Summary: Sequel to Samsara: Treading on Scorched Sand. Yet another life, though the complications are enlightening and frustrating.

Pairing: Tsuna/Reborn

Chapters: 17

Beta: —

Spoilers: Samsara, Samsara: Treading on Scorched Sand, Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Persona 4, (minor) Harry Potter

Warnings: slash, canon mangling, time skips, cracked played straight

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Amano Akira, Weekly Shōnen Jump, and Viz Media. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. Also, Atlus, et. al., for Persona.

Notes:

1. Subtitle is taken from Drakengard 3, and it's the name of a boss in that, rather than a track title. (Egregori, or Egregore, is an occult concept representing a collective psychic entity made up of, and influencing, the thoughts of a group of people.)

2. Again, why the hell not? This turned out to be way more difficult to deal with than I anticipated. I like the parts I like, I'm not so thrilled with the parts I don't, but… But as always, if I care enough to finish a story, I post it, no matter how off or shitty some parts of it may be.

3. P4 canon characters either serve altered versions of their roles, or do not appear at all. It depends on who they were and what purpose they served. Do I have a clear bias? You're fucking right I do.

4. Alterations to certain mechanics. I dislike Shuffle Time, and much prefer the approach P5 takes, which hearkens back to earlier SMT games. (Not that it matters, since it's so rarely mentioned.) Playing fast and loose with the game mechanics, because I can, and because why not?

5. There is a bare bones explanation of combat, mainly because the focus of this is not to go into exhaustive detail about actual battles or how stuff levels (I find that stuff boring, in case you somehow missed that detail). If you want to see that shit, go play the game. (I've only ever played the original P4, so there's no intentional content from Golden.)

6. Some days are skipped, and other days are incredibly short and bare bones.

7. Cover image slice acquired from , attribution: (CC) Aaronyx/Flickr. Mentioning it here if only because it's bound to be difficult to read the attribution on the image itself.

8. Minor influence from hiimdaisy's excellent (and unfinished) P4 comic which, if you search, can be found on Mr Internet.

9. Initial assembly: 14 07 2019

v2019-1.0
July 2019
(28 04 2019 - 14 07 2019)

Tsuna opened his eyes and sighed. The normal depressing ceiling was above his head so he knew he was back to being Sawada Tsunayoshi.

"Tsu-kun!?" was called up the stairs. "Go wash up, breakfast is about ready."

'Odd,' he thought. 'She didn't sound nearly the same.'

'Almost … strained,' Daemon offered as the others hummed in agreement.

Tsuna rolled out of bed and trundled into the bathroom for the usual, then thumped down the stairs. His mother, upon his entry into the kitchen, gave him a distracted smile and gestured at the table. A moment later she slid a bowl of rice in front of him. A few sad flakes of fish were on top. Hashi followed a moment later, along with a rest.

After thanking her he started to eat, his gaze roaming around the room. It looked … shabby, almost, which was wrong. A glance at the calendar on the wall provided the next clue, as the current date looked to be his birthday, but in 1999.

'I did see a five year old in the mirror, right?'

'Yes,' Sin said.

Tsuna set a spy on his mother when she turned her back, then finished up eating. Upstairs he went to get dressed; a glance out the window showed a familiar landscape, so at least that had not changed.

'Priority on bodies?' Ken asked hopefully.

He nodded. 'Of course.'

A few minutes later he was off to find bodies for his family, starting with the Momokyokai. They were a bust in terms of flames, so he let Daemon take over long enough to get information on current competing groups in the vicinity. A trip to Okayama was more productive in that they stumbled over a decent strength Rain.

'Anyone want to pick up a new flame, or…?' he asked as he eyed the fellow.

After a long pause Hayato said, 'I'll take him. Can't hurt to augment my Rain.'

A short time later there were two of them on the prowl. It took trips to various larger cities in Japan before they found bodies for everyone, and by the time they returned to Namimori they were all tired and hungry. Tsuna went into the house alone, so as to preserve appearances, and took in the sight of his mother busy at work … mending clothes?

He turned away from the sitting room and headed upstairs and into his room. The house trunk was yanked out of storage and shoved up against the wall, so his family would actually have rooms to stay in. No one had quite yet dared to try shifting straight into the trunk, since it was in question exactly where that space was—the interior.

Was it part of Between?

Something else?

His family arrived and filed into the trunk for their lunch, which Tsuna would sadly not be sharing. He went back downstairs after a quick stop to wash up and found his mother preparing instant ramen, which nearly made him hit the hospital so he could be checked for mind-altering drugs.

"Here you go, Tsu-kun. Careful now, I don't want you to burn yourself."

He accepted his "lunch" with a faint smile, ate, and retreated upstairs. A Mist barrier was emplaced that would redirect any notions his mother might have about checking on him, and that left him free to enter the trunk himself.

Daemon nudged a bento his way when he entered the kitchen, which was welcome. "Something is very, very wrong here," he said as he sat and opened up the bento. "My mother mending clothing? Feeding me instant ramen for lunch? What the everloving fuck?"

"She looks tired, worn out."

"Stressed, worried."

"Instant ramen? Seriously?"

Tsuna nodded. "I would—"

"—be happy to check for you, darling," Xeul said. "Tonight, after she's gone to sleep."

"Right." He applied himself to the … better … food and started making plans to make sure the trunk's kitchen was up to snuff in terms of supplies.

— — —

"For one, the timeline is obviously shifted," Xeul reported the next day after breakfast. They were in that one park nobody ever seemed to frequent, which thankfully was that one park nobody ever seemed to frequent. (It was quite disconcerting when it was otherwise.)

"The story goes as thus: Nana was celebrating Coming of Age Day, and you know how that goes. Too much booze, too much laxity… She was seduced by a blond man—three guesses, and the first two don't count—and only later found out she was knocked up."

Tsuna … sighed. "Okay, so we need the usual eyes on Vongola. He has no idea, I take it."

"Not likely," Xeul replied. "I will verify, of course. Now, once she realized she was in a family way, she panicked. But, the shock seemed to have knocked some of the airheadedness out of her. Once she calmed down a bit she crafted a story to sell to the public. She was recently married—he married into her family, not the other way around—and he was killed. She took what little inheritance she got—and her university money—and moved, to here. Bought herself a little place, and she's been working herself ragged at jobs she can do from home to make sure you both eat and so forth."

"There's gotta be a way we can help ease some of the financial strain," he said. "Suggestions?"

"I arranged for her to win that fake contest once," Sin said.

"The Mafia Land trip?"

"Yeah. We could create some kind of lottery or contest and rig the results. Maybe during one of the public holidays? The next one coming up is what—Culture Day? And Labor Thanksgiving Day a few weeks after that."

Tsuna furrowed his brow. "Unless you plan on having me fingerpaint something and it gets 'randomly' picked as the winner in a set up…"

"Surely you could do better than that," Daemon said. "Though… Maybe a contest where all young children contribute a drawing or painting—and they all get a prize of some sort to share with their families—and Tsuna's picture just so happens to be the one that is randomly drawn from the selection as the winner of the lottery for the grand prize. Or tickets under the seats of the parents and Nana is in the exact right seat, and therefore wins."

"We couldn't get away with this more than once or twice, though," Hayato pointed out. "She might not be as spacey as usual, but I'm not willing to bet on her remaining oblivious to the family's peculiar good fortune."

"Jobs a child could do?"

"Gardening is out. Most of the yards in Japan are too small for anything beyond hanging clothes out to dry and you're lucky if you have a tree to admire. I could start working on bonsai, but those take too long. Maybe once I'm in school she'll take a more normal job to earn more money?"

"If so, that is something we can affect far more easily. In fact, why don't we ensure she has that idea, even if we have to create the business ourselves."

"Then we need to canvass the town to see what's available and what might be welcomed," he said.

"Moving on," Xeul said. "Nana has a brother in Inaba, which we should check into, just to see how that relationship has been playing out. Apparently your name is Dojima Tsunayoshi. Nana has no idea who the man was who knocked her up, so it's not like she can demand child support, and she's too proud to ask her brother for help."

"I'm going to make a wild guess that their parents are out of the picture," Ken said, "due to the mention of an inheritance, if nothing else."

"You know," Tsuna said a bit bemusedly, "I don't even know who my grandparents are. I've never once met one of them to my knowledge."

Xeul nodded. "Dead. We should probably hold off on a Culture Day scheme. We don't have much time to prepare, but we could still do it next year when Tsuna is dying of boredom in school. I think we should focus on a business here in town that Nana can be hired on at, and they'll be terribly understanding if she needs time off for family."

Tsuna looked at each of his family, then nodded. "Awesome."

— — —

"There's a shop in the arcade that looks to be coming up for sale soon," Ken reported, nodding at Mukuro.

"A little digging revealed that the owner is considering moving out of town, and he's not willing to just sell his business as is, as he plans to reopen in the new location," Mukuro said.

"So we could convince him to sell to us, then set up our own shop."

Mukuro and Ken nodded.

"I assume something to do with food," Chikusa said. "After all, every Nana we've come across is a fantastic cook, even if this one doesn't have the funds to actually show that."

"Not sushi, obviously," he said. "Maybe considering she served me instant ramen…"

Hayato snickered. "She's good at so many things, though. Maybe we just aim for a small family-type restaurant? Not too many seats—certainly no bigger than TakeSushi—so that she as the main cook wouldn't be overburdened?"

He hummed. "If it's seen as somewhat exclusive, that could drive up the prices, and give us a reasonable excuse for paying her good money for the work. Maybe a weekly thing?"

"What do you mean?" Mukuro asked.

"Like beef dishes one week, pork another, and so on? To make it a bit different again from a normal restaurant."

"I see. Limit the seating, limit the menu, and drive up interest." Mukuro nodded. "I think it's a good idea. We should make it happen."

"Uh…" Hayato frowned thoughtfully. "Timed to open right around the time poor Tsuna has to enter school? Or a clone of him, anyway."

Daemon and Xeul shifted into the room then and paused. "What's up?" Daemon asked.

"We were discussing a shop option in town and ways to make it enticing," he said, then went on to fill them in.

"Oh," said Xeul. "That sounds like it might just work."

"But perhaps we should enlist the local Daemon again," Daemon said, "because…"

"Yeah, yeah," he said, rolling his eyes. "I was going to suggest that anyway. It's worked out well before, so there's no reason not to try again. What about you two?"

"Your uncle is a cop," Daemon said with a smirk.

"…Great," he said flatly. "Make a mental note to start checking to see who my grandparents are each time I end up as myself, yeah?"

Everyone nodded and Daemon continued, "Specifically, a detective, married to a woman by the name of Chisato."

"Please tell me he's not a bumbling idiot."

Daemon shook his head. "He seems quite sharp. I'll keep tabs on him in case it becomes relevant. Aside from that, he's aware that his sister blatantly lied about getting married, but hasn't said anything because he's aware of the shame she must feel and doesn't want to add to it, even though he disapproves."

"Well, bastard children are just as looked down upon here as they are in Italy," he said, then groaned. "I can be thankful she did lie, or else…"

"True, but even if it became known, a localized Bounding Box doesn't hurt," Hayato pointed out.

"And, you know, clones," Ken said, shrugging.

"That's a given," he replied. "Okay, before I forget. We need to see if we can buy the house next door. SOP, basically."

Daemon nodded, along with Mukuro and Hayato.

"Right, moving on," Xeul said as a window opened up to reveal Sin checking in. A brief moment was given over to a nodding acknowledgment, then he continued, "Vongola is more or less par for the course, with the obvious exceptions. Teo-jiji is an idiot, the brothers three are idiots, and the layout of the Iron Fort is the same as λ16."

"And the Tsow?"

Xeul rolled his eyes. "He's married to a woman in CEDEF going by the name Cilantro. She's strictly in-office, so the probability of her seeing combat is low. They already have two children, a boy and a girl, and she was shunted into a job where she can both keep an eye on them and work. No idea yet if either of them are Skies, but at least the bloodline is being carried on. And for reference, aside from being a bit of a bland pushover, Cilantro isn't an idiot."

"At least this time he married someone in the know," he said. "I never thought I'd say it, but I feel bad for my mother. One moment of drunken stupidity… Okay, Sin?"

"The Arcobaleno are so far the usual," Sin reported. "I suggest we just get everything set up with Talbot and the Vindice, and get Checkers to do the convincing when it comes to getting the Arcobaleno to convene and contribute. As amusing as it is to troll my dimensional brothers, sometimes a person needs a rest."

Tsuna grinned.

"I won't be much longer. Should be back tomorrow or the next day. Just need to track down Viper, if that's even possible."

A collective grimace went through the room.

"Well, if you can't, it's no big deal, right? We'll just work through Checkers this time and get him to yank all of them into a shared dream and call them to assemble. I am starting to wonder if one of us is strong enough at this point to infiltrate Checkers' brain and find out his basic geographical history."

Daemon perked up. "I suppose I could try via window, assuming we could get a tag on the guy long enough to figure out where to open a window to. Something to think about, certainly."

"Unless there's a better way to locate him using magic," Sin pointed out. "Or some combination thereof. Assuming you have him in a room with you, someone could be quietly running tests? Develop some sort of divining rod to be used each time to track him down, without having to resort to writing messages in the sky?"

"Let's add it to the list," he said. They didn't often use magic, mainly because they were so accustomed to doing things the usual way. Extended trunks aside, there was little perceived need for it. There were instances where it came in exceptionally handy, but for the most part their flames and experience won out.

Not having to wear himself down with unanchored Bounding Boxes was a plus, though it did mean keeping a store of portable ward stones for those moments, and someone had to take the time to carve the things (Ken and Chikusa really shone when it came to that). It meant that Tsuna did not always have to be along to handle protection. The others could make Bounding Boxes, but none of them had quite the innate understanding and knack for them that Tsuna had. Ward stones filled the gap.

"All right, well," Sin said. "Let me take a stab at tracking my prey, and I'll be home soon. Anything you want me to bring back?"

"Limoncello. And if you see anything that would work for shop stock that's … acquirable…"

Sin grinned toothily. "Seen you guys soon." The window winked out.

"We'll start working on a way to use magic to track people with," Chikusa said. "While it is true that the spies can last longer each time we get shuffled, if we can't place one to begin with…"

Tsuna nodded.

"On a side note," Mukuro said, "while I don't like the kid, I do feel for him. What say we keep an eye on the Yamamoto family and prevent the wife's death? Maybe if she survives the kid won't grow up so fake. I'm going to assume he's still born on schedule."

"Do we even know how she died?" Daemon asked.

Tsuna shrugged. "I don't have a clue. It originally always happened before I was aware of Takeshi as a person. Funny, I go out of my way to help the ones I know will get tortured, but forget about people like him because he generally ends up mostly all right. Yeah, maybe we should. There's no reason not to. And if it was a result of Tsuyoshi's previous involvement with the mafia… Let's just say I don't want outsiders fucking around in my territory."

"There's a thought," Daemon said, looking contemplative. "How hard would it be to set up warding that would encompass the town? I expect it would take quite some time to get it done, but…"

"The peace of mind of knowing that Nana would be protected…" He bit his lip, still having issues trying to resolve his general distaste for or indifference to the woman against her current incarnation's problems. "And plenty of other innocent people…"

"I'm going to take that as yes. True, we can ward the house itself, but that won't protect her or anyone else away from it. Xeul, Hayato?"

They both nodded.

"Okay, so, current plans. Keeping an eye on Tsuyoshi's wife, working out warding for the house and town, figuring out a tracking system, and ensuring we get that shop. Well, and see about lining up potential suppliers."

— — —

The shop, once acquired, was technically under the ownership of the local Daemon, who was going by Caim to differentiate himself from his dimensional brothers, mostly because of the obvious. Said ownership would only matter for when Tsuna inevitably died another hilariously stupid death. In the meantime they would be making sure the place ran smoothly.

Shitty customers causing trouble? A Mist would be right there to "fix" things. Because hey, even a polite society like Japan's had problems with entitled assholes demanding things.

"How we gonna decorate?" Ken asked.

Tsuna pursed his lips. "Maybe something to go with the changing menu per week?"

"What, like colours or something?"

"Eh, sure. Like, I dunno, green for vegetarian week? Or something."

Xeul wrinkled his nose, but nodded. "Red for beef week?"

Sin looked like he was burbling acid when he said, "Yellow for chicken?"

"That leaves four more," he said. "Uh…"

"Pork," Ken said slowly, "and seafood, which could be blue."

"Purple for pork?" Mukuro said. "Venison?"

"Which would leave one more—let's say orange—and maybe … fru—no. Fruit dishes would fall under vegetarian. Hn."

Everyone looked around a bit helplessly.

"Turkey and such isn't exactly common here, though duck, maybe? No, maybe not. Maybe the final one could be foreign? Rotate countries or something? And since orange represents the all-encompassing Sky…"

Tsuna nodded at Sin. "I think that could work, though it'd mean Nana learning how to cook foreign foods. Then again, during those weeks, for the first year, maybe, I could be the one doing the cooking and she could learn from me. But the intervening six weeks she'd be the cook, since she'd probably already know most of that. And with a steady salary she could afford to practice at home."

"And since we'll be expecting this to act like a loss leader at the start, she'll have time to firm up her skills. Though that does mean we need to finish properly establishing where the money is coming from."

"Yeah, true, but back to the colours thing," Hayato said. "You want to change the colours every week? How?"

"Depends on how the furniture is made," Chikusa said. "For example, if the tables were designed such that the top is a removable inlay of sorts… And the seating is a neutral cream, perhaps…"

"Oh, you mean sorta like those tables where you can pop the glass out," Ken said.

"The idea works for me," he said. "We could consider the idea of swapping out any artwork, but that would depend on how cozy we wanted to make the place. I'll go ahead and work out a menu. That way we'll know what suppliers we'll need to source, what equipment we'll need to have purchased, and so forth."

"That guy isn't leaving for another two months, so we have some time," Xeul said. "And even if we're not ready the second he leaves, it'll be fine. We can hype up interest via word of mouth."

"And we need to get Nana on board," Mukuro reminded them.

Tsuna knew the answer to that one: delegate! "Not gonna be me doing it."

Daemon laughed at him and nodded. "I'll handle it."

"Point," Chikusa said. "We have yet to come up with a name for the place."

'Shit.' He thought fast and came up with the potentially lame, "Kaiten."

Seven sets of eyes stared at him for a too-long moment before Sin said, "It fits?"

"Awesome!"

— — —

It took longer than originally expected to outfit the new place, but most of that came down to the manufacture of the booth tables. Custom work took time. The idea of changing out the artwork every week was nixed as being simply too much trouble. Instead they decorated with "odd" works of art, such as a silver bird fashioned from spoons, a butterfly fashioned from peacock feathers, and other such interesting or unconventional uses of items as artwork.

Nobody needed to see yet another abstract painting (no matter how pretty some of them could be) or generic landscape, and they definitely did not need to see peculiar light fixtures or gleaming modernity.

The only concession to colour (aside from the table inlays) was on the walls, which were painted a base colour of cream. Tsuna had sketched out a kind of smoke trail in a band around the main room. It used a subtly shifting set of pastels to create an unconventional rainbow of colour, a head nod to their flames.

The place only had four tables, booths each, two to a side, and there was a three-quarter height partition wall between each pair and one each at the end that faced the counter which held the cash register. Each visible part of the partition walls was stained glass, showing the number of the booth (though they were numbered zero through three, to avoid using four).

While all that was going on Tsuna worked out the menu rotation and dishes for each week. Xeul found a programmer and convinced him to write a program that would allow customers to book hour slots at the restaurant using a screen outside, and specify what they intended to have for dinner. That way, Nana would know exactly what was coming up and could prep accordingly, so that the food would be ready almost as quickly as they were seated.

Hours were slated to be noon to six, giving six slots of four per day, six days a week. Nana would come in at 11.30 and could take breaks at any time she had the opportunity, as they would be employing a person to both man the register and play waitperson.

There would be no walk-ins. If a slot wasn't booked, it didn't get seated. The system depended on Nana being able to know exactly how to prep beforehand for each day. The computer in the back was to show Nana what was coming up and allowed her to enter any notes as necessary (such as to keep track of a customer's peculiarities), and would help her with time management.

Given that they were in Japan and touch-screen technology had been out for some time, the external booking screen had no keyboard.

Tsuna fully expected his mother to object to the hours, simply because her son was so young. "But," he said to Daemon, "you can simply tell her that her son is welcome to stop by to visit and have a small meal in the afternoon, so that she knows he's getting fed."

Daemon nodded. "That might cause the occasional hiccup during foreign weeks given that you intend to be the one teaching her how to make those dishes. But, we can fake her out on that with clones and misdirection, or having her son be spending time with a friend after school to ease her mind."

"Right. One of us is going to have to be accepting deliveries, because she's not going to have time, most likely. Suppose we could hire someone part-time, or have the front person come in early to handle it. Maybe the Monday delivery we could handle, and the front person any other day?"

Sin frowned. "Some things don't suffer for having been frozen, but daily deliveries are probably a better idea during seafood weeks. The way the hours work out now they'd be in for just under forty hours per week, but I don't see a problem bumping that up a bit and paying overtime. We could also split the front shift in half, with two part-timers, to allow an older student to earn some cash."

"Assuming they were properly vetted," Mukuro said. "A mother in town in a similar position to Nana could handle the first half, to earn some on the side, but still be home in time to be with her child or children, with a student we know will be reliable to handle the latter half."

"Also possible," he said. "And… We could sell Nana on making a small lunch for her child to eat in or take away on those days he'd not be in school and she's working."

"Well, I'm going to start finding candidates in town," Mukuro said. "We can vet them once we have a short list."

Daemon and Xeul nodded.

"I will, obviously," Daemon said, "be presenting a convincing pitch to get Nana to agree. We're coming up on the time when Tsuna will be—ostensibly—forced into school, and we need everything lined up, ready to go."

"All right," he said with a sigh. "Let's get going, then."

— — —

By the time Tsuna was scheduled to start school, Daemon had worked his magic and Nana was set to take over the role of chef. They had found a young mother in town with a child not much older than Tsuna was, and she was happy to take on the first shift each day. A second year high school student was taking the second shift. His Mists had very carefully poked through the girl's brain to ensure she wasn't hiding any psychotic tendencies (or a penchant for theft) before giving their approval.

Tsuna himself, in his Heul disguise, had gone over each dish with Nana during the weeks previous to opening day, to make sure she could handle the work. He showed her how the computer back there worked and verified that she actually understood.

"I'll be here for at least the first week, if not several, to make sure you've got this," he said.

She smiled in relief and nodded. "And my little boy?"

"Welcome to come here so you can make sure he's had lunch or dinner," he assured her. "Once he gets a little older I imagine it won't be as much of an issue. And I expect he'll make friends with his classmates, so some days he might be sharing a meal with one of them. You're also free to make meals to take home with you each evening. We'd just need to account for it in our ordering, that's all. Consider it a perquisite of the job."

They already had people lined up for the first few days in terms of reservations, but that had more to do with his Mists subtly prompting people to do so rather than anyone blithely taking a chance on this strange new restaurant. Once others saw some of their fellow townsfolk using the screen outside they would likely follow, and once word got out about the meal quality…

His Mists took on a rotating duty. One would be keeping an eye on the Tsuna clone they crafted that would be attending school. One would be keeping an eye on the restaurant, while the other was keeping an eye on the town in general.

The others would be working on the warding his Mists had started to make "blueprints" for, starting with Nana's house, moving on to the house they'd acquired, and then to the town in general. Because, in the end, while none of them particularly liked Nana (or many of the people in the town), they were compassionate enough to make the effort.

This time, anyway.

His Mists, after word started to spread and people started making reservations of their own free will, stopped nudging people into it. Nana's cooking was hailed as fantastic and everyone wanted to have a meal at Kaiten. Tsuna was just pleased that his mother was holding up exceptionally well and rarely needed his help with anything.

He generally sat in the small office back there and read, or browsed world news on a fledgling internet. Each Sunday they would descend as a crew to swap out the table inlays, but that took barely any time at all.

It was only when they got to Foreign Week that he actively stepped in so he could walk her through crafting the dishes. He planned to keep doing so each Foreign Week until she was confidant she could handle it on her own. He was already confident she'd be fine for the other six weeks of each rotation.

She happily enough went home Saturday evening, meals in hand, and Tsuna stepped Between the second she was out of sight so her baby boy could be home before she got there. He was back in his natural form and reading a children's book on the sofa when his mother slipped into the house.

"Tsu-kun, I'm home!" she called. "Wash up, please. I have dinner for us."

He dutifully put aside the book and went to wash up, then joined his mother in the kitchen. A plate with a turkey club sandwich and fries awaited him. Thankfully for him, the fries were still warm. He thanked his mother and dove in, listening as she nattered on cheerfully about her job and what interesting food she got to make and various other things.

Tsuna did his best to appear interested in what she was saying, or at least encouraging, though he didn't honestly imagine she was expecting much from her five year old son when it came to conversational skills. He was pleased to see that she looked far less stressed and more alive, more energetic, than she had previously.

She did still spend some of her time in the evenings doing repair work on clothing, but he got the idea that it was more out of habit than desire.

Upstairs and inside the trunk, his family convened for a quick meeting. "Things appear to be going well," he said, relaxing back in his chair.

"We," Daemon said, speaking for the Mists as a group, "have yet to notice anything odd while keeping eyes out, so yes."

"We've managed to complete the warding on this house," Chikusa reported, "and will shortly get started on the other house."

"And priming it?" he asked.

"It'd be better if we all chipped in for that," Hayato said. "We can just make sure Nana sleeps extra soundly that night. It'd be better to get it done in one session rather than risk too much bleed off if we spread it out."

He nodded. "Pick a day, we'll do it. Anything else to report?"

"The children at school think you're painfully shy," Xeul said, "but other than that…?"

Tsuna shrugged. "Since the next six weeks is all stuff Nana is already good on, we should probably turn our attention toward freeing the current Arcobaleno. Still have one person keeping an eye on Kaiten and Nana, but whoever is not already occupied with something…"

"We need to track that fucker down," Sin said.

"The tracker we've been working on gives a faint pull toward the arcade, actually," Chikusa reported. "And yes, we've tested it from various points in Namimori. An antiques shop, to be specific."

Tsuna gawked. "He's here!? In Namimori of all fucking places?"

"It appears that way. We'd have said something sooner, but we were convinced at first the device had to be malfunctioning."

"Why the hell would he be here?" he muttered. "Is this place some sort of fucked up nexus or something?"

Everyone looked at him like he was ten shades of mental.

"Heul, you are a nexus," Sin said. "Is it really that much of a surprise that Namimori might be one, too, with you so often in it?"

"Uh…" He shook his head. "Right, whatever. So, Checkers. If he's here, we need to see if we can reliably tag the fucker. Better than me sky-writing tagged to wisps of memory regarding the feel of his flames. I don't think Sin should go anywhere near him."

"You worry he would equate my flames with my counterpart's."

"Yeah. I mean, well, yours are augmented now, and you have more than just Sun Flames, but… I worry."

Sin gave him a look that was half indulgent and half exasperated, but nodded.

"I would say … Chikusa," Xeul opined. "He's the one person here aside from Ken who doesn't scream underhanded and slick in some way—"

Chikusa's expression twisted for a second, as if to say he wasn't sure if he should feel complimented or insulted.

"—and I think he won't set off any mental alarm bells if he goes into that shop to browse."

"It is too early, most likely, for Checkers to be scouting replacement Arcobaleno, so the flame strength of whoever does go in should not be more than a curiosity," Mukuro said, "and I agree that Chikusa is a good choice to take a look."

Chikusa sighed and nodded. "How old should I—actually, I should just be what this body is. Checkers will more than likely see through a disguise. That being said, what's my budget for acquiring items to allay suspicion?"

"He might not see through an anchored Heul disguise," Hayato pointed out, "but there's no particular reason to use one, I guess."

Tsuna hummed. "As for a budget, I'd say … no more than one-hundred thousand yen. I doubt you'd spend that much as it is, but who knows. There might be something interesting in there. If he doesn't appear suspicious, then I might try going in myself, as myself, while trying to keep my flames under wraps."

"I'd suggest a Fidelius Charm to hide that you have them at all," Ken said, "but we don't actually know how to end one of those. You know, without killing you. And he's like an alien species to us, so … it might not work, anyway?"

He shrugged. "We can only hope it would break once we were shuffled. We don't know what that charm attaches to. If it's the soul, then we'd be fucked if I went from being Tsuna here to Tsuna in the next one. We don't know how literal those are, either. I don't have a problem with using one to hide a location being used for a specific purpose, but to hide aspects of myself? I'm not comfortable with that."

"We could always try it on a mind-fucked defect," Daemon said. "Or series of them. So long as we ensured they told us the secret, it shouldn't come back to bite us on the ass."

"We need to go over our books on the Fidelius Charm again before I'm willing to experiment with it," he said. "I find it hard to believe they would make something like that without a way to release it. Then again, considering they're all mental, they might just have, and the only way to break one is to break the conditions."

"Speaking of which," Mukuro said, "has anyone bothered to check to see if there are magicals in this world?"

Looks went around the room, followed by shrugs.

"Because if we start obviously fucking with magic, and there are, they might come knocking."

Tsuna heaved a sigh. "Whoever is on rotation to keep an eye on the town, switch focus to figuring that out first. We don't use it often, true, but we should at least be aware if it could be an issue each go around. For all we know we could end up in a dimension where magicals did not progress to using wands, and they might have ways to track down wandless magic use. And, while I realize we could easily mind-fuck anyone who surprised us, it's better to be proactive if we're going to genuinely consider the idea of experimentation.

"Now," he said, after everyone nodded, "Chikusa can go in and we see if that sets off any mental alarms. If not, we can try poking around in his head, via window first, and then in person if necessary. We may actually be strong enough now." He paused. "Okay, not me, if only because I still have the occasional unfortunate accident. If Daemon can manage it, there's every chance that Xeul and Mukuro are also capable at this point.

"My main concern is that we fuck this up, he's alerted, and he comes after us. We could end up starting over early, which would be frustrating, to say the least, but not a major setback, if only because we still have no idea why this is happening."

— — —

Chikusa placed a bag on the table in the living area of the trunk and produced an eighteenth century netsuke of a parrot on a log. "It was within budget," he said, "and I liked it."

Tsuna nodded. "It's cute."

"This one has a Hell ring," Chikusa reported. "Clearly he did not find me threatening enough that he hid from me, or hid that he had one. As for his flames, they felt very distinctive to me, and strong, but…"

"But…?"

Chikusa looked at the Mists. "I would hazard a guess that you may be stronger at this point. You may be able to easily get into his brain and get his history."

Daemon, being the "oldest" of the trio, nodded after looking at Tsuna for approval. "All right, then. I will do my absolute best to get what we need, without being noticed. We're still going to have to get him to cooperate. I agree with Sin. As amusing as it is to troll people, a guy wants a break every now and then. Let Checkers call the assembly."

"I'm wondering if we should be straight with him," Ken said, "or sneaky."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Depending on what Daemon can get out of his brain… Well. Do we make him think a spy of his stumbled over the knowledge of what we're setting Talbot and the Vindice up to do? Get him to act on his own? Or just lay it out straight?"

Tsuna shook his head. "If Daemon is in fact strong enough, I see no point in not being straight. If he's not, being sneaky might be an interesting choice. We've seen no real evidence that Checkers can look sideways, so he's not in a position to disseminate the solution, not like Byakuran could, or Aria potentially. I have to wonder if it's a uniquely human ability. The only other person we've come across that seems even semi-aware of alternates is Talbot, but even he doesn't seem capable of independently, directly interfering."

"If we're lucky," Daemon said with a sly smile, "I can get the secret out of him as to how to effect the changeover, and then we can cut him out completely in subsequent dimensions. If it really does depend on some ability of whatever race or species he is…" He shrugged.

"The ring, on the other hand…" Tsuna frowned. "I can sorta get why he might have done that, based on what pure intentions Giotto had, with the idea that his family would continue to be that way, to endure. Why he didn't do that for Giglio Nero… I can only imagine it had some snobby, racist origin what with Sepira being like him and having bred with us lesser people, and clearly her descendants would do the right thing due to their prescience, always."

"I might get lucky and find that information, too," Daemon said. "We'll see. I will be at my absolute best when it comes to subtlety and sneakiness, darling Heul."

He smiled softly. "I know you will, brother. Give it a week to put a little distance in there?"

"Just in case Checkers sensed something about Chikusa and is playing it cool for the moment," Daemon said with a nod. "All right."

"He does have interesting stuff for sale," Chikusa said. "But if he really has been alive for centuries, that rather makes sense given that he's chosen to play normal folk and hide out amongst the peasants."

"After what Aria and Yuni had to say at various points," he said, "I expect he doesn't have any of his own people left to socialize with. The only thing he can do is slum it with humanity, we ignorant, indelicate, plague-like beings infesting this planet."

"Someone's still touchy over being scared to death," Sin teased.

Tsuna shot a flat raspberry at his lover.

— — —

Daemon had a smile on his face that screamed smug satisfaction.

"I'm going to assume you were strong enough," he said, amused by how his brother behaving. He used illusion to cause a dozen male peacock feathers to fan out behind Daemon, then lost it when his family started laughing.

Daemon caught on when he glanced back over his shoulder and scowled viciously. "Who did this!?"

Tsuna raised a hand, still laughing.

His brother's scowl softened noticeably, but he still looked annoyed. "Tch. I was successful, of course," he said a bit snottily.

Tsuna resolved to make his brother something extra nice to make up for teasing him.

"For one thing I have a very good feel for his flames," Daemon said, a bit of his smugness coming back. "I also managed to get a history from him, which I've written out. We can add it to the board and to the computers. Unfortunately, he is necessary for both shifting to the new system, and fixing that damn ring. We can't do it."

He heaved a sigh and nodded.

"He considers himself a 'True Earthling'," Daemon continued, complete with air quotes. "He's immensely strong in his Mist Flames, far more so than any normal active human. In some ways it's not a wonder he sees us all as dirt-grubbing Neanderthals."

"And yet, you're now stronger than him." Tsuna laughed merrily. It was a weight off his mind. "So… We can get things set up with Talbot and the Vindice, ready to go, then confront Checkers in his lair. What is his name, anyway?"

Daemon smirked. "He calls himself Kawahira. It changes from time to time, or country by country. He rather likes Japan, though. Finds us all more civilized in comparison to the rest of the world."

Tsuna snorted in disbelief. "I love my country, but… There are just as many societal problems here as there are in any other country. More civilized?" He shook his head. "Right, whatever. Let's do what we can to get things set up during the periods when I'm not having to be at Kaiten during Foreign Week."

Daemon moved over to the huge white board they had up as a project planner and started writing. Hayato responded by hauling a laptop out of storage and started transcribing the information into a document.

— — —

Tsuna knew something was up when he was fifteen. Kaiten had done well over the intervening years. Nana had become very confident in her work and had pushed for additional recipes to be added to the menu, even during Foreign Week. She was so confident after a while that she had started to come out into the main room to socialize a little with their clients.

On the one hand it made Tsuna … happy. His mother, a woman he generally didn't even see as human, had come into her own. She was doing so well. She knew she was awesome in the kitchen, though she retained a general level of humility and downplaying of her abilities. The blushing was to be expected, too.

But then came a man.

Tsuna had noticed his mother had begun sighing a lot at home and started paying attention, wondering if she'd slipped into depression when he wasn't looking, but no. They were sighs accompanied by wistful looks and secret smiles and—

'Kami-sama,' he thought.

After dinner he stepped over to the other house and called a meeting. "Am I imagining things," he said, "or has Nana fallen for someone?"

Most of them didn't pay much attention to the woman beyond making sure she was healthy, did good work for Kaiten, and wasn't being harassed. Despite Tsuna's softening of a deeply-ingrained dislike or indifference (it varied based on how she acted each life), he could not bring himself to get attached. He faked it fairly well. At least, when she was there to witness it.

Everyone exchanged looks and shrugged, essentially admitting they had not been paying attention.

For whatever reason, Iemitsu getting married and getting his wife knocked up repeatedly had set a fire under the brothers three, who seemed to think looking like good, respectable Catholic boys was all the rage. They, too, had found wives and starting having babies, so the odds of every last one of them dying in a tragic accident was diminishing more every year.

True, it had not prevented Enrico from buying the farm in a mass shoot-out, but there were plenty of bloodline Vongola alive. Once Samsara saw how the wind was blowing in that part of the world, they fell back to keeping a more distant eye on the situation. They did the same with the "former" Arcobaleno, letting them live their lives without interference. The only exception had been his Mists planting a solution in Verde's head regarding a way to age them up to at least be adult in appearance again, rather than having to get there the long and torturous way.

Over the next few weeks they kept a closer eye on Nana and, sure enough, a man had come into her life, one Ishihara Ebisu. He was a businessman who regularly stopped into Namimori due to a craftsman who lived in town, whom he purchased from for resale elsewhere. Ishihara had tried Kaiten one day (though he had had to call in his reservation for his next trip, due to all slots at the time being reserved) and kept coming back.

"He took a superficial liking to her at first," Xeul reported, "but that started to deepen. He also adores her cooking. But then, so does everyone once they've had the opportunity to taste it."

"Everyone not Samsara," Ken muttered.

Xeul nodded in agreement. "She, in turn, during her forays into the main room to socialize with the customers, has developed a bit of a crush on the guy. I can't tell yet if it'll develop into something deeper or…"

Tsuna felt a bit torn. On the one hand, this version of Nana worked hard, had been doing it all on her own to make sure her unexpected son had a decent, if not good, life. She deserved love, right? On the other hand, his general experience with various Nanas made him immediately wonder if that would translate to her fixating on her man and essentially neglecting him.

Probably a good thing he was nearly sixteen, and already had a family he knew would stick by him no matter what. If she did switch focus, he wasn't especially going to be hurt by it.

— — —

'I really should learn better,' he thought. 'You'd think being hundreds of years old would…'

Nana was getting very serious with Ishihara, to the point that he was dropping into Namimori outside of work just so they could go on dates. That in itself was fine, but… They were talking about marriage. Also fine. But then…

"We'll be going on a honeymoon," Nana told him, her expression one of bliss. "But… That would mean Kaiten would be without a cook for a while."

"Can't the owner cover that?" he asked. "Well, that one guy? Um…"

"Suda-san?" she offered.

He nodded. His alter-ego was Suda Mashiro (found, amusingly enough, with a random name generator), since he couldn't see using any form of Heul for what was essentially a throwaway identity.

"Yes," she said. "Well, I hope so. I plan to speak to the owner soon, once we firm up our plans."

Not a problem in his eyes, though it would mean having to be the cook during the time she was away, which would produce a noticeable difference in the quality of the food. Eh, he could get his Mists to ensure people who frequented Kaiten would prefer Nana's cooking to his, while still enjoying what he served.

"Oh, okay," he said. "Eh, how long of a honeymoon?"

Nana continued to not notice his distinct lack of enthusiasm as she sighed happily and said, "A month!"

'Shit. On the one hand, that sucks. On the other hand, no pretending I like my mama for a whole month.' He could almost imagine the snickering that was bound to be happening on the other side of whatever window was spying on them. Tsuna didn't doubt Nana had enough in savings to cover household bills for the time she'd be away, and he was more than old enough to be on his own for that length of time.

The problem came in when she stated making noises about moving to Tokyo to live with her new husband. And, well, Tokyo was hours away from Namimori. There was no way she could continue to be Kaiten's cook.

Tsuna looked at his family in consternation. "What do you think? Just sell the place? See if Caim wants to continue it as a legit source of income, just with a new chef? Where is he right now, anyway?"

Daemon shrugged. "I'll drop a note in the usual place. As far as alternates go, he's rather more detached."

"I'm thinking if he wants to keep it as a source, we need to find a new chef now," he said, "so that I have time to shadow them, train them, and so that Kaiten can still keep going. We should probably transition in new people to handle the accounts, as well, but we should get Caim in on that. He might have someone in mind, or he might not care so long as they're honest and competent."

"Well, yeah," Hayato said. "You're going to die a hilariously stupid death at some point, so I won't be here to do the books."

Daemon nodded. "I'll make sure all of that is in the letter and that we need an answer as soon as he can manage one."

"Uh…"

Tsuna looked at Sin curiously.

"She's planning to move to Tokyo. What is she planning for you, Heul?"

That took him aback for a moment. It hadn't crossed his mind.

The answer to that turned out to both simple and a complete pain. Nana was planning to shuffle him off to live with his uncle in Inaba. Ishihara had no use for a step-son and Nana, deep in her heart, was pleased with the idea of no longer having to deal with the blatant results of her drunken mistake. And, she reasoned, he was nearly an adult. How she figured four more years of being considered a minor was "nearly"…

"Right," he said, once Xeul had reported this exciting information. "We need to buy a house in Inaba as quickly as possible. Once we have that and we've moved, we can sell the one here, I guess. I can't see staying involved in Kaiten. I mean, we only did it so Nana had a decent income and didn't have to work herself to the bone to provide for us. If she's not there…"

His twins exchanged a look. "We'll both track down a house," Xeul said, "and have another look at your uncle."

"You said…" Tsuna had to think back to remember right. "Chisato was killed in a car accident, right? I vaguely remember sending a card with an offering."

"Correct. The daughter, Nanako—probably named after your mother—is seven and due to start her first year of elementary. Her birthday is ten days before yours, actually. Chisato died when Nanako was in preschool. A hit and run accident."

"This is going to be a bit awkward," he said. "I have a cop for an uncle, who probably isn't thrilled to be saddled with his nephew—his illegitimate nephew—and may well be suspicious of me. Great. Wonderful." He smiled a plastic smile of happiness.

Daemon rolled his eyes. "Honestly, brother. You know we can fix that, if it's an issue."

"Yes, yes, I know. Let me have my moment. I'm more concerned that I'll probably have to show up for classes and … ugh … meet people. I vote we make someone the 'father' at the new house and the rest of you become my classmates."

Various faces went unhappily pale.

"What," Mukuro said flatly.

"It's a fantastic idea!" he enthused. "If I'm going to suffer, well…"

"I think you might be taking this whole family togetherness thing a bit too far," Chikusa said.

He shook his head. "Oh, c'mon. It's an entirely new town, a new school, new people…"

"How about a compromise?" Ken suggested. "Draw names from a hat. Three people are students with you, the rest are on watch. It might seem a bit weird for seven new second years to all show up at once."

"I'm game for that," he said, "and look, if it turns out to be the usual drag with nothing of interest happening, we bail and send clones." He raised his brows and looked around at his family members.

One by one they sighed and nodded.

The drawing was done and his new classmates would be Hayato, Sin, and Mukuro.

His twins departed once that was decided, off to find and purchase a home for them in Inaba.

"I would make a joke about what could go wrong in a sleepy Japanese town," he said, "but we all know the answer to that, don't we."

He was greeted with laughter for that.

"I hope Daemon remembered to drop off that note? Because I haven't even looked in on Inaba, so I can't even open a window. Damn it."

Sin enfolded him in a hug and planted a lingering kiss on his cheek. "Calm yourself, tesoro. We have a few months yet. We're barely into November. There's time enough to get in contact with Caim, see what he would prefer, and handle things. We can still be checking into potential replacement chefs, just in case. We could start by going over the regulars at Kaiten. If they don't suit, perhaps they might have someone in mind, even if we aren't asking directly. Or we advertise, if it comes to that."

He heaved a sigh. "I admit, I'm a bit rattled. I'd gotten used to Nana…"

"Appearing to care?" Mukuro suggested.

"Something like that. Now it seems like she's found her fairy tale and…" He sighed. "I honestly thought this one was different. I mean, she is, to a degree. I can't deny that. But… In the end, I'm just an embarrassment for her. A reminder of her mistake. And it hurts. Admittedly, I've never tried very hard to care, so I'm being a bit hypocritical. Still… We can't help how we feel, right?"

— — —

His twins came back with the news that a house had been located, not far from where his uncle resided. A window was opened so they could see the place and approve.

"It'll be a bit of a squeeze, but we still have trunk if anyone wants more space. I don't see why not."

No one brought up any objections, so the twins nodded.

"We left a message for Caim. Hopefully he'll get back to us quickly. We'll move ahead with the house, then. The usual. Convince them to sell it to us and fuck off. We can be in place ahead of time, have it arranged for our happy new students to be enrolled—" Daemon smirked when Sin, Mukuro, and Hayato each grimaced. "—and ensure you four all get into the same class."

"How is that going to work, anyway?" he muttered. "You have to test into high school. They've got standards, usually."

Xeul shook his head. "Inaba is too small. There's just the one. The fees aren't too dear, either. From what I could see, they split the classes based on prior performance. So, you'd likely be in the first or second."

Tsuna's brow furrowed. "First or second?"

"Ah, they don't use letters, not like here. They're not 2-A or 3-B. It's 2-1 or 3-2."

"Right," he said slowly. "Okay. I would prefer we get into the same classroom, yes."

"We'll make sure the records we fake into existence will cover that, and ensure you four are together. We'll shoot for 2-2, just so you aren't all academically inclined in a potentially detrimental way."

He nodded. On the higher end without being the brightest. It seemed a safer road to walk. And all else failing, clones sent in their places could easily handle that level of work and pretense.

A week later word arrived from Caim. He was perfectly willing to keep Kaiten as a source of income, but had no one particular in mind as replacements. He would leave that to them. That being the case, Samsara immediately set to finding a new chef that Tsuna could train in the time they had left in Namimori, and someone competent and trustworthy to take over the accounting.

Xeul and Sin handled finding an accountant, while Tsuna and Mukuro tracked down a chef. Nana, when informed of the upcoming changes due to her planned departure, just smiled and nodded and said she would happily allow the new chef to shadow her on the job until that time.

'I should bloody well hope so,' he muttered in his head. He would still be the one doing most of the work. He himself was not scheduled to depart for Inaba until much closer to the start of the school year. Nana had decided he was old enough to handle himself while the sale of the house was being arranged, and had made noises about getting a neighbor woman drafted in to check on him occasionally.

Tsuna had promptly nixed that idea by pointing out the next door neighbor, where his closest friends lived, would be happy to host him, and the father there would keep an eye on the house until it was sold. Nana was happy with that, especially after a little encouragement of the Daemon kind.

One of the sources they tapped for information (not that he was aware of it) was Tsuyoshi and his wife, in the event that either knew of a decent chef (better than decent, really) who was open to the idea of work. Worst case scenario? They would import one from out of town and convince them to purchase Nana's house. All nice and tidy.

As it was, Tsuyoshi did know of someone, from Kyoto, who was tired of tourists and wanted a more intimate, local lifestyle. Specifically, his wife's cousin's husband's niece, who worked and trained at a restaurant there, but was more than willing to expand her repertoire and not have to deal with the drama queen she called a head chef.

Tsuna promptly moved into the house next door and gave up his room for the niece, one Inagaki Junko, who would undoubtedly take over Nana's room once his mother flitted off to be with her one true love in Tokyo.

March rolled around (Tsuna had sent a clone to the wedding, having washed his hands of Nana, again) and Tsuna received a letter from his uncle, letting him know he would pick him up at Yasoinaba Station on the eleventh, at four o'clock.

He was all set to begin his "new" life.