Takeshi's Sky was the weirdest girl he had met in a while, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Tsuyoshi had originally been concerned when his wife had made such a sudden turn around...until he saw the expression in his son's face.

The odd outsider that the Hibari boy proceeded to beat almost half to death with entirely too much glee told him that something was most definitely up.

Which was why he waited until he could quietly talk to the girl who was behind it all and find out what the hell was really going on.

"We made an agreement with a kitsune. Kyo-chan beats up a few idiots that annoy the kami and gets a decent fight for the next year, and in exchange the kami healed your wife. The gods are rather good about granting requests if you're properly polite about it and know what you're doing," she said with a straight face, like summoning familiars to gods was perfectly normal.

Considering there was no way his wife would be alive without outside assistance, he believed her.

"What of my Takeshi? What are your plans for him?" he asked seriously.

"Takeshi is a sword. He needs someone to provide direction and take care of him, but he's too open to manipulations from people who wouldn't have his best interests in heart. I want to keep him safe so that he can actually enjoy his life without becoming a mere pawn in someone else's games. He deserves better than that," she said with complete honesty, eyes shining brightly with Sky flames.

Something in his chest unclenches, and he can feel her flames hovering in the air, offering him a home.

His instincts as a former hit man tell him this is a Sky to be trusted. That she would go to hell and back for her Elements and by extension those they've claimed as their own...including their families if necessary.

Seeing his son happily play catch with his new Sky made some of the worry disappear. This girl truly cared for his son and was more than willing to encourage his love of baseball...even if she couldn't throw worth a damn.

Hikari was frowning. She wanted to make some bruise balm, as the boys were a bit too enthusiastic at times and it would mean a lot fewer questions if she could use potions rather than modern pharmaceuticals. Unfortunately there wasn't a decent apothecary anywhere near town that she could reach and the closest one she could find didn't do deliveries outside of a three town radius...and it was in another prefecture.

She would order online, but there was far too much chance of the quality being bad or the order in question being tied up for too long in customs.

She fumed, since it meant she had to make due with substitutes which she hated. Half the time they didn't work or it threw the whole thing off, which meant she would have wasted time, energy and precious ingredients.

Unknown to her, a third party who had become rather curious due to some comments made by Kyouya's mother would provide a solution to her problem. Even if he mostly did it out of bemusement and to see if she actually knew what she was doing in the first place.

"Argh! Why is it so hard to get a proper amount of dried lizard spleen?!"

"Why ever would you need one in the first place, is my question," said a voice from the window.

"I need at least four ounces to make bruise balm," said Hikari, without thinking. Then she registered the voice and turned. "Are you the grandmaster Kyo-chan reluctantly mentioned to me once?"

The figure on the sill preened at that, since she didn't immediately assume he was a toddler.

"I am. My name is Fon...I'm Kyouya's grandfather. His mother mentioned you and I was rather curious who had managed to tame my grandson," he replied. "Now what exactly is this bruise balm and why would you need dried out lizard's spleen for it?"

"I specialize in herbal remedies. Bruise balm is one of the easiest and quickest ones to make that won't attract the wrong sorts of attention. For light bruising, it generally takes at least fifteen minutes to an hour for it to heal, and deeper bruises mean it only needs to be left on overnight for them to be half-healed," she replied. She scowled. "Unfortunately it's nearly impossible to find a decent apothecary, and the few I did find would never sell enough of what I need to someone who looks like a child. Especially if they knew I was going to use it to make my own remedies rather than order them."

"Perhaps I could help with that...provided you're willing to give a demonstration that you know what you're actually doing," said Fon.

It was rare for someone to prefer herbal remedies over modern medicines, but not unheard of. And he was rather curious to see if the girl actually knew what she was talking about.

Hikari blinked.

"I don't mind watching, but I must warn you that some of the remedies I know can be explosive if you have to use substitutes. It's a pain, but it's rarely lethal."

"I'm rather fast, and explosions don't bother me."

"Alright, but first I need the ingredients before I do anything. It's nearly impossible to find even half of the items I need locally," she replied.

It took Fon a month and a half, but when he returned it was with the items on the list she had given him. He might have had to cash in a favor or two, but this was too interesting to pass up and they were minor favors at best.

Hikari had Fon sit a respectable distance away. He could still see exactly what she was doing, but wouldn't be in any position to interfere. She even insured his familiar Lichi would stay put with some dried fruits, after she checked to see what his breed preferred.

She didn't really care about making an good impression...she was more concerned about making some bruise balm to insure the boys stayed healthy since she wasn't that great of a fighter without magic.

She wasn't completely helpless, but her body was still too young and immature to do any real serious training. Not without someone who knew what they were doing to guide her properly.

Fon watched in fascination as Hikari went to work with the ease of what could only be long practice. While she didn't have a cauldron, a simple wok conducted heat just as well and was far easier to clean after. And thanks to a simple Bunsen burner, she could modulate the heat effectively.

He was particularly interested at the fact that the girl displayed zero issue with cutting up animal parts or grinding up seemingly random ingredients before adding them to the growing concoction.

She put it on a low simmer, making sure to keep an eye on it while stirring absently with steel chopsticks, before she pulled it off the heat.

"You're rather skilled at this," he commented.

"Ironic, considering my initial teacher in the subject was an absolute bastard who despised children and was forced to teach due to the fact that he owed someone. He would throw the recipe on the board, then hover over the class like a greasy bat while yelling at those he didn't like for getting it wrong, rather than offer proper instruction," said Hikari absently, waiting for the balm to cool enough so that she could ladle it into the waiting jars. "He's probably still rolling in his grave that I actually turned out competent enough in the subject to achieve a Mastery."

Fon hummed, and watched as she easily put the concoction into jars and put the lid on them.

"Would you mind overly much if I took some with me to test out?" he asked politely.

"I would have been more surprised if you hadn't, in all honesty," she replied.

She handed him two of the nine jars, and he hid them in his robe sleeve.

He kept one for himself, but gave the other to Skull since out of the Arcobaleno he was the one most likely to use it frequently.

You could imagine his surprise when it did exactly as she said it would. If she was this good at herbal remedies then he was rather eager to see what else she could create with the right ingredients.

"What in the name of the gods is that?!" demanded Fon, horrified. And who could blame him when he walked in to his grandson summoning an Eldritch horror of all things that looked like Oodako's abominable cousin from hell?

"Hmph. You're early carnivore," said Kyouya boredly.

Fon's eyebrow twitched. He struggled to retain his usual calm demeanor.

"Kyouya...what exactly is that and why are you so close to it?"

"It's an abomination from the realm of Cthulhu, here to answer our summons as I needed some specific books that are almost impossible to locate on an earthly plain," said Hikari cheerfully.

Fon noticed that not one of the children had lowered their staff and that the abomination seemed to be contained somehow by the circle and their triangle.

The twitch in his eyebrow got worse.

"And why exactly would an abomination humor your request?"

"I supply his boss with books from here, since the selection they have is ridiculously limited. I mostly borrow them anyway and I always return them in pristine condition," said Hikari cheerfully. "Next Wednesday good for you with delivery?"

The abomination waved cheerfully before disappearing, but not without leaving a book behind.

Which suggested she had already established a rapport when it came to borrowing and that they trusted her to deliver the agreed upon payment if they left that as collateral.

Fon's blood pressure went through the roof when he realized that not only did Kyouya seemed unconcerned by the whole thing, but he actually looked rather bored. Takeshi didn't seem to care in the least.

Exactly how often were these children summoning ACTUAL demons that they were this blasé about the whole thing?

More importantly how the hell did Kyouya's Sky even know how to summon them in the first place?!

Fon twitched when he saw the rather large pile of books inside the circle.

"Why did you include trashy romance novels?"

"Again, their selection is rather limited and apparently Cthulhu is on a major romance kick. Besides, the books I usually request are things that humans can actually read, much less use and I have no issue with acting as their supplier," said Hikari with a shrug.

Fon twitched as the books disappeared from view, leaving a much smaller mound behind, including the odd scroll.

Hikari picked one up and handed him one of the scrolls.

"Feel free to read this. My Chinese isn't the best and Kyouya hates translating for them. I always have to bribe him with a proper fight before he'll humor me," said Hikari.

Fon humored her, though he was still twitching over the whole thing. He damn near dropped it in absolute shock when he registered exactly what she had given him.

"This...this is an instruction manual for the lost dragon-force palm. It's been missing for centuries since the last known user was killed and trapped inside a weapon! How did you..." he said in shock.

"Little known fact about sub-dimensions like that...if you know the right entities they can often slip the odd item out of them if you ask politely enough. The owner of that scroll was more than happy to hand it over since he was assured it would actually be used, even if the odds of Kyouya actually bothering to learn it were relatively low. It's not like it was doing any good trapped in there with him, and he had plenty of chances to perfect it."

She didn't bother to mention that sometimes the owners were less than willing to part with it, which usually resulted in said human being eaten by the entity who was retrieving it and rendering the point moot anyway.

Fon was a little more inclined to ignore the fact his grandson was summoning actual demons when he realized that he was growing a rather large library of lost or forgotten martial arts that he had only heard rumors of, but was never likely to see in his lifetime.

Mostly because the ones who could have passed them on were either killed, trapped or the instruction manuals were destroyed.

Either way he made a point to put Hikari through 'extra' training. If his grandson was going to be doing crap like this when he wasn't looking, then he was going to make damn sure his Sky wouldn't become the vulnerability that got them all killed.

Iemitsu was due to visit, and Hikari was having none of that nonsense. Her mother was terribly lonely, but she was also worried her husband would bring another danger to her daughter like last time.

Which was why Hikari secured an extended 'sleepover' with Hibari. One that would coincidentally last as long as Iemitsu was in Japan. And if that didn't work, Takeshi had volunteered his place as a hiding hole and had already warned his father that the "idiot" as Hikari not-so-affectionately named her male parent, was in town and that Hikari would very much like to avoid him if possible.

Apparently Tsuyoshi had heard of Iemitsu Sawada, so the idea of keeping him far, far away from his Active son and his less than amused daughter was only natural to him.

Iemitsu was not happy, but Nana was still pissed about the whole pedophile incident from last time and refused to tell him who her daughter was staying with.

Besides, Hikari and Kyouya were an absolutely adorable couple, even if she suspected her little girl to be a tad dense in the romance department.