had been hiding for who knew how long than ever consider the idea of letting Raiser get his hands on her.

A few days later...

Tsuna didn't know what this was about, just that his mama was expecting some important visitors today. The ten year old was understandably nervous about the whole thing.

And then they arrived. A man with really long red hair and two girls about his age, if not a year older. The first girl looked like a younger, female version of the man and the other girl felt like a shrine maiden... and yet he felt a weird kinship with her.

"Right on time! Lunch is ready!" chirped his mother.

It was weird, but there was some strange look that the red haired girl was giving him, almost like hope. But why would she look at him with that sort of expression?

The man was nice, if a bit weird. While he brought out some of his video games to share with the girls, the trio relaxed a bit. He wasn't a big fan of the overly violent games, but he did like the games that let multiple people play at one time against each other, or as a team.

The one he brought out was a dungeon-crawler of sorts, and the children were soon amicably arguing over which route to take and who would lead.

Nana and Sirzechs watched them play, and something between them relaxed.

The children were getting along rather well, despite the secret being hidden from the lone male of the group.

Nana wanted to cry. Because of her idiot husband, she had never seen her son this alive since he was a little boy. He didn't have any friends, because the older children were always harassing him and he had no way to defend himself properly.

"I'll agree to your request, but only if you get his agreement as well," she said quietly.

Sirzechs sat Tsuna down a few hours later, while Rias and Akeno were getting cooking lessons from Nana, who seemed to take them on as surrogate daughters with enthusiasm. Seeing his sister and her Queen respond to her like a second mother made him smile.

"You wanted to talk to me sir?"

He looked at the timid little boy in front of him.

"Tell me, Tsuna-kun... do you like spending time around Rias and Akeno-chan?"

Tsuna nodded.

"They're really nice, and they don't mind if I make little mistakes!"

"Would you like to spend more time with them?" asked Sirzechs.

"I can?"

"I have been talking with your mother, and she agreed it would be alright if you and Rias spent more time together, including her friends. Though she won't be going to your school, you can still visit her on holidays and weekends."

He'd explain about the marriage contract when he was old enough to appreciate it. Or until something happened and they had to put him through an accelerated training program to fight off Raiser.

Seeing the bright spark of hope in the kid's eyes, Sirzechs pulled out the big guns.

"Tell me, do you have any idea why you have such trouble at school or act so clumsy?"

Tsuna shook his head, in shame.

"Well I might have an idea of how to fix that, but I would need your permission first. It would go hand in hand to spending a lot more time with Rias on her free days from school, and I'm sure she'd love being friends with you."

"Really?" said Tsuna, hopefully.

He hated manipulating the kid, but he'd thank him in a few short years once he found out the truth. At least they wouldn't have to hide anything from each other, like they would have if they married humans. Though he would have to get a crash course explanation.

Preferably from his mother.

Before they left the home (with the girls quickly agreeing to stay silent about Tsuna and a new contract to break the one with Raiser until he had things finalized) Sirzechs used a bit of his magic to break the seal on Tsuna.

The kid would be bedridden for a week, but there was a marked difference in how he behaved and reacted to things when Sirzechs brought his sister and Akeno over.

He didn't act like a skittish kitten anymore, and there was an internal fire that had been missing in his eyes.

What in the Maou's name would have possessed the Vongola to seal an Active Sky, especially one that powerful? It made absolutely no sense.

One year later, Tsuna Age 11

Finding out about the supernatural world had come as a shock, but not as bad as seeing his mother with four black wings.

Or worse, learning the source of why his classmates called him Dame-Tsuna for years was because his dad put a seal on his powers after he awakened them without even consulting his mother.

He wasn't allowed to use any of them quite yet, because his mama wanted to wait and make sure they settled back into their proper place before she trained him, but that was a small price to pay.

But the biggest change came when he was properly introduced to Rias, Akeno and her friends.

So far he had met a half-vampire named Gasper (the two hit it off, since Tsuna knew far too well what it was like to be bullied, and the boy practically latched on to him) and a girl name Koneko, who only warmed up when he brought out the cookies he helped his mama bake for the meeting.

He honestly didn't have a problem with them being devils. They were leagues nicer to him than most of the people in his own age group.

And they didn't bring up the fact that he actually fainted when Sirzechs (Rias' older brother) finally told him the truth about the 'spending a lot of time with Rias' bit he mentioned.

The short and simple of it was that he was expected to marry Rias when she turned eighteen, which was the age she originally agreed to when she found out about the contract from her parents. She really, really didn't want anything to do with this Phenex guy, and after seeing even a fragment of how he behaved around his Evil Pieces (Sirzechs helpfully explained those to him) Tsuna couldn't blame her.

Of course the contract would be kept silent, at least until it was blown open when the date came up. Or someone stumbled across it and leaked the news.

Until then, Akeno and Tsuna would train under Nana, and Rias would continue to collect more Pieces for the inevitable confrontation. With any luck, Tsuna would have collected several Guardians to act as replacements for his side.

To be honest, he didn't actually mind the whole marriage thing, even if he had been tricked into it. Rias was nice, her peerage were friendly if a bit leery of allowing this piece of hope to cloud their judgment, and it wasn't like he had any prospects now that he knew the truth about his mother.

He couldn't possibly drag some poor human into this world by marrying them. At least Rias had been born into this madness, and could hold her own.

Today though, he had a weird feeling something annoying was about to happen.

And that feeling panned out when he came home, saw the clothes on the line and the sake bottles out, with an idiot sleeping in the living room.

He went completely poker faced, walked out and looked for his mother.

"Mama, can I stay with Rias until that weird bum on the couch leaves?"

Or until she chased him out?

Nana's eyes glinted with something that would have made a normal man run like hell in the other direction.

"Of course you can sweetie. Be sure to act like a gentleman around them, okay?"

Tsuna nodded, grabbed his things and used the teleport spell Sirzechs gave him on an amulet to transport himself to Rias' clubhouse.

Officially it was the Occult Research Club. Unofficially it was where Rias stayed while attending human school.

She looked up from where she was playing chess with her friend Sona and blinked.

"Tsuna?"

"Mind if I crash here for a while?" he asked hopefully.

Rias smirked at him.

"Only if you agree to help Akeno train later."

"Deal."

"Rias, who is this?" asked Sona.

"This is Tsuna Sawada, of the Vongola Familigia in Italy. Our families owe his a few favors, so my brother's working out something appropriately big to repay them to clear up the debt," said Rias.

All true, without letting it slip that there was a possibility she could escape Raiser later through him.

"Tsuna, this is Sona Sitri, younger sister of the current Leviathan, and head of the student council here at Kuoh," said Rias.

Tsuna dusted himself off before giving a polite Japanese bow to Sona.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," he said formally.

Sona blinked, before a light blush appeared on her face. He was entirely sincere, yet at the same time held a great wealth of hidden power and potential hidden behind his petite form. And compared to the other male students at the school, acted more like a friend than someone only interested in her for other reasons.

She was going to hate puberty, she just knew it.

"So is Nana still open to teaching Akeno...?"

"She said we were going to get started this week, but since I found that weird bum on the couch I think it'll be postponed until he's gone for sure," said Tsuna. "And you know she doesn't mind if you call her Mama too."

Rias blushed.

"Well you have good timing. We were planning to hit the Familiar Forest in a few days."

Rias had yet to acquire her familiar, and Akeno had earned the right. Koneko and Gasper would have to grow a bit as Devils before they were allowed to go, but she was reasonably sure Tsuna would be allowed so long as he kept with the two younger ones.

In the Familiar Forest...

Tsuna looked around with interest. He didn't really mind that Gasper was holding onto his arm rather tightly, or that Koneko had a bored expression on her face.

"This place is scary," said Gasper.

"Compared to facing a horde of bullies after you and no adults present?" said Tsuna.

Gasper blinked.

"Well, when you compare it to that, it is lacking," admitted Gasper.

"I have some video games, if you want to play later," said Tsuna. Gasper brightened and lost some of his scared edge.

Rias smiled. Tsuna was a good influence on the half-vampire, almost like a big brother. Even Koneko liked him.

For the most part, it was a pretty standard hunt. Rias found an adorable bat that could turn into a human, and Akeno got herself a baby oni.

Of course she really should have kept an eye on the younger trio, because she ended up finding them trying to coax Koneko out of a field of demonic catnip, where several cats of varying sizes were rolling around.

She seemed to be having an intense staring contest with an adorable kitten, while a rather decently sized Nekomata seemed to have adopted Tsuna.

Rias tried very hard not to laugh, and Akeno was taking multiple blackmail pictures.

"Alright you two, we have to leave now."

Koneko had the most adorable pout, and the nekomata mewled in protest from where it was nuzzling Tsuna. It was giving her the most pitiful kitten eyes she had ever seen.

Rias giggled.

"I doubt your mother would let you keep a cat that big in your house, Tsuna," said Rias gently.

The cat clearly understood her, because there was a bright ball of fire before it turned into a more cuddly size, though it still had two tails.

"Mew~!"

It jumped into Tsuna's arms without hesitation and gave him an expectant look.

"I think I'll call you Kirara. Because you look a lot like the two-tailed cat from that manga series I've been reading."

"Neko-chan," declared Koneko firmly, the kitten now on her head.

"You can make him your official familiar when you get a bit stronger. Until then he's your pet, got it?" said Rias. Koneko nodded solemnly, careful not to dislodge the cat. "And you are so explaining to Mama why you now have a cat."

Tsuna beamed at her, and Kirara mewled happily from his arms.