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Nana had rented a car just for the occasion. Tsu-kun was turning seven today and he really wanted to go to La Namimorine because the girls in his class kept talking about how good the cakes were and he just had to try them.
Honestly, she wouldn't have said no even if she could've. She hadn't had French cake since she'd graduated with her Master's from University Paris Cité. She figured it would be good to have some French styled cake, even if it wasn't authentic.
The problem with Tsu-kun's birthday wish was that La Namimorine was located on the other side of the city, but it was easy enough to rent a car for the day, so that's exactly what she did.
She and Tsu-kun spend two hours in the cake shop just eating cake. They'd gotten some baffled looks from the owners, but that didn't bother her or her son any. They'd been perfectly happy in their own little world.
Of course, though, they'd eventually had to go home. There was a park a few minutes walk from the house that they were going to spend the rest of the day at before going home for dinner, so Nana wasn't driving a direct rout to the house.
Half way there, she got a bad feeling.
It started small. Like a sense of foreboding just in the back of her head. Then it got closer, louder, like she was seeing something just in the corner of her eye. Finally, it came to a head three stop-signs from their street.
The four-way was empty, not unusual for this part of town, and so were the sidewalks. She couldn't see a single soul around and it set Nana's teeth on edge.
"Mama?" Tsu-kun asked. He looked pale.
"Yes, Tsu-kun?" She smiled to assure him, to trick them both into thinking nothing was wrong. She knew she failed.
"I don't feel so good." A simple thing that could be brush off as a result of eating seven slices of cake, one for each year he'd lived, but Nana knew that wasn't it because she felt the same.
Her grip on the steering wheel tightened. "Everything's okay, Tsu-kun. We're gonna go home and watch a movie. Would you like that?"
Tsu-kun's head and eyes were flitting around, looking for something he couldn't see. "Okay, mama."
She sighed as she pulled up to the stop. Then, after waiting for the cars that weren't there, she started to pull forward. In the middle of the four-way, her Tsu-kun cried out in pain, gripping his head.
For just a moment, her eyes flicked to the rear-view mirror to check on him. In that moment, she missed the car swerving to meet her's head-on. In the moment after, just before impact, all she could think about was protecting her Tsu-kun.
Then, with a flash of green and ozone, the world went white.
Reborn didn't often come to Japan. And when he did, he chose a new town every time and toured it's hot-spots. This time, he'd ended up in a medium sized city called Namimori.
The place was no tourist destination, that was for sure, but there was something relaxing in the air. It put him on edge.
The layout was one of the more organized he'd seen. The buildings got smaller as they moved away from city center, seven skyscrapers only ten or so stories tall each moved into buildings no more than seven stories, and they just kept getting smaller. The weird thing? The newest buildings were in the center of the city while the oldest ones were at the outskirts.
Obviously, this city was founded as a farming town or something. But still, it was a strange layout.
He'd been mapping the city, as he did whenever a place piqued his interest, wondering the more rural parts, when he'd seen the car.
It was obviously a rental. Shiny and perfect and clearly not a family car. The driver, a woman with long brown hair and eyes the color of a forest floor, seemed tense. Her mouth was moving like she was talking to someone, likely a child in the backseat because there was no one in the front passenger, but that didn't distract her from the road.
Not that it would've mattered. The only other car nearby was turning a corner far enough away that a few quick words wouldn't have been any danger to either driver.
Then, as the woman in the rental car pulled to a stop at the intersection, his well trained and trusted sense of danger spiked enough to nearly make him stumble.
In slow motion, with the morbid fascination of watching a train derail and flip, Reborn watched as the car that had turned into the road sped up to well beyond the speed limit and swerve right into the way of the rental that was now in the middle of the intersection.
The woman driver, he noticed, had glanced into the rear-view and was looking back at the road with just enough time to realize she couldn't react in time.
In her eyes, he saw the determination of a mother protecting her child. Then, just as the bumpers of each car touched, the smell of ozone covered the area and time returned to normal.
Reborn was nowhere near being upset by the prospect of death in any form. He killed for a living, was constantly on the move. He didn't have the time or empathy to get upset about every life that was lost or taken. However, the sudden awakening of what was obviously Lightning Flames had him running to the wreck as soon as the rental had stopped moving.
He didn't bother to spare the attacking car so much as a glance. The hit was lethal. Anyone in that car knew they were going to die if they didn't have a Lightning Barrier, so he was going to leave them to be alone in their final moments. The woman who was driving the rental, however, had a small chance of survival.
There's no way that blast of Lightning wasn't from her.
Ignoring the fire for now, he used his Sun Flames to enhance his arms and hands so he could pull the driver's door on the flipped car open. As soon as he had access, he reached in around the airbag, unbuckled the woman's seatbelt, and dragged her out, not really caring about the glass.
After giving her a once over, Reborn determined that he couldn't save her. It rankled him, but he's never made a habit of saving lives. Besides, it would be kinder to let her die.
Just as he lay her down, he heard her start to murmur something.
"She's awake?" He asked himself, then, "Ma'am? Are you awake?"
She murmured something else. It sounded a lot like a name.
"There's an ambulance on the way, ma'am," there wasn't, "Just hold on a little longer, okay?"
The woman's head rolled to look at the car, her eyes half lidded. "Tsu-kun..." she said, her voice hoarse, "Tsu-kun, it's past your bedtime."
Oh. She's delirious. Hallucinating, probably.
Reborn took off his jacket and put it under her head.
"Tsu-kun... You've played the day away... It'll be night soon." Slowly, she reached toward the car, her eyes unfocused. Whatever she was seeing, it wasn't the remains of a car. "Come to me, Tsu-kun, the light is fading. Don't you see the evening star? I told you about her, remember? She grants wishes..."
Reborn knew that particular tale. It was one parents liked to tell their kids to comfort them. Personally he'd never seen the appeal. Wishes weren't granted by magic. In fact, he strongly believed that if you had to rely on magic to fix your problems, then you should probably reevaluate your value in the world.
The woman's hand lifted as if she was holding something. "Come to Me and rest against my shoulder." She coughed up some blood. "How fast time passes, my love. You're already seven." Her arm dropped to the road again. "... it's getting colder."
She was holding on for a very long time. Reborn didn't like long, drawn-out deaths. A quick death was the only kind of mercy in the world. One he would grant this woman if he didn't know she wasn't done saying her final peace.
"Hurry near," she coughed, "another day is dying. Can't you feel the winter wind is crying?" Slowly, she turned to look up at the sky. It was nearing sunset now. "There's a darkness that comes without a warning... But I will sing you lullabies and wake you in the morning."
Reborn hadn't ever known his mother. She'd died shortly after his fourth birthday and he hadn't cared to remember her. Though, if he absolutely had to wonder about what a mother's comfort would be like, he assumed it would be this. Whatever this was. Because in her delirium, this woman was comforting a child that wasn't even with her.
A child that was probably in the car.
He shifted to stand, "You don't have a lot of time, ma'am. I can't wait much longer to listen to you if you want your kid to have a chance."
Actually, he couldn't quite say what was keeping him there in the first place. Sure, the Lightning Flames and drawn him over, and the morbidity of the wreck had kept him from leaving in the first place, but what was keeping him here? What was making him listen to a dying woman's final words?
The woman, with what was probably all of the rest of her strength, grabbed Reborn's hand just before he could stand and motioned towards the car again. "Look, M'sieur-" She's French? "-where all the children play!"
He couldn't believe he was doing this. "Be at peace," he said gently, properly taking her hand, "Be at peace." This was really a job for someone else.
Not that he'd ever admit that aloud.
"My darling Tsuna?" She asked, lucid enough to worry about her child rather than herself.
What an admirable woman.
"Shall live in my protection."
"Take him now-"
"He will want for nothing."
"Good M'sieur, you came from God in heaven."
He wasn't going to correct a dying woman, but he was far from being a saint. This was a one time deal, and it was only reassurance so that she could die in peace. After all, with how long it'd been, nearly seven minutes now, whoever was still in the car was likely dead.
"Tsuna won't come to any harm as long as I'm alive." It would be a black mark on his reputation, after all.
There were tears in the woman's eyes. "The night grows ever colder."
Reborn settled on his knees beside her and took her other hand in his as well and activated his Flames. They wouldn't heal her, but they would give her the illusion of warmth. "Then I will keep you warm."
"Take my child. I give him to your keeping."
"Rest now, ma'am. You've done everything you can."
"For God's sake," she cried, her tears finally falling, "please stay 'til I am sleeping!" She gasped. "And tell my Tsu-kun I love him and I'll see him when I wake..." There was a smile on her face despite her fear.
Reborn knew the moment her heart and lungs stopped because of his Flames. So, when she breathed her last, he cut off his Flames, lay her hands on her stomach, and stood up.
It was a longshot, but he had just promised to fulfill her dying wish and take care of her son. So, he opened the back door as he had the front driver door and was met with a crackling green Lightning Barrier.
"I'll be damned." Reborn could count on one hand the amount of people he knew who would sacrifice their life to save another. The number of Flame Actives who would do such a thing was even less.
This was another reason why he couldn't stand to be around civilians. They do the most confusing things.
Reborn was only slightly surprised when the Lightning Barrier let him reach through to the child it was protecting. The child it had kept alive and mostly unharmed.
As he unbuckled and pulled the child - Tsuna, the woman had called him - from the car, the Lightning Flames condensed in on themselves, forming a small ring that fell into his open palm.
If the kid was staying with him, he may as well keep the Lightning Ring. It'd be a nice keepsake for when the kid was older.
If he survived that long. The world was cruel, Reborn's world even more so. If he was going to raise a child, he wasn't going to keep him in a bubble all his life. He'd need to learn fast.
With the seven year old laying on his lap, Reborn had Leon turn into a phone and call for emergency services. It wouldn't do to leave this mess here.