Hikari felt nothing but relief being in Domino city, under a new surname. For the first time in months, she felt safe. Even if she was busier than ever, helping her brother set things up. With the amount of trauma inflicted by Reborn since his arrival, Rinne had made it clear that she wasn't going to be forced to navigate a new school until she had several therapy sessions under her belt and had settled into their new apartment.

Due to the fact she was so far behind on her schooling (except math for some reason), Rinne had gotten her enrolled into an online school for the time being. This also allowed him to make some new identity papers and to get full custody of his sister until she was a legal adult.

Fortunately, he had some...extra...help in the form of those who had told him all about Flames and the underworld. Hikari was so relieved that Rinne already knew quite a bit about the situation. More so than Hikari expected, at least until she found out who told him everything.

"You're in contact with the Vindice?!" she said in shock, mouth agape. Those people scared her, and she had been on the verge of passing out when they showed up.

"Turns out that the official reason why you were tapped as heir was because I was born 'flameless' according to the Vongola's official records," said Rinne with good humor. "In reality, Bermuda explained that I actually have what they call the 'flames of the Night'. He was understandably very annoyed once they managed to track me down and explain things."

Bermuda did not want Rinne experimenting and causing all sorts of trouble. The second they tracked down who was using the same Flames as them, they kidnapped him for two days to give him a very extensive overview of the criminal underworld, the biggest movers (they were very surprised to learn he was technically part of the Vongola), and the unofficial "rules" since he was now active.

He also had far more information than Reborn had been willing to give. Reborn had only given her the bare bones of what was really going on, and the only 'training' she could cite was humiliating her by shooting her with those damn bullets. She didn't know the first thing about how to access her flames without them, what the inner workings of the Vongola were, or what her actual responsibilities were as the next don.

She had no idea there was a semi-separate group that dealt strictly with assassination, or that there was an intelligence division.

That last bit had Hikari seeing red, because Rinne had asked about those divisions and had found something that had both seething with absolute rage.

Iemitsu, the deadbeat parent that had disappeared when Hikari was around seven and hadn't been seen since, was the head of the intelligence division and according to Bermuda, was well known to frequent the Vongola's social parties with women known to be high class escorts.

Hikari was beyond livid, as she very clearly remembered all the times she heard her mother cry herself to sleep because her husband wasn't there. How she had to weather the advances of people who wanted to be with her, or the snide comments of the neighborhood women because she was supposedly married, but no husband was around to help out.

Any desire to become the next don died then and there. And fortunately, she now had options.

"Nii-san, do you think I could have a word with Bermuda about removing me from the line of succession?" she asked seriously.

"Are you sure?" asked Rinne.

"I never asked to be a don, and while I'm glad I made some friends it's not worth the heartache I've gone through. I don't know the first thing about running a mafia family, and there's a strong chance that they wouldn't respect me if I did get acknowledged. Besides, their track record of keeping heirs alive is rather poor, to say the least."

Rinne made a note to ask Bermuda on that front, and was less than impressed himself.

"I'll arrange a proper meeting sometime next week, okay?" said Rinne.

Hikari nodded. She knew she was safe for now, as Rinne had gone the extra mile to insure Reborn would have no leads as to where she was. She didn't have any social media, she had mostly been staying inside the museum helping out with the exhibit, and the most social interaction she had been getting was signing delivery forms while her brother was busy with something else.

All in all, she was much happier with her big brother than she ever was with their mother.

A week later...

Bermuda took one look at Hikari and scowled. Or as far as Hikari could tell anyway.

"Those idiots are trying to put a girl with an active seal as their next don? Are they trying to murder all their heirs?" he said irate.

"What."

"This girl," said Bermuda with utter certainty, "Has an active seal on her flames. It's been chipped rather extensively, but it's still present."

Rinne looked pissed, Hikari however looked resigned.

"I'm honestly not surprised. Considering they lost three heirs in quick succession already..." she sighed.

"We'd have to do some tests, but a case could be made for the other families that the Vongola effectively cast her out before they decided to try and make her the next don. Which means that any claim they might have had over her is nonexistent."

"What do you need?" asked Rinne.

"For now, try to keep a low profile. She'll have to undergo a proper exam to see what sort of damage was done, and to find out how to undo the seal itself. Either way, your claim over her is stronger than the Vongola's, as you were never officially listed as a potential heir."

Rinne was pissed, but so long as they kept Reborn far, far away from his sister until the paperwork was settled, Hikari would be free of the burden of being the next puppet boss. He was still quite pissed that Iemitsu had been gas-lighting their mother for years.

Either way, the Vongola would have an uphill battle if they wanted to force the issue...and Rinne would make it even harder.

Reborn was in a foul mood. There were no leads as to where his student had vanished to, the Vongola were being incredibly tight lipped on the matter (to the point of being utterly useless), and when he did finally retrieve her missing phone it was more or less destroyed.

Checking the cell towers had only supplied a series of what appeared to be random images, though there seemed to be some sort of strange theme going on. It came from a burner phone that was later tracked all the way down to the Nagasaki prefecture. When Reborn tracked down where the text was sent, all he got was that same person in full body leather and helmet, right before they took off on a motorcycle specially altered to avoid being tracked.

The phone was a dead end...and it was clear that Hikari knew the person on the bike, because she hadn't hesitated the second the bike had slowed down enough to get on.

Which left one possible explanation.

The mystery biker was the missing elder brother Rinne Sawada. Which really begged the question of where he was and why he chose now to claim his sister.

To that end, Reborn did his best to track the missing elder sibling. Rinne had dropped off the map when he left early for college. According to all records, Rinne Sawada never contacted his mother again...but he had clearly kept in contact with his sister.

Reborn barely skimmed an article detailing how a museum in another prefecture was doing a 'soft reboot' with their first exhibits since the "unfortunate legal issues" would be about the history of games, complete with functional replicas so that patrons could play a round or two.

The two Elements he had chosen to bond with Hikari were utterly useless. By the time they had their wits about them, she was long gone in a black portal and neither had the sense to record what was going on.

He was going redouble their training in between tracking down where she went.

More importantly, he suspected that this all tied into the missing older brother who had been declared "flameless" and had disappeared long before Reborn showed up.

Rinne was exhausted, but at the same time felt nothing but relief. The soft re-opening of the museum was going rather smoothly, with mostly positive feedback regarding the exhibits. He had double-checked all the work the college students had put into the decorating, and everything was up to his exacting standards.

The history students in particular were thrilled to have an excuse to exercise their knowledge of an obscure bit of history, and the art students were beyond fascinated using the ancient ways of painting tombs on modern walls. Even better, Rinne supplied them with historically accurate paints.

Not only were they earning extra credit, but they were being paid for it as well. It was a job a college student could only dream of...even if the pay wasn't much now.

"Rinne-nii-san!" said Hikari. "I have the apartment ready for us!"

"Good job," said Rinne, ruffling her hair.

Rinne had looked for a good apartment that was affordable and within walking distance from the museum. He had made sure it was a two-bedroom, mostly because he wanted to give his adorable little sister some sense of privacy. Rinne was all too aware of how sparse his sister's room had been. Their parents had always been more interested in him than they were of her, and he was often the only one to actually remember her birthday on time and to give small presents.

Hikari looked so much happier away from that place and from their parents. Rinne could only hope she would come to truly thrive now that she had a chance to properly spread her wings.

Rinne was about to ask what she wanted for dinner when his private phone rang. That number was exclusively for the Vindice to call him to act as their agent.

"Lord Bermuda, what can I do for you today?" asked Rinne. He blinked briefly, before a wide grin formed on his face. "So the paperwork is ready?"

"Onii-san?"

"The paperwork to make me your new legal guardian in both worlds is ready. Once we sign this, the Vongola will have no hold over you and will have to go through me if they want you to be their boss. Furthermore it means that braying idiot won't have a leg to stand on if he tries to marry you off. You'll be free."

Hikari lit up at that. To be finally free of Reborn and the nonsense he kept pulling trying to make her a mafia boss, despite her clear objections. She couldn't wait.

Rinne watched with dark satisfaction as Hikari signed the paperwork. He was still livid at how blatantly their 'father' had tried to use his sister as a pawn for his games. Worse, they had tried to snuff out her light, to insure she would be pliant to their whims.

That ended today.

"How long will it take for the Vongola to get the memo?" asked Rinne to Jaeger.

"We will deliver the paperwork the moment it has been formally filed and alert all relevant parties to the change," said Bermuda. "The fact they tried to make a child they cast out themselves their new don is ridiculous."

"And what story are we going with?" asked Rinne, curious.

"How about the fact they couldn't be bothered to keep their legitimate heirs alive? Once is bad luck, but losing three in quick succession and firmly alienating the fourth? There has to be a limit to sheer incompetence," said Hikari. "Besides, all three of them were grown men and more than old enough to take over, so why the hell didn't the Ninth hand over the reigns sooner?"

Dead silence.

"She has a point," said Jaegar after a moment.

"That does bear further investigation," agreed Bermuda. And it would force the Alliance to start asking some rather pointed questions that Nono definitely wouldn't want answered.

Hikari was just relieved that she wouldn't have to deal with Reborn forcing her to become a boss ever again.

"In any case it would be best if Hikari had a proper bodyguard, at least until the Vongola get the message. Would you have any recommendations?"

"Onii-san!" scolded Hikari.

"We can provide a list of recommendations."

"They'd have to be skilled enough to handle Reborn, should he gain a clue to her location."

"...That would shorten the list exponentially. At that point, you might as well hire another of the Arcobaleno."

"Arcobaleno?" said Hikari confused.

Bermuda gave her an odd look.

"Did Reborn not explain any of the factions among the underworld?"

Hikari shook her head.

"He never bothered to explain anything. He would use me as target practice or make me do something ridiculous for his own amusement and make it clear I had no choice in the matter. The only reason Hayato even showed up was because Reborn brought him in and made it seem like a forgone conclusion he was one of mine," she replied. "I don't have any clue who is part of the Vongola or what their internal structure is at all."

Bermuda wasn't the only one with an incredulous expression on their face. Reborn had been training this girl for six months now, and she was this behind on things that should be common knowledge?

Exactly what had he been doing all this time?