There are moments in Tsuna's life when danger slides from two to seven to a hundred before Tsuna could make any sense of it.

While it is a criticism of Tsuna, because he's no good at making sense of things (Example A is his homework), it is mostly a criticism of the mafia scene for putting him in these impossible situations.

Currently, Tsuna, a fifteen-year-old Japanese tourist, is doing a terrible job at blending into the Italian streets, especially since it's after sunset, the streets are half empty, and Tsuna is the most suspiciously high-strung person around.

But it's not entirely his fault.

It's everything else, everybody else. They don't look.. human. Everyone he passed had vibrant skin, protruding horns, multiple limbs or some other grotesque feature. It wouldn't be so bad if he got some sort of preparation before he sees them, a chance to steel himself and go with the chaos that goes hand in hand with the mafia. His Hyper Intuition is pretty good at warning him about these things usually. It hasn't yet failed him with any entrance of Mukuro or Hibari, but frustratingly, it's silent.

It's throwing Tsuna off his (entirely non-existent) game.

He and his companion, the only normal humans, are getting stared at for being…normal.

It's only fair because Tsuna, wide-eyed and desperate to cry, can't help but stare back.

It's an alien world. He might be in danger (again), and everyone looks like they want to eat his brains (he doesn't have any). Internally, he is crying.

How did he get here, and most importantly:

Why do these things always happen to him?

"We need to hurry. He might be here soon."

The man who says that looks to be in his early thirties, with black hair, black eyes and a silvery voice. He's scanning the surrounding environment, discretely eyeing streets and corners as if this mysterious figure hunting them **will pop out from the woodwork. He's the one leading Tsuna somewhere for his safety. Frankly, he reminded Tsuna a lot of Yamamoto, specifically ten-years-later Yamamoto. He was cool, and there's just something about him that screamed competent, as if he had the situation entirely under control.

Of course, back then (and now) very little is under control. But it didn't change the feeling Tsuna got from the man.

He introduced himself an hour ago—has it only been sixty minutes?—as Oboro Shirakumo.

Of Neo Vongola.

Well.

Gokudera would have been able to make something of that.

But Tsuna?

He's kind of stuck on the fact that they told him he's been hibernating for the last three hundred years.

Which rightly is impossible, but also is just the kind of thing to happen to Tsuna nowadays.

This was supposed to be Reborn's mandated Vongola summer holiday—In Italy. It was supposed to be a break for Tsuna and his select friends after the crazy year they went through. Oh, how easily Reborn sold it to Nana as an exciting cultural exchange, an 'authentic bonding experience', the chance to grow out of his comfort zone. His mother, Bianchi and the kids joyfully packed for their overseas holiday, before Tsuna even thought to protest. Tsuna was not exactly happy to go, since it's obviously just another ploy to push Tsuna into the role of Neo Vongola Primo, but he wasn't dreading it either. Yeah, Reborn still tutored/tortured him. But the rest of the time, it really was a holiday, especially since Gokudera & Dino liked to show them around. They ate ice-cream, tried Italian food and walked around a beautiful place with rich history (and even richer hidden criminal history).

They laughed and played and took funny pictures, and it was fun.

Then that happened, and Tsuna woke with ominous dread and damning silence to nothing familiar.

Again.

(At least there's no coffin this time.)

Adding insanity to insanity, the other person who told him this, who was present when he woke up, was a talking adult-sized chimp in a suit, whose name is Pogo—who is also of Neo Vongola.

Yeah.

The future is a wild, wild place. (If only Gokudera was here too, like last time.)

Tsuna shakes himself to prioritize. (Later. He'll think of that later.)

"Who are we running from? How scary is he?" Tsuna asks. Is he another Byakuran? Please, no.

For a moment, Oboro is silent, glancing assessingly sideways. Tsuna suppresses another flinch whenever he accidentally spots a random alien bystander. It works.

"In some circles, he's known as a monster. I won't win in a battle, but with any luck, it won't come to that. I owe him a lot… But in some ways, I owe you more."

"You don't," Tsuna disagrees, vehemently, unsure where this sentiment came from, "We've never met before."

Oboro smiles, a painful quirk of his lips. He shakes his head.

"It's been a long time coming. Don't worry about it. We'll get you out of here and then.. The future is yours."

Tsuna tries a smile. It's shaky, but it's there. Oboro is the first person to have ever tried to pull him away from the mafia instead of pushing him into it. For that alone, Tsuna likes him a lot already.

"There are no pictures of you in any mansion, or kept in CEDEF, or even in Namimori. It's just another security detail these days. But, well—your exploits are infamous." To Tsuna's utter blank look, Oboro expands, "How you were the youngest to undergo the Vongola Trial, and that you broke the Arcobaleno curse, gaining favours from the most powerful people in the mafia. Anyone whose anyone knows the tale on how you brought the Vongola back from the brink of extinction from a rival famiglia in an alternate future."

For a moment, Tsuna stares, unashamedly.

Oboro stares back, quirks an eyebrow. "It's not true?"

"No, it was, but..." Tsuna waves his hands around, words escaping him. They knew about Byakuran? Wasn't that only a Vongola thing? People Uni chose to know and all? "The Arcobaleno were my friends, and the Vongola Trial happened in that alternate future. It's not…" all that, Tsuna means to end.

But he couldn't belittle it, because it was some of the hardest things he has had to experience and do.

On the other hand, besides freeing Reborn, he didn't actually want to do those things. So hearing praise for them….

Oboro shakes his head, smiling. "That's amazing. Just… imagined you older. I joined Neo Vongola around your age, apparently. I suppose I forgot the fact that you never age."

This time it's Tsuna who scrutinises Oboro sideways.

…Okay.

Did Tsuna think Oboro was like Yamamoto? No, he's more like Gokudera, surely.

There's this idea he had of Tsuna that's disconnected from reality.

That doesn't mean Tsuna likes him any less.

"Hood up. It's right here," Oboro reminds before grabbing Tsuna's elbow and leading him into a nondescript building. The building blends in amongst the rest, and the inside wasn't much better. Clean, polished, professional; Tsuna's seen a million of these. Oboro enters with confident strides, a perfect fit in his suit, a stark contract to Tsuna's hunched posture in his borrowed clothes. He bypasses the woman wearing a tight bun at the receptionist with a nod. Any other office workers they passed are met with much the same. Their brisk pace through the halls discourages small talk.

Before he knew it, Tsuna is in an elevator, safely tucked away behind closed doors.

Against the glass, Oboro holds a card glowing with lightning flames. The elevator descends. Discretely, he says, "Don't turn around. I don't want your face caught on camera."

Much of the tension in Oboro's stance loosens. Not all of it, but it is enough for Tsuna to feel a measure of safety.

"They looked normal…"

Oboro makes an inquisitive hum, tilting his head to hear Tsuna better.

"Everyone we just passed," Tsuna expands.

Oboro pauses. "They were all my team. A lot of them I found in Japan."

What a weird thing to say, and Tsuna would have said so, but the elevator dings, and the door opens.

Oboro motions Tsuna to step off first. Tsuna does so with a grimace.

It opens to a circular room with thick pillars and a raised platform in the middle. Tsuna counts the pillars, eyes falling on the last one with a seven. It's grand and the futuristic, not the Merone base in Namimori. It's just… a room.

"Where are we?" he asks. Why?

"This is a port for a very special machine." Oboro smiles, boyish. Tsuna's surprised to see it. "It can transport you anywhere in the world, as long as one of these ports is on the other side."

Tsuna double takes. "It's a teleportation machine?"

Oboro full blown grins. It makes him seem younger. "How do you like it?"

Tsuna stares, wide-eyed, turns one more time to take everything in. It's not really similar to Shouchi's time travel machine. But somehow he likes this better. It doesn't give him the hives.

"People teleport in the future…" Tsuna whispers.

It really is the future.

Oboro chuckles, ushering both of them onto the raised platform. "No, just the Neo Vongola, mostly. Makes travel and vacations easy. Our allies can pay to use them. It's a steady source of income for the famiglia. I had a rough idea, but the real stars were our dedicated team of scientists & engineers who made it all happen.

"Theoretically, we could hide you anywhere in the world, but I think somewhere rural is best…"

Whoa! Wait! Tsuna's leaving the country?

"Where—?"

"I'm thinking the States." He's quickly tapping lights in the air, but at Tsuna's look of utter incomprehension, Oboro expands, "USA. There's a few—" before cutting himself off at Tsuna's obvious cringe.

Tsuna reddens, stammering, "S-sorry, b-but my English is terrible…"

Oboro falters, before erasing the coordinates and faking a smile. "Okay, Japan then," he sounds slow, thinking. "I can't send you to Namimori. It'll be the first place he'll search. But one of the islands… As long as you lie low for a few years, it's possible. I have a safe house on Nabu island. It'll do."

The lights flash suddenly, and Oboro's make shift screen glows red. Tsuna, who knows nothing, knows that it's a bad sign.

Black eyes narrow in frustration, a hand ruffling his hair. "No authorisation? That's not possible."

While Oboro is muttering his curses, Tsuna turns once again to the room at large. There's something Tsuna is missing, a little subtle nudge of his Hyper Intuition.

His eyes narrow on that last seventh pillar. "Oboro.."

It was all for naught, for a big, clear, foreign sigh steals the attention.

Oboro turns instantly, hands out in a ready battle stance. "Tsunayoshi, get behind me."

A purple figure appears, head first, then down to his toes. He's leaning against the pillar with extreme casualness, one foot braced on it. With a face full of makeup, piercings and purple hair, he's Hollywood good-looking. "I was watching the whole time, even as you scurried in the dark like rats on the street. Is this how the Head of Neo Vongola's Independent Transference Force is supposed to act?" Though his words were for Oboro, his purple eyes unnervingly kept Tsuna in his sights.

He looks so familiar, but Tsuna can't put his finger on it…

"Do you really think you can run from the Great Immortal Stuntman?" the man continues.

Tsuna's mind blanks, and he gapes, jaw hanging in the wind. There's only one person who introduces himself that way.

"Skull!" Tsuna cries out, riding the waves of relief.

Skull grins, tossing in a jaunty wave. "Yo, Tsuna. Welcome to the future, babe."

Tsuna stumbles closer, held back only by the Oboro's arm blocking his way. "Skull, they said—They said this is three hundred years in the future, but it can't be! It can't be. You're here!"

Skull's smile slips, and instantly Tsuna's stomach plummets. His fist clenches along with the tightening hold of his Hyper Intuition. This, this, this, this, it says, no longer letting itself be ignored.

But it can't be this.

The silence looms, and neither man can look him in the eye.

Tsuna swallows the lump in his throat. "You didn't travel to the future. You lived it. You're who Oboro-san is worried would stop us."

With a slow whistle, Skull raises his eyebrows. "I forgot how sharp Vongola Intuition was. You've only been awake for what? An hour, two max?"

"It's not the first time I've travelled to the future," Tsuna says.

To that, Skull grimaces. "Ah. I've forgotten about Byakuran." The silence stretches before Skull sighs again, just as exaggerated and air clearing as the first. "Contrary to what my paranoid student thinks, I didn't come to fight. Tsuna and I are old acquaintances."

Tsuna's eyes flickers between the men. But ultimately, Tsuna relaxes, and Oboro does too, reluctantly. Whatever the history between them, Tsuna isn't worried now. Skull is no Byakuran.

There is no danger here.

"How do I go back?" Tsuna asks.

Skull grimaces again, even cringing back a little. "Tsuna…"

But Tsuna won't hear it. "It's just like that time with Byakuran. Why can't..?"

"The ten-year-later you planned that. This wasn't the plan." Skull is firm. He reaches into his jacket to take out a rectangular device and a small box. He hands the box over first. "This is for you. I took a detour to get it."

Tsuna doesn't know what it is, so Skull takes it back and with finger movements, the device lights up and a video plays.

There's an old man lying down on a bed. His curly hair has gone white with age, and his eyes glassy.

"That's Lambo," Skull says, subdued.

Tsuna's head snaps up, eyes wide with an entirely unique fear, something even he has never experienced before. Skull is grim—Is it better or worse that he meets Tsuna's eyes?—just in time for Tsuna's own insides to fall through, becoming but a shell of a boy. This was hearing Gokudera's voice on the phone, telling him about Yamamoto in the hospital, but somehow worse. Back then, the uncertainty was the worse part of it, not knowing if he'll live or die. But now, this was…

This was the taste of something final.

The last he knew of Lambo, Fuuta, I-pin and his mother, they headed to Shimon island for an island vacation. Enma invited Tsuna's family (minus Iemitsu) & friends, but Tsuna himself, according to Reborn, was only free to go a week after his mother and the kids, too many things to do in Italy.

That was fine. Tsuna trusted Enma, and happily he handed them over at the dock, waving for ages at the shore while their figures shrink farther and farther away.

That was their last interaction.

(What did they tell Nana?)

Skull taps the device again, and Tsuna flinches. Tsuna squeezes his eyes shut, as if by will alone, he can change reality once more.

When he has the strength to turn back, he's breathing heavier. Nobody comments on it.

Skull plays it.

"Tsuna-nii, I think," Lambo says between long pauses, voice croakier than even his twenty-year-later version, "I'll go on first." The shine in his eyes runs to his pillow. Still a cry baby then. Unbidden, Tsuna's eyes heat. "Don't cry for me." Discretely, Tsuna stifles his sniffle, fails. "Not many mafiosi can say they died of old age, right?"

Lambo sighs, full of longing and life.

"I miss mama… Fuuta, Haru, Rauji." Lambo smiles, there and gone. "Even that Enma.

"I miss you too. My biggest regret is not being there when you, Ahoudera and the others wake. You have a lot of catching up to do, and it's okay." Lambo's crying harder, yet his voice is remarkably clear. It comes with practice, Tsuna assumes. "In time, you'll be fine. I know it. Goodbye, Tsuna-nii."

In the silence of the video's end, Tsuna's fists are shaking, hurting from how hard he's clutching the box. With care, he opens it to find Gyudon's animal ring and the sealed form of the Lightning Vongola ring—The version that Lambo would hide in his hair.

Tsuna grinds his teeth, his sight blurry with tears, overflowing yet unending. He doesn't even try to wipe it away.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this, Skull. Everyone…"

"I know. You're a strong sky, compounded by the factor of the Vongola Gears nature of enduring through linear time," Skull soothes, "It was only natural that you and your guardians outlasted everyone else, until it became only you."

Skull is trying, but logic doesn't make this better. Nothing could ever make this better.

Why?

Why did that happen? Tsuna just didn't understand.

"Who sent it?" Tsuna demands. "That… thing. It was like a person but not. It didn't really have a body. At least, I didn't see it. It was dark… And everything happened so fast…" His eyes clouded over, as Tsuna relieved that last moment, ambushed in his room with Reborn sleeping just a few metres away.

That enemy could teleport too, he realises now. Just like the Vindice and Oboro's invention. Tsuna and Reborn never got a warning.

Tsuna never even got a name.

"It could absorb and corrupt flames. Tried to use my flames against me. It—" Tsuna shakes his head and shakes the memories to a back-burner. "He wanted to possess me, takeover my body."

Skull and Oboro exchange a slow glance, clearly hesitant.

Tsuna's eyebrows furrow.

"We don't know. Nobody ever came forward to take credit. We were forced to conclude that the person who attacked you was working alone. It seemed unlikely, but if their goal was to possess your body and takeover your position, it is entirely possible," Skull says.

Abruptly, Tsuna remembers Skull used to follow Enma around, just a few months ago for Tsuna, full of bluster and drama. He was on that island with Enma and Nana and the kids. He might have even been there when they got the news.

"There were never any leads," Skull adds, damningly. A flimsy apology.

Uncharitably, Tsuna thinks, that's not good enough.

Tsuna knows deep in his bones. This was just the beginning. How could nobody else see? How could everyone else miss something So Obvious?

All his loved ones are dead. And the one that targeted them got away?

Never.

Tsuna shakes, rigid with his leashed emotions, turned away from the men.

"Did you always know then?" Oboro murmurs to Skull, giving Tsuna time to grieve.

(Like Skull has already grieved.)

"Pretty much. Pulling this sort of thing…" Skull claps a hand on Oboro's shoulder, "—is just like you. You did a good job, Oboro. Nobody else knows that Tsuna awoke."

"How did you know then? You never visit, and Pogo didn't call you."

"No, Verde made an alarm to notify when Tsuna would wake. I can't believe it still functions, but that's Verde's work for you."

Tsuna twitches. "Verde is.."

"Dead, yeah," Skull confirms, and for the third time in two hours, Tsuna's hope is crushed. "The rest of the Arcobaleno are too, though if you woke up a century back, you would've met old man Fon before he kicked the bucket. That bastard kicked ass until the day he passed on."

A thought comes to him, with it the masochistic rise of a fresh wave of the nausea called hope. Tsuna raises his head. "Mukuro didn't come back as a ghost..?"

If Daemon could, Mukuro definitely could have.

There's silence, and with every growing second, Tsuna ruthlessly strangles his growing urge to scream.

"…I think the nature in which he died made that impossible. He gave all his Dying Will to support you. He didn't have any to spare," Skull offers at last. "Even if he did, he never haunted me."

Tsuna falls silent. He knew that three hundred years means nobody he knew is alive, but it's different hearing the words from two strangers about everyone collectively, compared to from Skull who could put face to name.

Since he woke, Tsuna still had hope, paradoxically distant yet clingy. Nobody was lying, but it could still be a misunderstanding, maybe even an active trick. Surely, someone is capable enough to pull one over Tsuna.

Now he has reality.

"Tsuna, I'm here to let you go," Skull interrupts, firm but not unkindly, "I never got to repay you for breaking my curse, and there's truly nothing to tie you to Neo Vongola anymore." Skull holds eye contact. Tsuna knows he's serious, but right now, Tsuna barely has the energy to understand and give an accepting nod. It's enough. "Nobody else is going to enforce your lineage. And nobody is going to recognise you by name or face. I made sure of that."

Oboro starts, blind-sided. "What? But you're…"

Skull smiles sharply, void of happiness. Tsuna looks up. "It's because I'm Head of CEDEF that I can make these choices."

It's a record scratching moment.

He must be hallucinating. There's no way that sentence means what he thinks it means.

"It would be the end of Neo Vongola!" Oboro insists, voice raised and further grounding Tsuna to the moment. There's something off about his voice. Tsuna doesn't understand it truly, but he's been in enough of these situations to know when to focus.

Well, it seems obvious in hindsight. If there's no mafia boss, there can't be a mafia family, right?

And apparently since Skull took over Iemitsu's job…

Oh.

If Skull, the highest ranking Neo Vongola member, won't do it, nobody else would dare.

"It's fine. I knew this day was coming." Skull waves off, before turning to Tsuna, though Tsuna can't help but notice the slapped stunned expression of Oboro. Tsuna too is reeling, but less so. He's too used to having the rug pulled out from under him to stay surprised. "Tsuna, you can follow Giotto's footsteps. Go into retirement in peace and obscurity. Your secret is safe with us.

"Go to Namimori. They'll be someone there who will be in charge of your rehabilitation. It won't be anyone you know personally, but they would be allies. You won't come to harm. Then, soon enough, you'll go back to school and live the rest of your civilian life."

Tsuns's eyes search Skull's face. His open, earnest if serious face.

His complete honesty.

Tsuna realises that three hundred years is a long time for someone to change, and the goofy, loud lackey of Reborn's has grown back into a man and then grew some more.

(What does this all mean though?)

This is everything Tsuna's been asking for, yet not anything he wanted.

What was the point without his friends? Without even his mother? Lesser even than what he had before Reborn came into his life.

"Maybe… you could come with me?" Tsuna asks tentatively. "Japan isn't so bad, isn't it? You lived there once with Enma. It would be nice…"

It's not a selfless invitation. No, it was entirely selfish of Tsuna. He wanted a familiar face, a comforting presence by his side. Sure, they haven't interacted a lot one-on-one, but Skull.. Skull is safe. Tsuna knows Skull—As Reborn's fellow Arcobaleno, as Enma's new home squatter.

Skull's eyes widen slightly before clear regret enters them, and his expression hardens, becoming the perfect picture of weighed solemnity. Before Reborn, Tsuna would assume anger or offence, but now, he knows better. Skull is tempted, so tempted it actually pained him, but ultimately he shakes his head. "It's not that simple anymore."

Tsuna expects him to expand, but Skull doesn't. (Three hundred years, his intuition breathes.)

"Will you visit?" Tsuna asks.

Skull exaggerates a thumbs up, faking a light air. "You can't get rid of me."

Tsuna's intuition twinges. There's truth to that, but not as much as the statement seems. An abysmal amount.

For the first time, Tsuna really looks at Skull. A lot of him is familiar, like how Tsuyoshi seemed familiar to his son. He still wears the same makeup, with purple lips and his teardrop tattoo. Still, the eyebags are there, hidden under something. He doesn't look his age, unbelievably young, not the timeless age of Kawahira, but easily passing off as a college student or young adult. While he doesn't have any wrinkles, it's the heavy set of his mouth that ages him.

Besides his age, there's only one superficial difference to the Skull Tsuna knew: his clothes. This Skull is wearing a suit paired with an indigo tie. Iemitsu wore a suit like that sometimes, and so did Dino and Reborn and countless other mafioso Tsuna has met.

Tsuna has never seen him in anything but a jumpsuit or pyjamas before.

Skull tilts his head. "…Tsuna?"

"I see…" And he does. He doesn't know why Skull stays with the mafia, but even Tsuna can see that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. The chance to cut himself off from the Vongola and relax for the rest of his days. No excessive violence, no outrageous stakes. Normality at last.

(If he couldn't have his loved ones, he could have peace.)

Yet, there's not a shred of regret when he says, "I'll stay here."

Oboro is the first to react. "You can't," he stresses. So nonplussed, his confusion aggressively accuses Tsuna of naivety. "Neo Vongola has been dying a very slow death. This might be your only chance to let it fade into obscurity. As long as you're not here, we can nip this in the bud."

The words sit in his head, slotted with other information Reborn somehow hammered in. It is in this entirety, Tsuna contemplates. It doesn't change his answer.

"Maybe," Tsuna concedes. "I don't know the current state of the mafia, and I don't want to. But if it's really the future, if I have to start from the ground up, it'll be better in Italy than Japan."

"How can it be better?" Oboro protests.

Throughout all this, Skull stands on his heels, silent and waiting.

Tsuna tries to pay them both equal attention, to look both of them in the eye in turns.

"For one, you both are here, and Pogo-san," Tsuna reasons, heartfelt. These people sincerely care for him. Tsuna doesn't know why, can barely comprehend how, but it's enough to know they do.

Both men startle and would have physically recoiled if they were any lesser. It's like Tsuna's slapped them, but with.. happiness..? They didn't have words, too dumbfounded.

The longer the moment stretches, the more Tsuna…

Well, Tsuna doesn't regret speaking. He regrets them being all weird about it.

"Besides," Tsuna confesses, quickly moving past this awkward atmosphere, "Quirks are pretty scary."

Skull blinks, barking out a laugh. "Are they? It's a good thing you have us to guide you then!"

When Skull grins, Tsuna gets a flash of the baby he used to be, newly uncursed. Before all this, the Arcobaleno were still riding the high of growing up again. They glowed, they walked with pep. Annoyingly, they even caused more chaos than usual.

(And then a few months later, over half of them died.

—Tsuna could scream.)

Oboro still seems to be at a lost of words, but his eyes are soft and his hesitant smile is true. That's enough.

At the cusp of the matter, it is more beneficial for Tsuna to stay in Italy.

Tsuna can't be at peace without learning about the ones that did this. For that, he'll need Neo Vongola's resources.

There's no one to tie him to Namimori, but at least Skull is here, alone and living—Just like Tsuna.

And it seems two additional squatters.


1. This is khr manga canon. OG draft was Tsuna in the future 2.0, & then I remembered his manga-only character 's a go-getter now. Thus, the revenge overtones

2. I've watched bnha anime. I know manga spoilers but haven't read it. I did head over to Vigilantes to read the 2 chaps of Shirakumo tho

3. Tsuna is quirkist due to ignorance. He'll get better, or not. We'll see

4. I was going to describe how the state of Skull's face is an acute insight into his mind before I realised that Tsuna is a teenager who cares nothing of makeup.

5. While it's not the best way to tell this story, I'm going to give it to you chronologically. You will experience it the same way Tsuna does. We will all have the same information. (I'm writing this as I go). It's always a slow start in my stories

6. khr honorifics are all over the place.

7. Most everyone is ooc, tho the aim is in-character. I'm trying so hard to get Tsuna's Just Some Guy energy to varying success. This is the chapter where Skull is the most ooc.