"Awake yet, kiddo?"

When Tsuna first came to, it was to the worst fever imaginable. His head was pounding in incessant interval, the kind of headache that made him able to hear his blood running through the veins in his head.

"Sorry for the rough landing, by the way."

Tsuna moaned in pain, good God it hurts.

"Hey, don't fall asleep just yet, they're healing you. Maybe if you stopped rejecting my powers you'll stop burning up."

The next thing he noticed was how hot everything feels, he's burning up, like the voice in his head had said – though the lack of power on his muscles told him that not only does he had fever, whatever was happening to him was sapping at his power, too.

And how the in seven hell's does he kept hearing Belphegor's voice? Is this some sort of hallucination?

"Uh, you're trying to burn the room or something? Stop, please. Is it my power? It is, isn't it?"

Tsuna would've guessed that Belphegor was trying to not antagonize his flames by the way he flickers out from the back of his mind.

It didn't work.

"Ugh, whatever. Before you wake up there's things you need to know."

Tsuna could hear voices he did not recognize, and memories he'd never made. They're all made abundantly clear images. Flashes of pain shoot through his head every time a scene unfold.

Was this why Belphegor bound him? To bombard his already hurt brain with millennia worth of memories?

"This is important for you to know this. Now demons know of your existence, they will try to kidnap you. I know it was partially my fault since I was the one who summoned you in the first place. There's already a faction trying to enter the school grounds. I've already detected one- Oh, damn. They're old as hell. I don't know what they want with you, but I don't think you want to find out soon."

Tsuna whimpered, what the hell is happening? "Make the pain stop, please..."

Apparently, someone heard his plea and doused him with water. Faintly, he could hear the hiss that came when water instantly evaporate on a swelter, then, the heat slowly recedes before the temperature built up again.

He could hear the Belphegor's curses as their less-than-harmonious powers intermingled in an agitated mess. With the demon's power trying to reside within Tsuna's reserves, and Tsuna's own territorial flames that kept attacking the foreign energy whenever it came in contact with his flames.

It was an endless battle, neither energy willing to settle down for a while to let Tsuna's body to rest.

Is this what people are jealous of him for? Sentient flames trying to attack foreign presence with everything they got?

"I doubt they're gonna envy what's about to come down. Sometimes humans crave attention they didn't deserve. Tell your flames to suck it up, because I'm here to stay."

Was this the reason they had forbid a contract to last outside of Ether? And now that Tsuna was bound to one of the Ether's trouble maker, he doubted anything good will come out of their... contract.

Tsuna ignored the pounding headache and gritted out; "Oh, shut the fuck up, Bel. You're making things worse."

"Already on the nickname base, are we?"

Reborn, who was currently trying to soothe the raging flames, raised his eyebrow as Tsuna kept mumbling curses and killer headache.

"Get me every Rain based user! Every single one of them!"

There was frantic yelling Tsuna didn't bother to process, and flurry of motions before he was doused with water, this time colder.

"Good one. Trying to calm your flames with Rain is like dousing Xanxus with fatherly affection."

Suddenly, the flood of demonic power stopped, prompting Tsuna's flames to stop its attack on the foreign entity.

Tsuna sighed in relief. "Couldn't you've done that... from the very beggining?"

"I have to figure out how extensive your powers are. And I'm going to admit, you have a bottomless reserve."

"Who're you talking to?" The voice that was sure to belong to the Sun Arcobaleno spoke out, reminding Tsuna that he was not alone in the room.

"What are you talking about, Reborn? I was talking to you. I wasn't out the whole time."

Reborn stared at him, looking pointedly at the burn marks around the wall and the ceramic floor. His look clearly screamed 'we need to talk.'

"Okay, everyone. Out. Your job here is done. We'll let him rest for a few days before he's stable enough to take another assignment." They both waited until the last of the healers trotted out hesitantly, looking between the teacher and student as they observed each other.

"Did you really gather every healer possible? Or are you just assuming it will be worse than what it appears to be?" Tsuna started awkwardly, not quite able to look at Reborn right in the eyes.

"It was worse than I thought. Your flames manifested in the physical plane; the heat was enough for Byakuran to roast marshmallow right above you before we kicked him out." Reborn's voice was even. And Tsuna had to stop himself from asking 'who the hell are you and where's the real Reborn?'.

(It was so weird hearing Reborn talk like this, without any hint of smugness or arrogant lilt it often carried over when he's speaking to (entirely Reborn's opinion) lesser mages.)

"Um, well. I didn't know I would be summoned. I didn't even think it was possible. Everyone else kept telling me no demons would even bother? I mean, I don't even know the extent of the requirement."

Reborn sighed quietly, and Tsuna could see him trying to gather whatever thought was going through his head by the way he glanced over Tsuna. Not quite at him, but past him.

"Did you at least find out what the requirement for the ritual?"

Tsuna thought about it for a moment. First, Belphegor had drawn the summoning circle mountains away from his dwelling, he had maintained a summoning circle on the cloud long enough to pull him from earth, then he had knowingly put a restriction to the amount of power Tsuna could use, and how he used it.

But, didn't he mentioned something about goblins?

"It may or may not involve goblins?"

"Tsuna, look at me."

Slowly, Tsuna raised his gaze to meet Reborn's calculative gaze.

"Hibari's previous assignment was to 'slay every single being related to goblins'."

Tsuna hissed sharply at the implication. A whole race had been wiped out just to summon him?

"Damn right, if it had been another race I would've been forced to take a Princeling, or one of the seven Pillars. And that's the kind of attention I don't want. Xanxus has already suspected me of treason, killing the higher ups would've put me directly in the line of fire. I need to make sure I gathered enough sacrifice to summon you."

Tsuna had almost forgotten Belphegor's presence in his mind, if the involuntary flinch his body gave out hearing his voice was any indication, Tsuna hoped Reborn would take it in stride.

"And now I found out a demon had enough balls to summon you. Tell me that isn't a reason for anyone to worry."

Almost as an excuse, Belphegor noncommittally commented; "I need someone to guard me."

"This demon wanted me to guard him." Tsuna tells Reborn, finding it less damaging than dropping a bombshell of information on how he was tricked into being bound. For life.

"Why does it has to be you though?"

Tsuna tried to ignore the pang of sadness that twisted his gut when he heard a genuine concern in Reborn's voice.

As the Magus, it had been made clear to everyone - at the day of the Initiation - that Tsuna was on a whole different level than them. Sure, he's not physically fit like Ryohei and Julie, but he could fire out spells faster than a flick of finger, each with considerable damage to level the school three times over, all without breaking a sweat.

His battle with Enma that day had inspired fear throughout the audience, magic that was borderline dark flew out of the two, blows after blow was traded as their magic flared around them, leaving the battlefield in a ruined state of despair and bloody specks.

They had set the summoning standard a little too high at that time. Making the entire demonic economy crumble, by the imbalance of power.

He could see why Reborn was concerned for him, for a demon to require his service for something as mundane as guarding someone was something so out of his depth that, instead of protecting; Tsuna would've attracted trouble instead.

"The troublemaker was too paranoid... or something along the lines, so with that logic, he needed the strongest magus to be the one protecting him."

Reborn raised his eyebrows in disbelief. Tsuna rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, hoping Reborn didn't pick up on his white lie. "Besides, I can act as a mediator so there's no unnecessary bloodshed."

"You do realize your demon had committed genocide just to summon you."

"Shut up, I don't even want to think about that."

In retrospect, Tsuna should've known that, despite being the Magus – he'd always had the shittiest luck out of all time.

It was in Tsuna's wildest imagination that he'd be bound, in his first summoning, no less. He should've known that there are chances someone are going to be bound for life, Tsuna was just not expecting it to be him. Hopefully, the Belphegor would stop invading his mind with whatever memories the demon deemed important.

(And Belphegor really need to stop his chattering. Why was a demon on his level acted so juvenile?)

The demon had been curious at their progress, which was a little weird for Tsuna's tastes – never had he seen a demon so... interested with puny mortal being, but then again, that was Tsuna's first meeting with a demon – the Belphegor had asked on how they survived the witch-hunting, which Tsuna struggles to recall from his class (no one had told him he had to remember the whole History for a storytelling – to a demon, no less), before he gave up and promises the demon he'd give him the summary after rereading their history book.

Which was why Tsuna, with red-bloodshot eyes, was currently sitting on the corner of their library surrounded by tomes upon tomes of history that predates six thousand years ago. He hadn't moved from his spot for several hours, choosing to just summon his meals to him when his body demanded it.

This research had taken more than it has to from him, it's not even his field of expertise!

Yeah, this demon should've at least contracted Gokudera. Or Irie, for that matter. Both of them were gifted with eidetic memory and would remember every passage from any book.

"You know, you should've at least answer some inquiries they have, before it all escalated to panic."

Tsuna looked up from the yellowing pages towards a pair of intense onyx eyes. "Reborn," He greeted tiredly. "I'm sorry for worrying you, but I need to cross-check some info I gathered from Ether to what we have here." He lied, Tsuna wasn't about to tell Reborn, who was like a surrogate father to him, that he has a demon lounging in his bedroom demanding to be told world history as if it's just a fairy tale and not something that has happened in the past.

"Surely you could've asked for help? Gokudera has burnt the west wing because he cannot concentrate."

Tsuna winced, closing the tome he was currently reading hurriedly tidied the scattered tomes and willed it to replace itself to their respective shelf.

"Okay, okay. I'll make sure he doesn't destroy the school!"

Reborn narrowed his eyes as he watches Tsuna disappear around the corner before taking a yellowed parchment from the fold of his dress shirt.

"He's been tainted. I'm sorry, Reborn. I wish I had known about this."

"Any chance we can reverse this somehow?"

"I'm not sure... I wouldn't take a chance especially if the bond is fragile."

"Shouldn't that'd be better? Break if before any further damage was made?"

...

"I'm sorry... I don't want to risk it."

AN: Yo, dudes and dudettes... long time no see, huh? xd

I had honestly thought that I've uploaded this chapter, so imagine my surprise to see a review asking me why Tsuna the OP Mage was down so easily and I'm like... "didn't I explain it or am I just stupid and missed something...?" Lo and behold, I went to check my doc manager and saw this chapter only had 189 days left... which means it's been sitting for a few months without me knowing if I've updated it or not ._. oops

Just a small update to tell people that I'm not dead yet. yay. see u guys l8r