A/N: This was originally posted on Ao3, in four separate parts. I have decided to upload them all at once in a single document, as to save myself some trouble. If you want to follow this series, then I will be posting on my Ao3 account much faster and more frequently than this one; just search for "Maven_Fair" and you'll find me.

Part 1

Tsuna, the Vongola Neo-Primo, dies at the ripe old age of 36. Death itself didn't hurt as much as he imagined it would - in fact, it was more like a nice hug, warm and comforting.

He had died surrounded by his guardians from a wound so fatal that not even the combined efforts of Shamal, Reborn, and Ryohei could fix. He had died with nearly no regrets, having brought Vongola back to its righteous roots.

And so, after (what he assumes was) a month spent in weird limbo of pleasant unawareness, he suddenly becomes acutely aware of something.

That something being a woman with stark white hair (even whiter than Ryohei's, which he didn't think was possible). Her face was kind and caring, but every smile she had held an edge of stress and worry in it (Tsuna would know, for he saw it every time he looked in a mirror).

Her name is Rei and she is, apparently, his new mother.

Which means he has, apparently, been reincarnated.

Of course, after he reaches this epiphany, he promptly reacts in the only way his panic-stricken, baby mind can conjure up: screaming at the top of his lungs.

"HIEEEEEEEEEE!"

He learns his name is Todoroki Tsunayoshi, and he is the fourth child of the Todoroki family. After his initial panic, Tsuna knows one thing: there is no way in hell that Reborn would allow him to continue to freak out like that.

(He ignores the stabbing pain in his chest over the fact that he may be alone, now. Just like before.)

And so, like a good former Reborn student, he observes.

He observes the world around him, so different from his own, yet so similar. The first time he sees Rei (he can't find it within himself to call her Mom) conjure a small ice sculpture to calm one of his older brothers he nearly screams.

After that, he takes note of the other things he sees people around him do. He sees a woman on the street levitate a small rattle to soothe her child. He sees a teenage boy with blue skin and sharp horns lose at an arcade game. He sees and sees and forces himself to connect the dots.

Rei calls them "quirks". Apparently, nearly everyone in this world has them, and they are always in some form or another from their parents.

Fire, from his father, or ice, from her. (He wonders about the pain in her eyes when she says this.)

And lastly, he takes note of this strange new family he has.

A loud, rowdy person even as a mere four year old, Natsuo is the life of the family. Never without a smile, he seemed to be enraptured with Tsuna, going so far as to just stare at him sometimes with the curiosity only a child could have. His quirk recently manifested, which he used to enrapture Tsuna with by making it snow around him.

Next came Fuyumi, the six year old. Quiet and reserved, her demeanor is what Tsuna thinks Rei might have been like before whatever gave her smiles those bittersweet edges to them. She was always gentle with him, probably experienced from Natsuo, and always had time to play. Her soft, angelic voice never failed to make him sleepy.

And lastly was Touya, an angsty child at the ripe old age of 8 years old. Tsuna rarely saw him; in fact, the first time he even heard his name was a full month before he actually met him. While he didn't have Fuyumi's gentleness or Natsuo's energy, he carried this sense of love that Tsuna appreciated. He seemed to have so many emotions in such a small body that Tsuna couldn't help but be scared for him.

He tries to separate his new family from his famiglia. They will never replace Gokudera, Yamamoto, Reborn…

He tries to ignore how similar Natsuo is to Lambo when he has a temper tantrum. Or how Kyoko-like Fuyumi can be when caring for him. Or how much Touya reminds him of Yamamoto (without the fake smiles, but with just as much hidden pain).

And soon enough (too soon, his traitorous mind whispers), he gets used to this strange world of red-and-white haired people.

That all changes when Todoroki Enji comes along.

(He supposes that a lot of things change when Todoroki Enji comes along. Tsuna thinks that Enji wouldn't have it any other way.)

The first time Tsuna hears his name he doesn't connect "Enji" with "Dad".

Touya, in one of the rare moments he could spend with Tsuna and Rei, had begun to complain to Fuyumi about a man named "Enji". At this point Tsuna was accustomed enough to the Todoroki family dynamics to know that their supposed "father" was constantly busy with his work.

"It's always train harder, harder, harder with him!" Touya says, voice filled with anger. He paces around the traditional Japanese style room, the tatami mats crunching under his feet. Tsuna sits comfortably on Rei's lap, watching Touya like a hawk. Fuyumi sits next to them, slowly putting away a medical kit.

"I know, Touya," Fuyumi's voice is quiet and somber. "I wish he would be easier on you." She and Rei had just finished cleaning up some of Touya's scrapes and bruises.

"Maybe I can convince him to go easier. You are just seven," Rei's soft voice says.

"I hope that bastard Enji will die on the job - would make our lives a whole lot easier," he grumbles. Tsuna is immediately reminded of Gokudera's hatred of his father - and quickly dismisses that train of thought.

"Touya!"

"What? You know it's true," Fuyumi and Rei both sigh.

"I know he's hard on you, dear," Rei whispers softly, gently bouncing Tsuna on her lap, "but he means well."

"Sure doesn't feel like it." The tension in the air pushes Tsuna to gurgle happily up at them, which makes them all melt into soft smiles.

"Hey there, little Tuna fish," Touya jokes, taking Tsuna from Rei. (That nickname seems so much more… loving, than any time Iemitsu had used it.) "You feeling left out?" Tsuna gurgles again, hands clapping.

And if his eyes linger on Touya's injuries a little longer than may be normal for a one-year-old, no one needs to know.

The first time he meets the man, Tsuna is turning two, and he finally puts a face to the name which he has learned to despise.

(He supposes that even in a new life he has shit luck for dads.)

The day started happily, with Fuyumi and Natsuo excitedly waking him up with eager "Happy birthday!"s. Rei, Fuyumi, and Natsuo spent the morning playing with Tsuna, and had lunch in one of the outside gardens. Later in the day Touya arrived, beaten and bruised but determined to celebrate nonetheless. Everything is nearly perfect, Tsuna and his new family

Then Enji shows up.

"Touya!" A rough, demanding voice rings out. Heavy footsteps follow, and Tsuna cranes his head and sees -

A tall, broad-shouldered man with flames shooting out of varying parts of his body. A stern face that might've looked handsome, was it not shaped into a scowl.

Tsuna dislikes him immediately.

The moment the man's voice had rung out Rei had clutched him tightly, her expression fearful. "Good afternoon, Enji," she says, voice hesitant. "Touya here was just celebrating Tsunayoshi's second birthday with us." Her voice is quiet yet strong, ready to defend Touya if need be.

She is a good mother, Tsuna thinks.

"Yeah, Dad, Touya just wanted to help out," Natsuo pipes up. Tsuna nods along, which he knows won't make a difference but still makes him feels slightly better, and -

Wait.

Dad?

"I suppose it is Tsunayoshi's second birthday," he says, scowl still placed on his face. "You may be excused, but tomorrow you'll make up for it." With that, the man - his father? - leaves. His steps seem to echo around them, not one of them making a single sound.

Rei breaks the silence after a few seconds. "Well, this lunch isn't going finish itself," They try to focus on the delicious food their mother made, Enji shoved to the back of their minds but not entirely forgotten.

"Was that Dada?" Tsuna asks hesitantly after a solid five minutes of awkward conversation. They all seem to gaze at each other nervously, before Touya takes a deep breath and replies.

"Yeah, Tuna fish, that was our… Dad." The last word seems like poison on Touya's lip.

Tsuna doesn't like it, but he needs to know more.

"How come Tsuna's never seen him?" he asks.

"Tsuna… " Rei begins, then pauses. She takes a breath and smiles sweetly at him, with that tinge of bitterness that Tsuna hates so much. "Your father is a very, very busy man. Do you remember those heroes you see on TV?" Tsuna nods.

Heroes, something that Tsuna found out were much more than just comic book characters in this world. The first time her saw a hero on TV Tsuna was surprised, which Rei interpreted as him being confused. She then gently explained heroes to him, and told him that one day he might just become one. Tsuna, however knew better. There was no way he was going to willingly become a hero.

"Dada is a… hero?"

"Yes, Tsuna, your father is a… hero." And the look on her face looks so hurt that Tsuna stops.

Tsuna knows the signs of abuse.

He knows how Fuuta acted when he first arrived - hesitant and scared and just wanting peace for once.

He knows how desperate Gokudera was to flee from his former famiglia (not a family, never a family).

He knows how Lambo acts when he thinks no one is watching, his eyes filled with pain and longing.

Enji may be a hero, but he sure as hell isn't a father.

And so, after Tsuna first meets Enji, he makes it his personal mission to protect this new family of his.

(After all, Reborn taught him everything, which included "protect your family.")

(Well, maybe not everything. There may be protocol for time travel, but not dimension travel.)

He tries to bring back his flames.

(Tsuna tries to not feel disappointed. Tries to not feel as though a part of him dies a little each time he can't seem to even bring back a lick of what he used to have.)

However, Tsuna is only two when he makes his decision, and he supposes he really can't do anything until he can at least walk and talk without stumbling.

(He had made sure his first words were "Mom." Sure, he may not see Rei as his true mother, but he knows how much she loves him, and thinks that it's only fitting.)

So he "trains". Nothing near as bad as Reborn's Hell Training, but enough so that every day he worked on muscle and speech improvement.

And after about half a year of training, he finally finds a mirror and sees his reflection.

Tsuna may have thought he accepted being reincarnated in another world, but when he stares at his unfamiliar reflection…

Soft gray eyes, a chubby face, and… pink hair.

The whole "reincarnation" suddenly seemed so much more… real. Gone is his amber eyes and hair. Gone is his once familiar reflection, replaced with this foreign baby's face.

He quickly dismisses those thoughts, however. After all, he has a mission to protect the Todoroki's; he can't get caught up feeling sorry for himself.

And so, a year of relearning how to walk and talk, Tsuna finally has enough control in his body to properly portray his thoughts.

Also, he gets a new baby brother.

Shouto, the adorable baby with a face split perfectly in half with their parents' colorings. Tsuna has always had a soft spot for kids, more so now due to the fact that Tsuna knows the life that awaits Shouto.

(Tsuna begins to train even harder. He's been a big brother before, and he knows exactly what kind of trouble they bring.)

Tsuna's fourth birthday passes.

Enji, the ever foreboding presence, attended his birthday this time. Luckily, it was only for ten minutes before he was called away for something.

(He overhears him muttering something about his hair and the unlikelihood of a dual quirk. Tsuna sticks his tongue out at him behind his back. Touya sees this and can't stop laughing for the next few minutes.)

Altogether, it passes pretty normally, just like the previous years.

It is a month afterwards, however, that things change.

More specifically, his flames come back.

(He supposes that his life really can't be nice enough to let him be quirkless.)

Part 2

Hayato dies before his heart stops beating.

Hayato dies when Tsuna - his boss, comrade, friend, family - dies.

Hayato blames himself as he sits next to Tsuna, whose face was pale yet still so awe-inspiring. He remembers as Tsuna wistfully told him to "Stop stressing, Hayato, everything will be just fine. I know it. After all, you're not my right hand for nothing, right? Poor Dame-Tsuna couldn't have gotten even half as far as he did without you by his side."

He remembers the shame he felt when he couldn't even manage to try and help save him, so shook up that he couldn't call upon his meager amount of sun flames.

He remembers Tsuna's death. He can't tell if it was painful or peaceful or anything. Reborn trained Tsuna well enough that he knew any sort of discomfort would harm every single one of his guardians.

Hayato breaks anyway.

He spends the next years doing what he knows what Tsuna would want. He keeps the Vongola running. He stops some hopeful famiglias from trying to take over.

He dies, really dies, when he's careless. A bullet shoots through his head, stopping the pain almost immediately.

He's in limbo for an indefinite amount of time. He hopes that he will finally be able to see Tsuna once more, to have Tsuna smile softly at him and reprimand him for being so reckless.

Instead, he wakes to a woman with pink hair taking off goggles.

And then he promptly pukes.

(It's the start of something great.)

It takes Hayato precisely a week to accept his situation. It's filled with puking every time the woman with pink hair comes close, anger at the fact that he can't seem to control his own body, and trying to find out more about this world.

It takes him another to finally start paying attention.

The new family he's been born into seems relatively more… normal than anything he had experienced previously in life.

(He supposes nothing can really top his original childhood.)

The woman with pink hair seems to be his mother. Hayato is extremely suspicious of becoming attached to her, seeing as nine out of ten mothers seem to die before their children turn ten (in his experience, anyway).

However, he can't dispute the fact that she seems to care strongly for him, which isn't something entirely new to Hayato (Tsuna's mother seemed determined to be a mother for everyone), but it's still new to him how she seems to instinctively know what Hayato needs.

Her name is Hatsume Sozo and she's just as energetic as Ryohei. On a bad day. Her hair is bubblegum pink (blessedly not quite the same shade as Bianchi's is. Or, was.). Sozo spends the majority of their days cooing at Hayato and working in a room that Hayato is fifty percent sure is a welding shop.

He also has an older sister, who seems to be three years older than him. Her name is Ito and she seems determined to poke Hayato's cheeks every time she appears. Her hair is also pink, although it seems to hold a metallic shade to it. She also has the curiosity only a three-year-old can have, constantly babbling on about this-or-that.

The Hatsume house seems to always be in perpetual motion. Whether it be going somewhere, creating something, eating, sleeping (albeit scarcely), the Hatsumes seem to always be doing some form of action.

Hayato quickly falls in love.

(It's the third time it's happened. First Tsuna, then Takeshi, and now the Hatsume family.)

(He tries not to think about the holes in his heart that he feels every time he thinks about his old family for too long.)

The months pass by quickly. It's interesting how different his upbringing is in comparison to his Previous Life. In his Previous Life most of his time was spent with servants, tutors, or nannies that, while kind, could never replace having his parents around.

In this new, strange world, Hayato rarely ever doesn't see at least one of his relatives at a time. Sozo is the most comforting presence, bringing him into the workshop of theirs and allowing him to watch as she tinkers with (non-lethal) gadgetry. Ito is next, occasionally watching over him as she finishes her schoolwork or watches TV.

By the time he's two he's got a good grasp of what's up.

That is, how insane this new world is. He's slightly glad that it was him who had reincarnated, not Takeshi, because he's ninety-nine percent sure that he'd just laugh and talk about "the fun quirk game".

Yet, despite how strange it is to see people who he had originally assumed to be U.M.A.s just casually walking through the streets, he quickly becomes accustomed to it. The first couple of years passes quickly enough, and he is careful to act as close to a toddler as possible.

Until he hears a worried Sozo talk to the absentee father (go figure) about how she's scared that he's not developing fast enough.

(His first words are "I love you," of course, because he never said it enough in his Previous Life.)

Life is as normal as life can be for a while. He manages to impress Sozo and Ito with his genius, "learning" things quickly. They even allow him to tinker with some of the metal parts, albeit only the ones that they're sure he can't choke on.

It's… nice, not having to worry about things. To just be able to live. He gets a baby sister this time, too, and is determined to take care of her like how he knows Bianchi always tried to.

His life is calm and entirely different from everything he'd known before. There's no crazy maniacs attempting to kill him or his family, just homemade meals and family game nights.

Until one day, when the TV show that Sozo, Ito, small Mei, and him are watching together over dessert gets interrupted.

"Breaking news: Endeavor was recently admitted to a hospital after his son, Todoroki Tsunayoshi, had awakened his quirk. According to eyewitnesses, Endeavor had raised a hand against his wife, Todoroki Rei, and young Tsunayoshi had jumped in front of his mother, wreathed in flames, and proceeded to… "

The news reported continues to drone on, but Hayato's not listening.

Because they're showing a picture of the Todoroki family and…

That's Tsuna. His Tsuna. His boss, comrade, friend, and brother in all but blood.

(He doesn't realize he's crying until Sozo and Ito try to console him. He doesn't realize he's smiling until Ito comments on it.

He doesn't realize that he has bright red flames encasing his hands until the couch cushions begin to disintegrate.)

…

(Let's rewind real quick.)

…

Takeshi dies four times before he really, truly dies.

The first time is his mother's death. It took a toll on him that followed through for years, until Tsuna had pulled him out of it in a dramatic fashion, letting Takeshi see how truly wonderful life could be once more.

The second time is Tsuna's death. Takeshi looks back on that day and then promptly forces himself to not think about it. Hayato had done enough mourning for the both of them.

The third time is his father's death. Takeshi spent the whole funeral staring at the casket, so starkly similar to the one he had buried his best friend in just a few months ago.

The fourth time is when Hayato dies.

(The next time he's at the top of a roof, no one's there to stop him from jumping. )

Dying feels horrible. He's constantly hurting everywhere. He wonders if this is repayment for all the bad he did in the world before.

But then he wakes up gasping for breath with a teary-eyed, black-haired man above him. He's awake enough to register the white walls (a hospital), the mobile unit above him that depicts different weather patterns, and the fact that everything hurts.

("Dad?" Takeshi tries to say, but nothing comes out.)

"Takeshi? Takeshi? Oh thank God… "

Takeshi wishes that the world would allow him to die in peace. Instead of that happening, it seems that he's been reincarnated in some different universe. At first he thought he was going crazy, seeing doctors and nurses with extra appendages. But he adjusts quick enough, like he always has.

After all, he was never the type to overreact. That was always Hayato and Tsuna's jobs.

(His new body, attuned to his emotions, can't stop crying for over an hour after that thought.)

The first few months that he's awake and aware of his surroundings he spends in a hospital, with the man who he finds out is Mirio Nen. A black-haired, always smiling presence. He soothes Takeshi when his body gets the best of him and he cries. He's there when the various doctors come and go, doing tests and administering medicine.

Takeshi tries to not get attached, tries to not care, but it's hard not to. It's hard to not love the man who's always there for him, always a pillar of love and strength even as Takeshi's small baby body seems to be trying its best to kill him.

It's a whole year into his new life that he finally gets better, healthy enough that he can finally, finally leave the hospital. Nen takes him and brings them back to his house. He watches the buildings outside as they pass, taking in this new world that he hadn't been able to see in the hospital.

They arrive at a modern looking house, vastly different from the traditional house that he and his dad had before.

(Takeshi supposes that at least his new life is nice enough to give him that.)

But his happy mood quickly plummets when they cross through the front door and are greeted with the sight of a blond woman, beer bottle and cigarette in her hands, yelling at a crying baby as she watches TV.

Nen reacts appropriately. The woman is quickly divorced and their belongings distributed. (Nen gains guardianship of both him and his older brother, Mirio.)

Things quiet down, after that. He learns about the world he's in more, about quirks and how his father has a quirk that allows him to permeate through solid objects. He watches as his brother awakens his quirk, and decides that he'll become a hero.

He watches as his new father begins to spiral before Takeshi tries his hardest to bring him back up. Simple things like pretending to speak baby babble and smiling up innocently at him, always. It's what he knows he's good at, at least.

("Da! Da!" Takeshi gurgles. He pretends to not see Nen's tears as he replies.

"Yeah, Takeshi, I'm your Dada… ")

Takeshi tries to hide his sorrow, his depression, but Nen and Mirio seem to notice anyway. They don't understand, not really, but they do know that the new member of their family seems to carry a sense of sadness even as he smiles up at them.

The doctors try to write it off as residual mental pain from the illness that he suffered as a newborn, but Takeshi knows that's not it.

It's a good enough excuse, though.

And sometimes, sometimes Takeshi can't help but yearn for Tsuna's smile or one of his and Hayato's arguments. Can't help but crave for one of Kyoya's fights, Ryohei's intensity, Lambo's crying, one of Chrome's rare and fleeting smiles, or even Rokudo's creepy laugh.

It's at times like those that Nen and Mirio play with him more. It's at times like those that Mirio's determination to become a hero allows Takeshi to pretend like he's just another baby, one that isn't the reincarnation of a mafia member who couldn't even protect those closest to him.

(Slowly but surely those times begin to drop off, going from daily to weekly to monthly.)

(Sometimes, Takeshi sees Dad in place of Nen. Sees Tsuna when Mirio smiles just right, or Ryohei when he's exclaiming about wanting to be a hero, or, or, or….

Times like that it's hard to look at them for a few minutes afterwards.)

Altogether, it's a nice life. No mother, but Takeshi's used to that, and Nen and Mirio are great people. A great family.

It's half a year after his fourth birthday (the year that he's supposed to get his quirk) and Mirio and Nen are nervous over the fact that he might be quirkless. They try to hide it and while that might have worked for an actual baby, it doesn't work on Takeshi. Nen and Mirio suggest that they grab some ice cream and head over to the park to go play to ignore the elephant in the room.

It's while they're walking to the park that he sees it.

"Breaking news: Endeavor was recently admitted to a hospital after his son, Todoroki Tsunayoshi, had awakened his quirk. According to eyewitnesses, Endeavor had raised a hand against his wife, Todoroki Rei, and young Tsunayoshi had jumped in front of his mother, wreathed in flames, and proceeded to… "

Then Tsuna's face arrives on the screen.

Takeshi drops his ice cream. Nen's concerned question doesn't register to him. Mirio, who's holding his hand suddenly lets go, as though he's been burned. The world around him starts to freak out, but he doesn't know why.

Then Takeshi looks down and sees that his hands are encased in vividly familiar blue flames.

And he smiles.

Part 3

To many people, Kyoya was considered unkillable. A constant pillar of how strong the Vongola was, how untouchable. While there was a constant flow of competitors, Kyoya could rarely concern himself with those who he deemed weak. He simply bit them to death. And if that wasn't enough, he would track down Mukuro and spar.

Weak people were weak. Herbivores were herbivores, and carnivores were carnivores. That's how Kyoya had spent his life, determining who was worth his time and who wasn't.

Until Sawada Tsunayoshi rolled around.

He flipped every notion that the world abided by. An herbivore by all accounts except his actions. Slowly but surely, Kyoya reluctantly gave him the title of omnivore. Of course, this weird phenomena was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and should be observed closely.

So observe Kyoya did. He served as Tsuna's guardian, battling more and more impressive foes as the years went on, and always coming out on top in one way or another.

It was easy to forget that he could lose. Fon rarely wanted to spar, preferring instead to teach. And even when they did, Kyoya soon surpassed him, to nearly no one's surprise. Mukuro and his fights were rarely ever lethal enough to harm, knowing that actually killing each other was too much, instead simply revelling in the fights themselves.

So when he was too late to save Tsuna from the attackers, or when Hayato took a bullet to the head because he wasn't paying attention, or when Takeshi jumped off a building…

Well. Kyoya may not have lost in the traditional sense, yet he lost all the same.

It was hard to admit to himself that he had begun to care for them. So hard to admit that he had instead decided to avoid the topic, seeking out the mafioso who caused their deaths and biting them to death with a zealous fervor.

The Vongola was never the same after Tsuna, Hayato, and Takeshi had died. Reborn went missing somewhere, Ryohei became addicted to training the new generation as well as himself, Lambo pretended to be happy but was obviously falling apart, and Chrome and Mukuro went off to god knows where.

Leaving Kyoya to tend to the Vongola's defenses.

Normally this would have been fine, but Kyoya had begun to slip. He became so wrapped in the fighting that he wouldn't notice certain things, only realizing what had happened when he came back to the mansion with more and more injuries as the days progressed.

Of course, he paid it no mind, trusting in his body to protect him

That was his downfall.

He doesn't even know how it happens, only registering the immense pain before blacking out.

He stays in an annoying limbo for awhile, unable to truly comprehend what's happening. Is he in heaven? Hell?

His question is answered when he wakes to find a boy with messy raven hair and a medical mask leaning over him. He then notices the other two people, and attempts to remind them that crowding is against the rules and that they need to be punished.

But then his new body decides to start crying right there.

"Boss, do I have to carry him? He's so… dirty. And loud."

Kyoya wishes that he was powerful enough to bite him to death. Instead, he settles for glaring menacingly.

Chisaki Kai is a yakuza member, and Kyoya hates him.

Trapped in the useless body of a baby, he's forced to depend on those around him to take care of him. He despises the fact that he can't fend for himself, tied down by physical restraints.

Was this what it was like being a baby in his previous life? Useless to those around him and unable to uphold the peace?

He wonders if this is what being an herbivore feels like. Constantly struggling with your own inability to defend yourself, to contribute to the world. Depending on others to fight for you, to protect you.

But the upsides of being a baby contain one thing and one thing only:

People trust you.

Not the faithful, vigilant trust, the type that Tsuna displayed towards him and the others. Or, had displayed.

No, it was the trust of knowing that you wouldn't judge, wouldn't offer unsolicited advice. Would simply sit and listen, without the intention of ever telling anyone else. Or, in Kyoya's case, without the ability to.

So, he listens. He listens to a member bemoan his troubles with his wife, to another talk about the guilt they felt over killing someone.

Fon had always been better at this, he begrudgingly admits to himself one night, when he has to bite down a glare as Chisaki Kai divulges to him his want to "cleanse" the world.

"Just wait, Kyoya. Someday, I'll rid the world of the quirk plague that's gripped our society," Kai says. They're outside, facing the traditional Japanese garden. Under normal circumstances, Kyoya would have found peace in its simplistic beauty; nowadays, however, he finds himself constantly on-edge.

"As disgusting as you are, I can appreciate your… quietness. Boss said that babies were loud and annoying, but I can't see it. You're so quiet. " Kyoya doesn't stoop so long as to gurgle in response, but he comes close.

"I hope that one day you'll be able to help be along on my goal. Who knows, maybe you'll end up quirkless," Kai murmurs the last part, stroking Kyoya's face with a gloved hand.

"I may be the only one who sees the devastation quirks have brought, but I'm sure you, at least, will understand. I'll make you understand." Kai goes quiet then, contemplative. They spend the next half an hour like that, Kai staring out at the night sky, and Kyoya observing him.

Perhaps, one day he would have agreed with Kai. Once upon a time he had wished for the death of all herbivores. But something changed that; Sawada Tsunayoshi changed that. If he had died before becoming an omnivore…

Kyoya doesn't know if he would have become who he was without him.

(He ignores the twinge of his heart. Thoughts like that are so… herbivorous.)

Kyoya knows what quirks are, knows Kai's disdain for them, yet he doesn't truly understand them. He lives a horribly secluded life, and doesn't see many instances of quirk usage. Kai seems to have all but banned it.

So he investigates under the guise of being a baby. Underestimating him will be their downfall, he's sure. He'll train right under their noses, become so powerful that they won't stand a chance.

(He had tried to pull upon his cloud flames, just once. Nothing happened, and Kyoya spent the rest of the day on-edge, frustrated and feeling so, so lonely.)

So it comes as a surprise when he finally is let out of the house, seemingly for the first time in this new life. It's nothing big, just a small visit to the local supermarket, but Kyoya spends the whole time looking at the world around him. He soaks it all up like he'll never see it again.

And he might not.

Because Kai seemed to have it in his brain that the outside world was "too dangerous" for Kyoya, and had all but locked him up.

So Kyoya observes, makes notes, and wonders what his quirk might be. From what he knows, it's hereditary, yet Kai doesn't seem to be all that open to talking about their birth parents.

He hopes it's powerful. He hopes that it's like his cloud flames, pushing him from good to great, from great to amazing.

He hopes a lot of things, nowadays. There isn't much else to do then hope and discreetly train his body and mind.

(He feels like he's turning into members of his old… family.)

(He had never called them that, before.)

(Training his body is easy in this world. The yakuza, no matter how honorable, still don't believe in weak links.

That's okay, because that's what will be the downfall of them.)

Kyoya firsts hears the name Todoroki when he overhears Kai complain about the heroes of this world, citing Endeavor (or Todoroki Enji) as an example.

The second time he hears it it's when he's freshly turned three, and is finally allowed to have alone time. He's pretending to be interested in some toys when he overhears a lawsuit put against the hero for building damages.

The third time is when he's watching the news from the corner of the room, pretending to read a book.

He's four and a half and Kai is sure that he's quirkless, having had a doctor visit him on his birthday and take an x-ray of his foot. It came back with the toe joint in his pinky toe, meaning he's likely quirkless. Kai was ecstatic for days afterwards.

So while having no quirk is somewhat of a let-down, Kyoya was formidable even without flames in his previous life, so he doesn't dwell on it. What he does dwell on, however, is the news report of Endeavor encased in ice.

"… with the incident in question being that of Endeavor's son, Todoroki Tsunayoshi, awakening his quirk and encasing his father in ice. Countless doctors have tried to understand exactly what the ice is and how to break it, but no results have been found. Meanwhile, authorities are continuing the investigation of Endeavor's actions the day… "

And then the screen shows a small picture of Todoroki Tsunayoshi, and Kyoya almost misses it, misses him.

But there's no mistaking that face, that passion.

Kyoya feels it in his veins, coursing through him like lightning. He feels it bubble to the surface, and he laughs hysterically for a moment, the first time he has ever done that. It guides the members of the room he's in towards him, the sound foreign and strange.

Kyoya feels it bubble up and over, and feels the soft caress of his violet flames as they incase his whole body, protecting him and giving him strength.

Finally.

…

Rokudo Mukuro does not cry. He does not feel, and he does not care for people past the surface level of whether or not they're useful to him.

Chrome is the opposite of him, her kindness and compassion bleeding out to those in need. Two sides of a coin, they were. Two kids abandoned by the world.

Rokudo Mukuro had no love for the Vongola or the mafia, but at Chrome's hopeful glances he joined Sawada Tsunayoshi's little gang, under the guise of wanting to take over his body.

At first it actually was for his body, but as time went on, it became more about the strange interactions he and Chrome had with the rest of his group. The weird feeling in his heart he gets when sparring with Hibari or Sasegawa, the arguments he gets into with Gokudera and Yamamoto, and the quiet moments between him and Sawada.

But he's still Rokudo Mukuro, still the emotionless monster, so he doesn't cry when Sawada Tsunayoshi is the first to go, dying from an unhealable wound.

He continues on with life, even as Chrome goes quieter and quieter, preferring to spend time alone than to go out like she used to.

He simply watches as Gokudera falls next, a bullet quickly and efficiently cutting off his misery and guilt that had been more obvious as each day had gone by.

He's told of Yamamoto's jump right after he comes back from a mission, Chrome's eyes watery and so, so sad.

He knows that staying will only continue to hurt.

So he packs up his bags, packs Chrome's bags, and they head off onto the road under the pretense of checking out Vongola's allies. It's like it used to be, so many years ago, just him, Chrome, Ken, and Chikusa.

Many times it feels too quiet.

But they continue on, like they always have, and like they always will.

Until they hear about Hibari Kyoya's death. It's sudden and so brutally unexpected. Realistically, Mukuro knew that, one day, Hibari would die, yet he always assumed it would be either by his hand or by old age.

Never from his own flames eating at his body, tearing away at his sanity and leaving him open to the group of mafioso that had mobbed him.

(Mukuro sends their minds through the closest thing to hell on earth once he finds them. And then he kills them, slowly, painstakingly, and allows himself to mourn.)

So Mukuro and Chrome return, allowing Ken and Chikusa to continue on. They weren't hindered by the responsibility of picking the pieces back up, of fixing the hole that Hibari's death brings.

Because Hibari was the symbol of power that Mukuro could never be. He was always at the forefront of the battles, never hiding behind illusions or trickery to win. Mafia men quaked in their too-expensive boots whenever they heard the tell-tale signs of Hibari's approach.

Now that he's gone, the mafia world is chaos.

And it's during this chaos that Mukuro grows tired, weary. He had missed his and Hibari's fights, missed their spars and the moments after the fights when both of them were too tired to move.

Suddenly he wishes he didn't have to fight at all.

It's funny, really, how different he is from before he met Sawada Tsunayoshi. Before, it was all about destroying the mafia, and fighting whoever gets in his way.

Now it's about keeping the peace, fighting alongside allies that seem to all believe what Sawada did:

That the mafia can change for the better.

Yet he still grows tired of the constant fights, the up-and-comers who seem so hellbent on knocking the Vongola down a peg.

Up-and-comers who are as smart as they are vicious, it seems, when Mukuro gets grazed by a gunshot and he calls upon his flames to punish whoever did it before -

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

His flames are gone, and his last thoughts as his surprise overtakes him and someone stabs him in the throat is that Sawada Tsunayoshi is a liar, and that he hopes Chrome's okay.

Then he blacks out.

The pain recedes slowly, replaced by a pleasant and warm state. Mukuro has been through hell and back, so he knows that this is not what dying feels like, not for someone like him.

So he struggles to break the veil, the barrier that separates him from being able to see and feel where he is.

He wakes to a man with truly impressive eyebags leaning over him, changing his… diaper.

Rokudo Mukuro, bearer of the six paths of reincarnation, glares and kicks him petulantly. He turns to observe his new world, new life, when he lays eyes on the baby next to him, who is staring right back.

…

Chrome is used to sadness. Her first memory of it is when her parents first start fighting, yelling over her as she plays with the few toys around their house.

Sadness permeates their house, leaving Nagi to walk on eggshells in fear of another outburst.

Her second big memory of sadness is more like a collection of moments. It starts with the car crash, then her parents refusal to pay for the surgery, and then the subsequent days in the hospital, simply waiting for death to take her.

And then Mukuro-sama comes along and changes all of that.

Soon after she meets Sawada Tsunayoshi and the endless amount of compassion he seemed to have, seemingly caring for allies and enemies alike.

Mukuro-sama hates him, but Chrome cannot help but be drawn in by his charisma and charm.

She joins and fights with them, no matter how reluctant Mukuro-sama seemed. She grows stronger, better than before. She grows strong enough so that what happened with Julie won't ever happen again.

And then it all comes crashing down.

Tsuna, Gokudera, Yamamoto, even Hibari… All dead, now. Chrome almost couldn't believe it until they arrived back at the Vongola Manor, until they saw the faces of Sasegawa and Lambo and knew.

They stay strong, for a few months. The power vacuum never happens like people thought, and the search for a successor is still going strong.

And then one moment she's fighting a few low-level mafioso when she feels her insides suddenly leave her, creating a gaping chasm. She collapses suddenly, the mafioso stunned for only a second before she is hit point blank by a gunshot.

Death is pleasant, Chrome supposes. She wonders where Mukuro-sama is, and whether or not she will be able to see him again.

It's at that thought that the drowsy and warm feeling leaves and she suddenly opens her eyes to a ceiling with a mobile rotating above her. Chrome is confused and disoriented, and tries to move her body only to look down and see the body of a baby.

She turns suddenly, looking left and right for signs of… something, but then lays eyes on the baby next to her.

"I suppose you two gained the family tradition of insomnia, huh Nagi, Mukuro," the man above them says.

"Mukuro-sama?" she tries to say, but it comes out only as a gurgle. The other baby seems to understand, anyway, and takes her hand in his.

Life is simple in the Shinsou family. Their new parents (what a weird term) seem to always be awake, or at least one loud sound away from consciousness. Quiet and unassuming seem to be their characteristics, preferring to go about their lives in companionable silence.

Chrome warms to them almost immediately. Shinsou Kouhei and Shizuko are kind and careful with them, as though the slightest misstep could lead to their deaths.

Mukuro is not as easily won over, and it takes as long as two years before he comes around.

By that time they have a younger sibling, Hitoshi.

Hitoshi is so small, so beautiful. Chrome wonders if she ever looked like that. Mukuro wonders is he'll be useful.

Their life is easy, simple. The Shinsou family are the classic middle class, office worker and stay-at-home mother family. They pretend to be babies, for the most part. Mukuro doesn't seem to be able to possess people in this world, and the one time they tried to call upon illusions they don't answer.

(Mukuro looks strangely sick after their attempt, so Chrome doesn't push to try again.)

The world they arrived in is strange and fascinating in so many ways. Heroes, villains, quirks… all so interesting and new. Mukuro can hardly wait to get his quirk, and Chrome herself is hoping for something close to her old and familiar illusions.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like Kouhei or Shizuko own any type of illusion quirk, and since they're apparently hereditary, Chrome's not too hopeful.

So, life is simple. Chrome especially enjoys watching the hero news, interested in the ways of this world's strange idea of heroism. When she thinks of a hero she thinks of Tsuna, and then her heart grows somber and she distracts herself with looking after Hitoshi, conversing with Mukuro-sama in secret, or anything that makes her momentarily skip over the fact that all the people she used to know (minus Mukuro-sama) seemed to all be dead or in another universe.

She knows it could be worse. She could be alone, for one. She could have parents like before.

Mukuro seems hellbent on becoming as strong as possible. Chrome occasionally sees him muttering to himself over the pros and cons of becoming a hero or becoming a villain.

And then, one day, their new simple life is interrupted.

It's a quiet day at home, with Kouhei reading a book and sipping tea, Hitoshi gurgling happily as he's fed by Shizuko, who's watching TV. Mukuro and Chrome are also watching the TV, but are entirely bored by it. They're just about to leave when the documentary on jellyfish cuts out to a news broadcast.

" - The Endeavor case, as you all know, has been the center of many discussions as of late. For those of you who don't know, charges of domestic abuse are being investigated due to an incident that happened roughly one week ago. Endeavor's second youngest son, Todoroki Tsunayoshi, had just discovered his quirk, which appears to be a combination of both fire and ice. He encased Endeavor in ice after he had allegedly slapped his wife, Todoroki Rei. The details of the case can be found at… "

And. There's a picture, of the Todoroki family. One tall, red-haired figure. One lithe and frail white-haired figure, holding a baby. Four toddlers standing tall and in a line. But what draws Mukuro and Chrome's eyes are the youngest, the one that they've circled in red.

Because that face is, without a doubt, Sawada Tsunayoshi's.

Mukuro and Chrome stare transfixed at the TV, until they hear a gasp from Shizuko, and then the breaking of glass from Kouhei. Then they look away to check what's wrong, until they see that the room seems to be distorted, the floor wavy and the walls contorting in ways that they know aren't possible.

And then they look down at themselves and see the comforting dark blue flames that encase where they're holding hands.

"Kufufufu, finally."

Part 4

Ryohei's first real, tangible taste of death is halfway through Tsuna's reformation of the Vongola. He'd seen plenty of injuries, and had heard of people's death. Yet that was the first time he himself had come so close to it.

He had been getting complacent, anxious to get back to Namimori for Kyoko's birthday. A bullet had found its way into his body and, were he not a sun, he would have died before he could even set foot on Japanese soil again.

His second taste of death is when he's standing over Lambo, newly turned sixteen, and frantically healing him after some idiot had sent him on a solo mission. He isn't paying attention to his surroundings, and a sniper very nearly puts a bullet through his head. If it hadn't been for Lambo's quick reflexes, Ryohei would've been six feet under decades early.

His third taste is when he jumps in front of a blow that was going to hit Chrome, saving her from certain death and earning immunity from Mukuro for a full month. He remembers slowly and methodically healing his wounds on the battlefield, wondering whether or not that day would be his last.

It didn't seem like a bad way to go out, all things considered.

So when his fourth taste happens, he's prepared. He calls upon his flames quickly and efficiently, sealing up his wounds and becoming momentarily distracted.

It's the one time that he wishes he hadn't been using his sun flames.

The gasps reach his ears first, and then the choked off "Get Ryohei, Reborn, someone - " and the manhandling makes him finally understand.

His breath stops at the sight of Tsuna laying so vulnerable on the ground, Reborn already attending to him. He drops to his knees immediately, and begins to work.

It doesn't help.

When the bullet pierces Hayato's skull, he's the first to respond.

It doesn't help.

When Takeshi jumps, he only finds out about it three days afterwards.

When Kyoya goes up in flames, it's the closest he gets to saving any of them.

It's not enough.

(He is never enough.)

When Chrome and Mukuro fall at the same moment, victims of the newly made flame suppressing bullets, he isn't even close to being able to save either of them.

He crashes. It's just him and Lambo, then. The Vongola Manor is so empty without them. Kyoko moves to Italy, bringing both herself and her husband and her children. He spends weeks in a daze, mimicking the movements of life.

Everything seems so pointless.

Lambo is the one who keeps him up. He begins to run the Vongola, keeping them from falling. He checks on Ryohei and tries to cheer him up, to take him away from burning himself to the ground.

It happens anyway.

A knife pierces his abdomen and he incapacitates the assailant, before reaching for his sun flames. Before he calls them forth, however, a voice in his head wonders what would happen if he just. Didn't.

But then he thinks about Kyoko and her children; about Lambo, and how is he gonna be able to run the Vongola without him? So he takes a breath and reaches within him and -

The flames don't come. The pain by then is unbearable, adrenaline leaving him with only the taste of blood on his lips and the feeling of immense guilt.

He stays in that alley, pretending to himself that he's waiting for someone to find him. Before he knows it, he's closing his eyes, lies swirling through his brain.

(At one point he'll find out that someone had found him, several minutes before his death. But that's not until much, much later.)

He can't tell how long he's out for; anywhere from a few hours to a year. Before he knows it, however, he wakes from the pleasant nap.

He's greeted by a woman grinning ear to ear, making cooing noises at him. Ryohei smiles back reflexively, before sobering and remembering what had happened.

"Who's a good Ryohei? Aw, your frowning face is so cute," the woman says. Ryohei is still confused, and about to ask exactly where he is, before sleepiness suddenly engulfs him and he passes out.

Kirishima Ryohei is a quiet baby, according to the gossip of the neighbors. He is almost never sad or angry, preferring to spend his days smiling at everyone and everything.

(They all avoid the topic of how unnatural it feels.)

Instead of the baby babble that so many were expecting, Ryohei is near silent. The way he eats is impressively neat and tidy.

He always allows them to pinch his cheeks and to play with his small amount of hair.

He does not cry, nor does he get angry.

He simply… is.

(Later, they will be watching TV and some part of them will reminisce over the sunny baby next door, whose smile finally looks whole.

For now, though, they are simply unnerved.)

Kirishima Ryohei is not Sasagawa Ryohei. He is not the older brother to Kyoko, the captain of the boxing team, or the sun guardian of the Vongola Neo-Primo.

He is a baby, has black hair, and a younger brother on the way. He is the first child of the Kirishima family. They say he inherited their smiles. They say that he is perfectly well-behaved, and that they wished their little monsters would be so nice and well-mannered.

His new mother, Akari, is an open and free character, always making faces at him or attempting to play. Her hair is coarse and black, and her eyes have laugh lines etched deeply into them. She reminds him a lot of Kyoko, so he smiles back and tries to pretend.

His new father, Takuma, is quiet and pensive, with a stern face that softens ever so softly whenever he stares at Ryohei or Akari. His raspy voice soothes Ryohei to sleep on nights that he thinks about the forty-three years of his old life. He's easily Ryohei's favorite parent, being too detached from anyone he had known before.

He questions why he was brought to this new world - why the strange and fickle being in the sky would allow him another chance at life.

Ryohei knows that he doesn't deserve it. Why not give it to Tsuna, Hayato, Takeshi, Kyoya, Chrome, or Mukuro? Why would they choose him?

Tsuna would do just fine in this new world. He knows that he would definitely be an awesome hero, the type that everyone admires. A hero with a bleeding heart, who always tries to do the right thing. Someone like All Might.

Hayato, Takeshi, and Chrome would probably want to live normal lives, but would undeniably be amazing at whatever they did. Hayato could be an inventor, Takeshi a sushi chef, and Chrome could travel the world.

Kyoya and Mukuro would definitely become heroes. Kyoya would probably be one of those heroes that teenagers look up to because he's so cool, and Mukuro would be the type that kids pretend to be on the playground. Their action figures would have their signature lines spouted over and over in homes across the world.

(Akari and Takuma are confused when their normally smiling baby is crying for the first time since he was born.)

He wallows for a few years, easily fitting into the role of a happy character. He smiles and giggles and babbles at just the right moments, when it seems right. His first words are "I love you!" at the breakfast table, when Akari is taking a video of him eating with utensils.

But when Akari announces that she's pregnant with another baby, his whole life shifts.

Kirishima Eijiro's birth is a small affair. Akari's contractions hurt, and she is screaming something fierce when he finally enters the world, but the labor itself is short. Ryohei and Takuma arrive just on time to see when Akari first lays eyes on Eijiro.

Takuma carefully sits down in a hospital chair next to her, eyes watering and a very rare smile upon his face.

Ryohei takes one look at the baby and promptly looks away.

(Eijiro grows up for the first few years wondering why his older brother can't stand to look at him, yet will always be the first to help him out.)

(Akari and Takuma don't understand, and try their hardest to mend their relationship.)

(But Ryohei knows that no one in this world will ever understand.)

Ryohei gets declared quirkless a few days after his fourth birthday. He had escaped from the birthday party that his parents had thrown, choosing to instead "explore" outside. Some other kid from the party came with him, and had "accidentally" pushed him down a hill. Luckily, the only thing broken was his foot, but both his parents had freaked out.

So it's after his x-ray that his parents enter the ER nervously. They sit down and tell him in kind voices that he "doesn't get a quirk like all the other kids, but that's okay!"

Ryohei could care less about his quirk. Sure, it might've been cool, but neither of his parents had healing quirks.

So he spends the next few weeks with his parents coddling him. Apparently, Akari had gone off on the mother of the child, talking about how he can't just go pushing people around just because he had a nice quirk.

Him and Eijiro watch cartoons together, comedic renditions of heroes fighting with particular focus on All Might. Overall, it's boring and Ryohei wishes that he could do something else, if only to escape the bright and annoying pictures on the screen.

When the time comes to take off his cast, the hospital staff put on a TV show about a group of kids with mediocre quirks that are trying to become heroes anyway. It's not bad, certainly better than the constant stream of cartoons, so Ryohei is pretty entertained.

But then the episode ends and it's replaced by two newscasters, both outside a quirk study center. One has blonde hair in a ponytail, with blue skin and silver horns. Next to her is a very tall man, with brown hair and a pleasing face. "Hello everybody! I'm Aiko, and this is Daichi, and we're here again with Quirk Corner, where we examine interesting quirks and quirk-related topics for young viewers like you!"

Daichi nods along with Aiko, then smiles kindly. "Today we're at the Musutafu Quirk Research Center, where four kids were recently admitted. Why would that be interesting, you may ask? Well," he tilts his head, waiting for Aiko to finish.

"Here's the thing: all of them have a fire quirk. That in itself isn't too weird, there are millions of people with fire-related quirks, but what's unique about these four is that they're all technically supposed to be quirkless."

"Got the toe joint and everything,"

"Luckily, we got permission to interview them, so we'll be heading in now!"

"For those of you who don't know about this, don't worry, it's pretty recent," the man says as they enter the hospital. "But the strangest thing about this is the fact that they all seemed to have awakened their latent fire quirks - all of which do different things - after hearing news of the Endeavor Case." Aiko nods along as they head down another hallway.

"The names of the kids were only recently released, too, as well as their photos," Aiko says. "And, really, aren't they just adorable?" It's at that moment the screen cuts to profile pictures of the four kids and -

"Okay, that's you done, then! Before you leave, would you like a lollipop?" Ryohei barely registers the doctor's voice, staring at the screen in disbelief.

"Ryohei-kun?" He laughs, disbelieving. The doctor is still trying to get his attention but then stops short when he sees the tears going down his face, marking the second time he'd ever cried in that life. "Are you - "

And then Ryohei feels his flames, back once more. They envelope him, comfort him, tell him that he's not alone, not alone. The doctor gasps somewhere far away.

His tears don't stop falling.

(When Tsuna dies, every guardian feels their lives change irreversibly, horribly. They stay awake at night, tossing and turning and replaying that fight over and over again, as though that could change anything.

(It doesn't.)

When Hayato dies, Takeshi breaks. The months afterwards are filled with a sense of prevailing sadness and the careful watching over everyone else. The last five can't afford to let the others die, not yet.

(Nobody talks about how quiet the halls are.)

When Kyoya dies, Mukuro goes nearly insane with grief. He falls, and Chrome follows soon after.

When Ryohei dies, it's just Lambo left.

It's almost like the last few decades never happened.)

Throughout Lambo Bovino's life he had been called a variety of unflattering things: annoying, too loud, bratty, conceited, unlikeable, useless, so on and so forth.

So it shouldn't be surprising that he would be the one left behind, forced to watch each of his family members die.

(He visits their graves everyday. Lambo just sits, silent. Kyoko has to remind him to leave and, when she becomes too old, it's her children and grandchildren who do it.)

Tsuna's death hurt the most. He was their Sky, the harmony that held them together, as cliche as it sounds.

It was hard to get up and know that Tsuna-nii wouldn't be there to reprimand Lambo into riling Mukuro up too much, or to smile softly at him when he reports back after a mission, or to laugh when he recounts something funny that happened while he was gone.

He trucks on, however, because he knows that Tsuna-nii wouldn't want him to mourn forever; rather, he would want to continue their message. So he works with Takeshi and Hayato, both of whom seem worse for wear and not quite present, and doesn't let the Vongola fall with its leader.

Then Hayato dies, and Lambo cries for a solid twelve hours, not wanting to imagine a world where two of his family members are gone.

(He's so caught up in grief that he doesn't find out about Takeshi until it's far, far too late.)

Lambo vows to be better, afterwards. He watches with careful eyes how Kyoya, Mukuro, Ryohei, and Chrome react. He's careful to try and stay positive, to show them that he still loves them.

He expected Chrome or Ryohei to fall next, both so obviously affected. Ryohei drowns himself in training and betterment, and Chrome is so shaken that Mukuro takes her and the rest of their gang and they travel around, under the mask of checking out allied famiglias.

So when Kyoya dies, consumed by his cloud flames that had been screaming for freedom, Lambo realizes that he had been looking in the wrong places. So he buckles down even harder, careful to send the others out on remarkably easy missions.

When he hears word of a flame-killing bullet, his intel arrives just hours late; Mukuro and Chrome are already dead.

And when Ryohei dies, stabbed in the stomach by a wound that he should have been able to heal easily, it's then that Lambo truly breaks.

He doesn't cry, nor does he get angry, or suddenly go crazy. Years and years go by, yet they're simply a blur, something that feels like a dream.

Lambo keeps the Vongola running. He finds some far and distant relative of the Secondos, with black hair and dark eyes (so unlike Tsuna that he can stand to teach him), and has him inherit the title.

He attends so many funerals. He sees Reborn, Lal, Colonello, and Viper all die. He only hears rumors of Verde's death, and whispers of Skull's demise.

He stands by Kyoko's death bed, surrounded by her children and grandchildren. Her smile looks so much like Ryohei's that Lambo almost looks away.

He can't feel anything, anymore.

So when he wakes on his 70th birthday, light streaming in from the window, and realizes that he's spent more time without Tsuna than with…

He doesn't point out the poison that he knows is in his morning tea. He's too tired to even care.

So instead of heading down to the recruits' center and watching the morning training, he heads back into his bedroom and sits down in a chair next to the window. He stares outside, into the courtyard that still had small marks from the various fights that the Tenth Generation had gotten into.

He sits and waits.

Death, it seems, is alright.

It's nothing special, like unlimited food or immortality. Lambo doesn't get to see his family, but that's not too unusual, so he doesn't wish too much.

(He's lying. He would give anything, anything, to see Tsuna one more time. To have Tsuna hold him and whisper to him that he was proud of him. Proud of what he'd accomplished, bringing the Vongola back from the brink of destruction.)

So when suddenly he goes from the blissful tranquility of death to opening his eyes and coming face-to-face with another person, he's suitably scared and, inexplicably, begins crying.

"Oh no, what did I do?" the boy says, panic filling his face. Wow, those eyebrows sure are something. "Mom, Mom? Lambo won't stop crying!"

Huh, he thinks, as another figure comes into view and scoops him up into their arms. At least I've still got my name.

Iida Akira was born on a dreary May 28th, sky overcast and thunder and lightning on the forefront of everyone's minds. He was born crying, with a head full of curly black locks, and a strange quietness to him. He does not have engines anywhere on his body. His older brother, a near 11-year-old, says this the first time he sees him:

"He looks like a little lamb!"

So Iida Akira becomes Little Lamb, which is quickly shortened to Lambo. His parents find themselves blessed with a quiet baby, one that almost seems averse to crying in the middle of the night or temper tantrums. They find themselves with a baby that is perfectly content to stare outside for hours on end.

His brother finds himself with a baby brother that watches him intently as he reads him bedtime books, or talks to him about his dreams of being a hero and helping people. He finds himself with a brother that is all too smart and patient.

His parents worry about his development. The doctors say that he is an old soul, a blessing to the parents for their hard work.

His brother says that he is simply Lambo.

Lambo does not wish he were dead. He never has, and never will. Tsuna taught him that life was precious, especially his, and that he shouldn't waste it like he did for the first fourteen years of his life.

So Lambo does not waste his time. He takes a deep breath, then another, and plans.

In this life, he will not become a mafia member. The only reason he had for being a mafioso last life was because he was born into it, and then because he was going to reform the mafia with Tsuna-nii.

Also, flames don't exist. At least, not in the sense that Lambo knows them as. Rather, there seems to be a strange mixture of superpowers, called quirks, in this world. Everything from fast growing hair to super strength to the manipulation of time itself.

Though Lambo doesn't have to worry about that, because he's apparently quirkless.

(His parents sat him down when he was three years into this world and just starting to get the hang of using chopsticks again, and told him that the reason he didn't have engines like his big brother Tensei was because he was quirkless.

They expected tears, or disappointment, or anger.

They didn't expect him to blink up at them and shrug, and then calmly ask if they could go to the park later.

Lambo always manages to surprise us, they say later, smiling softly as they watch Tensei read a storybook about All Might to Lambo. )

(Here's a secret:

Lambo still wants to help people. He still wants to be able to enter death and be proud of who he was, of what he accomplished. To know that in his heart Tsuna would definitely cry tears of joy if he found out all the good deeds that Lambo.

He imagines Tsuna and Hayato and Takeshi and Kyoya and Mukuro and Chrome and Ryohei. He imagines them watching over him, and giving him advice over what to do.

(After so many years without them, he sometimes thinks that maybe he's tainting their images by using them like that.)

So Lambo, despite being quirkless, knows that being a hero will be the only thing that he'll ever find true happiness in doing. Anything else would make him feel as though all the seventy years spent in his old life was for naught.

He doesn't tell this to his parents, or his older brother. He knows how they'd react.)

It's a whole six years into this whole "new world" thing and Lambo is pretty sure that this world could use some real good upending of its society.

That is to say, this world is the fucking worst.

First off, Lambo knew that being quirkless wasn't a big deal. Sure, it was kind of like having no flames while being in the mafia, but at least in his old world people rarely ever looked down on people without them.

(Or at least, most had. The others were swiftly taken care of.)

After all, this world had approximately a 20% quirkless population. Surely that was enough for people to at least be cordial to them?

Apparently not. The moment the pompous rich kids at the illustrious Soumei Private School learned that he was quirkless, it was like an immediate wall was put up against the quirked and the quirkless.

Sure, open bullying never happened, but isolation was definitely still a form of torment.

And maybe Lambo shouldn't be too hard on them (he is a 70-year-old in a 6-year-old's body), but shouldn't parents be teaching their kids better manners?

It didn't help that the lessons being taught were yawn-inducing. Is this what it was like in civilian education? It certainly didn't help that Lambo had decades' worth of knowledge, while the children around him had less than ten years worth.

(Lambo suspects that his parents know that he thinks the classes are boring, but they haven't said anything yet. Probably waiting for him to bring it up.)

So when his parents brought up the idea of skipping school to visit a kid two years younger than him in a hospital, Lambo jumped at the chance.

While Lambo wasn't thrilled about having to hang with another kid (this one only four years old), he still figured it was better than being in a classroom with twenty others.

Besides, in his old life he had been pretty good with kids. Of course, this didn't quite transfer to when you were the same age, but maybe the other kid would respect him since he was older?

Anyway, it was better than nothing.

So when they pulled up to the hospital (a fancy private one, with security and everything) Lambo was preparing himself for the worst.

As they finally reached the hospital doors his parents stop and kneel down to talk face to face with Lambo. Their faces are grim and serious, which is so different from normal that Lambo refrains from asking what's wrong.

"Listen, Lambo, the kid you're gonna meet… Well," his mom looks at his dad, face solemn.

"His dad is being suspected of child abuse. You know what abuse is, right kiddo?" Lambo nods, and reassesses his perceptions of how the rest of the day would go.

(This is far better than being stuck with any random rich kid.

After all, Lambo is very familiar with abuse.)

"Well, then you know how bad it is, right?"

"Of course!"

"And we know that he's two years younger than you, but we want you to try and be super nice to him, okay?"

"He's probably really sad. You know how bad it feels to be sad," Lambo nods again.

"Don't worry! With the great Lambo-sama as his friend, there's no way that he'll be sad!"

"That's good, kid, that's… really good." His parents share the look that all parents do when they're both amused and proud of their kid.

"Why don't you go in, then? He knows you're coming,"

"Okay!" His parents stand back up and smile down at him.

"We'll be right out here if you need anything." With that, Lambo opens the door and steps in. He takes a few steps in and goes to close the door when his dad calls from outside,

"Oh, wait, Lambo!"

"Yeah?" he answers, searching the room for the kid. It's empty - the kid's probably in the bathroom. It's then that the sound of a faucet being turned on reaches his ears and he decides to just sit down and wait.

"Your mother and I forgot to tell you his name. It's Todoroki," The bathroom door creaks open, and Lambo turns towards it. "Todoroki - "

"Tsuna-nii?"

(Sometimes, things don't happen like they're supposed to. Sometimes, a wound is too fatal, a bullet too fast, a building too tall, a person too powerful, and intel too late.

Sometimes, the heroes are the ones that lose in the end.

Sometimes, people break, and then the ones left behind must pick up the pieces.

And sometimes, just sometimes, someone says that something's not right.

And then they fix it.)

A/N: There will be a follow-up series posted on my Ao3 account, "Maven_Fair". Uploads to will be few and far between. Since doesn't allow for series, following the uploads on Ao3 will let you interact with me more as well as allow you to be more up-to-date with future installments.

OC Name Meanings:

Nen: deep hope

Sozo: creation, to imagine

Ito: intention, aim, design

Kouhei: Calm peace

Shizuko: Quiet child

Akari: light, brightness

Takuma: open truth

Aiko: love child

Daichi: big, great

Akira: the light coming from the sun, bright, intelligent