Hey mina-san, this is Kumiko. I have made a few changes to this chapter (really minor stuffs, generally wording of phrases). I can't really guarantee the quality of the chapters without this note. But anyways, please enjoy!

—Postmark: April 30th, 2013 (it has been 2 years, wow)

Prologue (The Beginning of the Beginning)

"Nah, do you know, if that blue sky was tainted, would he still be the same sky?"

"If the sky disappeared, where would the six attributes call 'home'?"

"Haha, only when they lose the sky, they will realize what an important part of their lives did they just discard like a piece of trash."

"When the sky was still there, they turned away the trust of the sky, and denued the existence of the sky."

"These people, do they still deserve the protections from the sky?"

"They, do not deserve the sky's protections, nor do they deserve, the sky's trust."

Four years after inheriting the Vongola family, Vongola Decimo faced a sudden attack from an unknown organization. During the battle, he was betrayed by everyone from his family, including his guardians and his teacher. Decimo died after the battle, from massive blood loss resulted from numerous bullet shots directed to his from his own side. His guardians refused to bury him inside the Vongola family graveyard, instead, they sent the body back to his homeland - Japan. Vongola Decimo was nineteen years old.

The pale face, blood, only more blood. That deserted look, blood. Then the shot of a revolver.

"Please..." He begged, but nobody listened, nor did they care. "Please, Gokudera-kun, mina..."

Nobody heard his desperate call. There was only sullen faces whose expressions could not be seen.

"Please..." A small trail of red trickled down from his cheek. But they resumed. Red was spilled once more.

That pale hand, losing its grip at last, collapsed down to the ground that was coloured dark red.

"NO!" Gokudera woke up in cold sweat. Still that dream? He groaned. After one year, I still couldn't get over that day. Laughing at himself drily, Gokudera got up from his bed and started getting dressed. There's still a lot of work to do today, he told himself with a short bitter laugh. Suffer the damn consequence!

He slid out of his room. It was only six in the morning, nobody else was awake. If it was one year earlier, he had one place to go where he can escape this boredom: the office of Vongola Decimo. There, somebody would always welcome him with a cup of hot coffee and a warm 'Good Morning". But today was not one year ago. That room was already sealed, probably filled with dusts. The only key to that place was destroyed eleven months ago by the Arcobaleno.

Shaking his head, Gokudera walked downstairs silently. At this time, only that odd baby would be awake. Only after that incident did he started getting up this early. He thought as he turned the silver handle, shivering at the contact with the extreme coldness.

"Gokudera Hayato, good morning." The usual greetings, but frigid, without the special hospitality of the sky.

"Good morning, Reborn-san." He replied calmly. "Anything important today?"

Dead silence. This was quite unusual. The reply to his question was usually 'No' or 'Maybe', but never silence like this. Eventually, the answer came. But the voice was deep, filled with sadness, atypical of the Arcobaleno.

"Hayato, do you know what day is today?" The unexpected appellation.

"..." He remained silent for a second, "...yes." He whispered

"The plane to Japan is at noon, eleven o'clock, I will inform everybody else." Reborn quickly return to his unwelcoming tone. "There's also a clue in Japan. The family might be there."

"That family?" Gokudera's voice suddenly changed. It became rushy, just like the him five years ago.

"Yes, I think so." Reborn remained unruffled. "The Varia will come later. Pack up, please. I think you know what to bring." He rose his eyebrows.

"Indeed, I think I do." Gokudera said as he exited the room swiftly, as if trying to escape.

When Gokudera's steps were not heard anymore, Reborn took Leon off his hat. Nobody had ever seen him using Leon in the past one year, he bought himself another revolver. Patting Leon slowly, Reborn muttered to himself.

"One year already, my dumb student. That was quickly. How are you doing?"

Then quickly he stopped talking. Laughing at himself sharply, Reborn put Leon back onto his head as quick as possible.

"How stupid of me," He said slowly. "You are already dead, how can you feel anything?"

The airplane arrived half an hour early, but the guardians arrived even earlier. Lambo and Chrome were called to remain at the Vongola Headquarters if anything happened along with Nono. The head of CEDEF Sawada Iemitsu was also called to remain at the Vongola base. Dragging their luggages in silence, the guardians boarded the plane heading towards Tokyo, Japan. There, they would go on a private plane and head towards Namimori. Reborn ordered normal plane tickets for the reason of 'getting back into the normal society quicker after soaking inside that despicable dark world'. After a short pause, Reborn added grimly: "Or do you want him to see you guys soaked with the blood of darkness, of sins?"

Reborn's words were always straight to the point, so the guardians listened and followed. When they arrived at Tokyo half a day later, they immediately boarded a small plane to Namimori and arrived at the town right before dawn.

Their former friends at Namimori were not informed about the incident one year ago, meaning neither Sawada Nana, Kyouko, nor Haru know about what happened. Hence, it would be easy for the guardians to find a place to live without being disturbed. But a secret cannot remain a secret forever, it will be just a matter of time that they would find out.

"Ahwo..." Yamamoto yawned as he jumped off the plane. He said a short thank you to the pilot and dragged down his luggage. "So tired after the ride, nearly twenty hours~" He grinned.

"Nope, baseball idiot." Gokudera said slowly with a wink. "It's only you who's so tired." But then the blaring snores of Sasagawa Ryohei behind him made him blush. "Hey, you, lawn head!" He shouted at Sasagawa, "Freaking wake up! We are here, man!"

"No!" Sasagawa suddenly jumped up from his seat. "No to the extreme! I don't want to see Kyouko like this! I don't wanna go back home!"

All of the guardians' jaw dropped open, "Huh...Our dear guardian of sun is acting like Lambo?" But they all stopped laughing when they heard Ryohei's next deafening shout.

"I don't want to answer Kyouko's questions about the whereabouts of Sawada!" He shouted without thinking as he bent his knees and covered his head with his two hands.

"Ah..." Yamamoto sighed loudly. Winking away that sad look, he waved goodbye at the rest of the guardians. "I have to go see my father now! So, we meet at the Center Hotel at twelve'o clock noon tomorrow, little baby?"

"Yes, Yamamoto, you got it right." Reborn replied.

"Let's meet tomorrow, then. Do not be late." Gokudera announced. "We will be discussing that issue, so..."

"None of us will be late." Hibari finished the sentence for Gokudera as he headed towards the opposite direction of Yamamoto.

"So we still don't know the name nor the exact whereabouts of that family, but we are sure that it's in Japan somewhere?" Rokudo Mukuro concluded the whole meeting in one sentence. "How dare they come to Japan! After..."

"Well, we can't blame them," Gokudera said with a weak smile. "After all, it's us who..."

"Killed Tsuna." Yamamoto finished the sentence in the suddenly grim atmosphere.

"Anyways." Reborn gave a sudden change of subject. "We have some other things to discuss. There's a large family called the Salvo that want to be allies with us. They sent us the invitation two weeks ago, but I forgot about it. I think they are getting quite anxious. The information is in that pile of paper in front of you right now. What do you-!"

Reborn's voice was cut off by a ear-piercing 'BANG' from downstairs. That was where the guards were located. Quickly taking out their guns, the guardians and Reborn headed downstairs. They didn't want to be interrupted by an intruder during such an important meeting.

But when the arrived, their bodies froze on the spot.

How strong is this damn intruder? That sentence was in everyone's mind.

In the fog of dirt in front of them, they saw a figure. His body was covered in black cloak. Even his head was covered with a hood, making it impossible for the guardians to see his face. The way he holds the gun brought a sense of familiarity to the guardians.

Tsuna? Reborn recognised the way the person was holding the gun: it was definitely the 'Reborn' Style. Dino?

When the fog finally dissolved, they saw the tall man. After two seconds of awkward silence, the young man spoke in an emotionless tone, so cold that the guardians and Reborn immediately dismissed 'Tsuna' from the possible identities of the man.

Pointing his gun at the guardians, the young man spat out a sentence, loud and clear.

"Hey, Vongola." He said coldly. "Do you want to be our ally or not, I am getting agitated.