In one world, a tired wizard who had been through far too much and never had a chance to actually live looked back on his life...and decided he was tired of trying.
Tired of pretending everything was alright, even when he was breaking inside. Tired of his saint-like patience being pushed to the bring dealing with so much sheer stupidity. Tired of being something he wasn't, just because the masses demanded it from him.
And so he reached out to the one entity who never lied to him. The one being in the universe who had been upfront and positively blunt about the fact he was about to be screwed over but good for the rest of his life because of something he had no real control over.
He didn't know what the god was, only that the man had been refreshingly unsympathetic or caring towards his own situation, and asked him for a second chance.
A chance to actually live, even if he would cease to exist in this life.
It wasn't like he had anything to properly live for in the first place, after all.
"Shitty old man... remember that favor you owe me? I'm cashing it in," he said.
"No respect from the youth of today. Is that how you're planning to cash in a debt?"
He glared at the god before him with a flat, unimpressed look.
"We both know I'll inevitably be roped into whatever system you have planned to cleanse the leylines that surround the earth. The world is too broken, too dirtied by the fools who don't even care about what they're doing to magic itself to survive. So why not make an agreement?" he shot back.
The man stared back, before rubbing his poor excuse of a beard.
"Go on."
"Use the Hallows to create the items. Three safeguards against the destruction of the world, rather than allow more death to seep in. I'll even throw in my own soul fire into the bargain."
"Hmm... tempting. The fire of the never-ending Sky, to safeguard the world from destruction. But what do you want in return?"
"Life."
The man stared for a moment, before he looked at him hard.
"You won't have most of the personal memories of this life... but I can at least let you keep your instincts and the memories of magic."
"Just let me keep my spell knowledge and how to survive. I refuse to be made a puppet a second time, regardless of someone else's so-called 'good intentions'," he said flatly. "Personal memories I can live without, since I'm trying to make a clean start."
"Fair enough. The phoenix will be reborn with a clean slate, even if you won't remember why you did this for a few rounds at least," said the older figure.
"It's a price worth paying to be free."
A cold wind seemed to blow through the room.
Then let the phoenix be unchained from the bonds placed upon them by those who ignore all that was sacrificed. To ignore the lessons that should have been remembered through blood and soul.
And with that, the younger figure died in his chair. A smile of freedom and contentment on his face, knowing he would finally lose the chains that had been placed upon him by the fools who caused this mess in the first place.
Kawahira took the Hallows from his body. As the young man requested, he would reforge them into new objects. Sepira could hand them out to the worthy, but the most dangerous ones would only have temporary owners.
At least until their true Master was finally ready to reclaim them and set the system free.
The first Hallow, the Resurrection Stone, was remade into a set of seven rings capable of seeing through dimensions.
The second Hallow, the Elder Wand, was remade into a set of seven pacifiers that would change owners much like the original had.
The third and final Hallow, the Death Cloak, was remade into yet another set of rings. This one capable of hiding the souls that bonded to them from Death's embrace by placing them in a special pocket realm inside the cloak so that they might pass on their wisdom to their descendants.
And so the Tri-Ni-Sette were created.
Unknown to the people who would replace the magicals that had so tainted the earth with their foolishness, these items were less of a curse and more of a last gift from the man who once acted as their true master.
A clean slate for more than just himself, but for the world.
But like so many things, the meaning behind the gift was lost and was slowly dredged in the taint of innocent blood spilled.
The Mare Rings, which held the power to traverse even death to see into the timelines of other worlds, slowly drove their Sky insane from an influx of too many minds that were all the same person. The knowledge of how every action played out, moments taken or lost, was too much for their minds to bear.
The Vongola Rings, which held the power of the infamous Death Cloak, slipped into the wrong hands and were tainted by the terrible "Sin" of the Vongola familigia. A taint that should never have been forcibly passed from generation to generation.
The Arcobaleno Pacifiers, which held the remnants of the Elder Wand, remained untouched...until one of their former owners decided to unknowingly abuse it's connection to death and return, creating the Vindice. The former Arcobaleno now had to chose between a cursed existence and death.
Needless to say Kawahira really hated humans sometimes.
Tainting the last gift of a man who had sacrificed everything precious to him, of a saint who only ever thought of others even at the cost of his own soul...it caused his own mind to darken against humanity as a whole.
Slowly, even Kawahira fell victim to the dark taint that had embedded itself into the magic that made up the world. Though his was far weaker than it could have been.
When one looked at Tsunayoshi "Tsuna" Sawada, the first thing that would strike you (if you were a fan of history or part of the Vongola) was that he bore a remarkable resemblance to Giotto Vongola, the first Vongola boss.
This was especially obvious when he activated his flames at age five. Several years younger than any other person in quite some time. Nearly a century in fact. Though the last one was almost seven when they activated their flames.
Needless to say Iemitsu was not pleased, which was rather odd considering how loved Skies were.
So he convinced his boss/father figure to seal the Flames. Not with a permanent seal, but with something that would only break in the most dire of circumstances.
What the man didn't know was that putting Tsuna in contact with the Vongola's Sky ring so young, and so soon after activating his Flames, caused an invisible chain reaction in his soul.
Something deep inside him stirred.
When Tsuna passed out at having his soul forcibly shoved behind a seal, memories awakened. A new power replaced what was sealed, one that hadn't been seen in over a millennia.
He would wake up to find his 'father' and 'grandfather' gone back to wherever they came from, a perpetual feeling of cold and his mind almost feeling like it was swimming in cold treacle. (What was treacle?)
Things only got worse from there.
If there was one thing Tsuna hated, it was the staring and the whispers.
Originally he had paid it no mind, as he had been a happy child.
Now though... now it was though he was hyper aware of what was happening around him, to the point he heard even the smallest cold word and saw every action.
It was awful. Especially when the other children decided to take out their bad days on him. After all, he was the 'worthless son of a whore' according to some of their mothers.
Tsuna, in a rare show of compassion, forgave his classmates for their bad habits and bullying ways. It wasn't their fault. They were only following the lead of their parents and the stronger children.
However if they ever went further than cruel words or petty pranks, he would fight back.
Tsuna, age fifteen
Tsuna groaned as he woke up to yet another day of hypocrisy, bigotry and outright stupidity.
In short, another day of public schooling when you're the lowest person on the totem pole and universally mocked by the entire school save for one or two extremely rare people who had an actual personality. Everyone else was just a face in the crowd to him, not really worth noting or remembering.
Tsuna had always been terrible with faces.
His mind automatically sorted the info-dump he always got while he slept. He didn't know why he had those weird dreams or the strange knowledge, but he was glad he did.
His life was so much easier, especially when he got he first tidbits of how to avoid bullies and ignore the jeering of the sheep.
Everyone thought Tsuna was the slowest, least athletic person in school. They even had a special nickname that was known to almost every student.
Dame Tsuna, or "No-Good".
In reality he downplayed his intelligence and abilities. Stupid things like grades didn't matter in the long run, especially in certain circles.
After all, what good were grades when you knew how to hack a high level computer? What did they matter when you were passing college-level courses online to get your degree?
As for PE...well that was basically just to get the excess energy out of people while trying to instill things like teamwork and basic sportsmanship. Two things that he didn't really get considering no one wanted to be friends with him, and he rarely actually did anything to earn the ire of his 'teammates' when they lost.
There might be no "I" in "Team", but there certainly was in hypocrisy.
Blaming him every time they lost simply because he was on their team was stupid.
So imagine his surprise when he came home and found his mother hired a home tutor.
Instincts he had long since learned to trust had him grabbing his things and going out the back, rather than the front. He slipped past his mother and was gone before anyone was the wiser.
In less than an hour, he found himself with a massive headache that took the form of a two-year old that looked way too familiar.
And not because he had met him before.
"Ciaossu. I'm your new home tutor."
Tsuna gave the fake infant a hard stare. He knew he had heard of someone who fit this description before, but where...
Seeing the green gun aimed in his direction, it hit him.
"Ah! You're Reborn! Now I remember where I've heard of you!" said Tsuna suddenly, catching the infant off guard.
"You've heard of me."
"Yeah, one of my friends on a game I play online is always bitching about you," said Tsuna without thinking. "Actually a few of them tend to bitch about someone fitting your description, but they never said you were so tiny."
"Oh? What sort of 'friends'?"
Tsuna had a bad feeling about revealing his friends to this infant. Odds were he'd get retribution in some way against them.
"Well Viper_of_the_Mist tends to bitch a lot about how expensive the coffee you drink is and how you almost never pay your share of the bill. And Dragon_Eyed_Storm likes to complain about about your sense of chaos is rather irritating to deal with," said Tsuna cryptically.
Reborn's face was impassive...but inside he was planning to give Fon and Viper an earful. So they were complaining about him to civilians, were they?
"Anyway why on earth were you really sent? Even I know my mother doesn't really notice or care about my grades much less my health. If she did she would have let me become a shut in years ago," said Tsuna bitterly. "And the promptness of your arrival is way too suspicious, considering she only got that 'flier' this morning."
Reborn gave him a hard stare, before he smirked. Looks like this boy wasn't completely oblivious as he had assumed. He was a bit more observant than he acted.
"I'm here to turn you into a mafia boss."
Tsuna stared at him. Hard.
"It can't be from my mother's side...she's too normal and oblivious even when she sees something most people would take notice of. So it has to be my father's side. Why now?" asked Tsuna logically.
Reborn looked at the boy with open approval. The fact he was able to work out that much spoke volumes of him actually having a brain.
"The short and simple of it is that you're the only heir left. All the others died."
Reborn displayed a set of photos and a brief summary of what happened to them. Tsuna openly snorted at what happened to Massimo.
"Isn't that like a total cliché way of getting killed, the whole cement shoes and water bit?"
Reborn snorted in agreement. After those ridiculous movies were made, a lot of weaker and newer mafioso tried to look "badass" by recreating the scene. Instead they just outed themselves as posers.
These days the whole cement shoes in the water death was automatically attributed to the mafia, or at least someone pretending to be mafia.
Tsuna looked at Reborn with a hard, flat look.
"There's no way I'm going to get out of this anytime soon, is there?"
"Since I was the one sent to train you, no," said Reborn bluntly.
Tsuna openly groaned. Then he stared at the green gun once again aimed in his direction.
"Now, I think it's time you showed me what you can do with your Dying Will," said Reborn cheerfully. He pulled the trigger.
The events that happened next would never be fully clear to Reborn until much, much later.
All he would remember was the shockwave, his new student unleashing the purest Sky Flames he had ever felt in his life, and a sense of tired amusement in his direction...and slight irritation for something he had no reason for.
Though the sight of his new student ruining the lives of several civilians through his phone was definitely not something he expected.
Tsuna was turning out to be a lot more interesting than his profile suggested...