The Sealed Flames

Chapter 1

WARNING(S): Iemitsu!bashing, depressing!thoughts, flame!sealing, parental!reborn, slight nana!bashing

NOTES: "Japanese" - "Italian" - Thinking

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn. Amano Akira does.

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Author's Note: Looking for an enthusiastic beta reader, who wouldn't mind giving me their opinions and conversing with me on how to improve this fic. And someone who's bold as well.

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Clumsy, awkward, no-good, useless, shy, coward.

Those were the words used to describe Sawada Tsunayuuki, the sole daughter of Sawada Iemitsu and Sawada Nana.

She was known as 'Dame-Tsuna' throughout Namimori; everyone having heard of the infamous brunette. Tripping over air, below average marks, stuttering like an idiot (or the lack of speech now), being afraid of a chihuahua; tales about the brunette spread like wildfire.

She was often used as examples - of someone to not become and would frequently be bullied, who never stood up for herself.

Now though, as Reborn observed her from afar, he noticed how she was everything the reports had made her out as but something was clearly amiss.

How could her mother ignore the telltale signs of abuse and chalk it up to her clumsiness? How could people only avert their eyes, not bothering to help the brunette who was being bullied in front of them?

How could anyone miss the signs of anxiety and depression?

Aversion to interaction, always listless, trouble concentrating, looking nervous, restless or tense, appetite loss, seemingly suffocating under social problems. These were all signs - important signs - that no one noticed or were ignored deliberately.

(He didn't which one was better)

I would need to get a doctor to do a proper mental health evaluation, Reborn mused with a dark look on his face.

He may know a lot of things but even he wouldn't be able to figure out all the problems. He was a tutor - a hitman for God's sake, not a doctor!

He glared at the files in his tiny hands before ripping them apart ferociously. They weren't incorrect but were missing so much important information that it was ridiculous.

He admits when he first read the file and saw Tsunayuuki, the first word that popped up in Reborn's head was pathetic. But when he noticed how the teen lived, he suddenly understood why. The child had just given up and now it was left up to him to fix her up.

(He wasn't even sure if he could fix some things.)

A 14 year old child shouldn't have to worry about being in the presence of others. They shouldn't have to look at the one approaching them with a look of pure adulterated horror, as though she would be killed (Though considering the situation, Reborn wouldn't be surprised to find some... nasty things. The line had long since been crossed). They shouldn't look so resigned to the fact that nobody would help.

And they definitely shouldn't have a defeated look in their eyes that looked oh-so-close to empty.

Reborn sighed for another time as he observed of how his student was the subject to the class' ire and scrunity.

It was time to introduce himself.

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Tsunayuuki felt.... blank. She has been for the past 5 years, when she finally realized that she could never escape the vicious cycle of bullying - of letting people down and that any attempts made otherwise were fruitless.