Your name is ( and is not, was not ) Nami, and you are, for all that you do not mean to, a hurricane of misplaced memories and anomalies.

Two halves, split without consistency and without warning, a tidal crash against reality.

There is the girl, born into and orphaned by the sea's cruelty. Rescued from the massacre by a brave child and a, until then, loyal officer of the law. The rebel-girl-soldier who survives the battle, only to waver on her path. To question an ideal of justice that would leave small children orphaned and alone, to fend for themselves. The now-traitor ex-marine that promises to raise as her own daughters the only two survivors of the carnage.

And yet, there is also the man, the boy, the reluctant leader and the dreadful high schooler and the, above all others, bright encompassing sky. A soul from beyond the clouds, from over and above even the limbo that spans between life and nothingness. Sparkled within a millions of worlds, of opportunities, of dimensions, and then reborn into the wrong body and the wrong reality.

Tsuna remembers when he wakes one day, wide eyes looking at the crumpled sheets in the small fold-out bed, and stares at the room, tiny and cosy and shared with his sister, and smells the fresh air, the familiar tingle of citrus and the leftover scent of the rice and fish they had for dinner yesterday and that the breeze had not carried away yet. Everything looks like it should. Like he's used to. Everything looks right, but, somehow, he can't help the small panicky whine of alarm he lets out as he sits up, disoriented.

He looks down to his hands, small and delicate and tanned by hours spent playing under the sun, and wonders, half-in-disbelief half-convinced, that he is somehow still dreaming.

Nojiko calls him from the kitchen and he hurries out, after automatically shrugging on his sunflower dress and comfortable sandals, not wanting to miss his share to the grabby hands of his sister. Breakfast was the most important meal of the day, Mamma always said that.

Bellemere arrives from her morning workout just as he is finishing his cereal bowl, feet dangling from the chair, and her bright presence brings up his mood in an instant. She is his mother, even if he also half-remembers a sweeter and far more naive one greeting him in the mornings with a cheerful grin. But that Mamma is not here. There's nothing to indicate she even exists outside of his feverish mind.

Bellemere runs a hand through his orange hair and smiles down at him as she tells Nojiko something he's too distracted to listen to. His mother shines like a warrior goddess, reddish hair held up to ease her vision and cut in a rather shocking Mohawk-like style, with the bangs cut close to her forehead. Her tattoos compliment perfectly with the solid angles of her shoulders. He finds, looking at her, that he does not miss Nana all that much.

This mother is strong and brave and amazing, she is raising them all by herself ( once again he appears to have only one parent figure in his life, but he finds he does not mind this as much as he did in the past ), and Nojiko and he are happy and safe here with her. The other dream-fantasy-memory feels more than a life-time away.

In the end, it does not matter much what he remembers, the world is a wide and extraordinary place, and nothing of what he dreams about seems to be useful here.

The East Blue is an odd place, he finds. It is ruled by the World Government, and something called the Tenryuubito ( that he does not yet understand too well ), and falls under the law of the Navy. There are islands everywhere and oceans that cover the whole world. There are bandits and pirates and giants and mermaids ( mermaids! real mermaids! ) out there, just a step away from his home. It is fascinating, and wonderful, and sends a thrill of excitement running through his veins just by thinking about it- this world is exciting and new and he's just itching to explore it all.

He's still just a kid, though, so it'd take some time until he's able to do that.

But that's okay. For now, he likes living here in the tangerine fields, near Cocoyasi Village, with his mother and his sister, and playing and exploring and learning all he can.

He is five when he tells Nojiko to call him Tsuna. By the time he is six Bellemere has also joined the blue-haired girl in this, and has stopped giving him feminine clothing or dresses. Their clothes are usually second-hand, or fashioned out of outfits Bellemere had when she was younger, so it is no hardship for his mother to sew trousers instead of skirts.

When he feels brave enough, he has a talk with his mother about how he feels different. About how he doesn't think he's really a girl. And finds out, elated and surprised, that she had long since decided to trust in his judgement on matters such as these. Her and Nojiko support him without blinking an eye, and it takes all he has not to cry.

Bellemere brags in the Village about her beautiful daughter and her darling son, and the housewives shot her offended looks. No matter, she reminds Tsuna with a wide smile forming around a burning cigarette, the people who matter won't care and those who care don't matter. Gossips and idiots, the lots of them, she assures him and pats him in the head.

Nojiko always helps him climb the tallest trees, and ties his shoes for him when they untie after running all afternoon, and calls him tangerine-head when he begins day-dreaming about all the interesting things the world has to offer- she makes sure to help him with any of the big words he has trouble with when they stop by Genzo's office and he lets them read his newspapers and books. Nojiko is also there with him when the other kids make fun of him, of Bellemere, of their poorness and orphan status, and helps him kick their asses.

He didn't have a sibling before, so he doesn't know much about being a brother, but he is sure that Nojiko is pretty much the best older sister one can have in the whole universe. She's a genius, he decides, and swears to get better at being a little brother for her sake.

He decides to try harder this time. To be better and braver and stronger much earlier than before. This is a second chance and he isn't going to ruin it. He's not going to let his family down. Not even when the sight of his face, big brown eyes and chubby cheeks and pretty orange hair, brings forth an uneasy dissonance, a twist of unreality and queasiness in the bottom of the stomach.

He looks like Kyoko, he thinks, or like a very young and orange-haired Sawada Nana. It is distracting.

He doesn't like this new body of his, it feels wrong, although he doesn't think he can hate it either. It is not very strong right now, but it is light and nimble and has very fast fingers. He'll grow into it, Bellemere assures him.

Still, he makes sure to follow something like a training regimen everyday, even if it has nothing on what he remembers Reborn's and Lal Mirch's hellish training being like.

He is seven when everything changes. The late season of tangerines has been bad and they have even less money than usual, and Tsuna catches Bellemere splitting their food into two portions instead of the customary three- his mother is forgoing her own part and is giving it to them- and it is then when he first starts stealing from the wealthier people and merchants down in the Village. No-one in his family is going to go hungry, not if he can help it.

Nobody notices at first, his hands are fast and his feet are even faster. For once, the memories of that past life help out in some way and prove to not be as useless as he had once thought. The money he steals is cleverly hidden on his person, and the wallets are always returned almost-full. He makes sure to take what won't be missed but by the most paranoid.

Nojiko is the one to find out his secret, then again, she is the one who knows him the best and it's hard to hide anything from her. She's scary smart. Bellemere wastes no time though, noticing the sudden increase in their funds that happens practically overnight.

What happens after is not quite a shouting-match, nothing near to what it could have been given that he is illegally acquiring those funds, but it is close. Nojiko sticks with him and they both yell at Bellemere for lying to them about being on a 'diet', thinking they wouldn't notice. They are not idiots, after all, and it is quite obvious that their mother has lost a few pounds and has begun smoking even more than usual lately to sate the hunger.

In the end Bellemere finds that she can't stop them, her children are just as stubborn as her, and are not willing to let their most important person starve for their sake.

They are a family, and families protect each other.

No matter what. No matter how.

Always.

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