Anaesthesia (KHR)

Chapter 3: Flames and Cubs

Upon opening his eyes, what Tsuna saw could only be summarized to the unspoken horrors of blood and carnage in one splattered mess with mangled bodies littering the wet soil, clearly drowned by filthy blood and indiscernible mushes of pulps and flesh.

It's a bloody carnage.

Looking at such a sudden scene of death, Tsuna felt a sickening twist in his stomach. The gore of the scene immediately raised the piling bile in young Tsuna's small food-storing organ as he retched and gagged at the disturbing familiarity of its scent.

What is this place? Where is this? Tsuna felt defeated upon the realization that nothing within the vicinity is any familiar to him, yet at the same time, it somehow is.

"Ma-Mama!?" Tsuna called out in a desperate call of protection from his loving mother.

Surely... Surely, mama would come to save him no matter how idiotic he acts, right? Mama's usually do that on T.V., so mama would... would save Tsuna... right?

But not a soul had answered his call, flames flaring in panic as he tried steady his dreading heart. Trying to raise his own moral, Tsuna decided to survey the place that he is in.

From where he currently stands, it seemed that he is in a destroyed sort of a garden, with all the trampled flowers and uprooted grass and trees. Moving closer to what seemed like a majestic tree before, now nothing but a dead and scorched trunk, are deep marks of slashes, seemingly made by a... A kni--

"... Katana." Tsuna was shocked with the word that came from his mouth. How did he even know that?! This could be a knife or an axe mark for all he cares but why did it just feel right to say that it was done by a Japanese sword?!

Upon a closer inspection of the mark, Tsuna could see the splashes of blood that somehow made his own essence to flare in fury.

Mine! They hurt what is mine! They're hurt so badly! Bleeding! Bleeding and in pain!

Tsuna's felt angry, unknowingly letting his flames to lash out at the nearby surroundings while being unaware! He just suddenly felt like going on a rampage for hurting what's his! But... why would he even feel like that?

What is even his!? Tsuna became confused of such thought but it felt somewhat appropriate.

Tsuna felt drained as tears bursted out of his caramel orbs, filling it with a cuddly and glistening dew-like look. For the short four years he'd lived, he felt powerless as he curled up beneath the shrivelled tree.

"No... No... Tsuna is fine. Tsuna will be fine." A mantra that he has been telling himself almost every day.

Shutting his eyes close, he became unaware of the footsteps that were headed towards him, but with the abrupt response of the warm feeling within him, he immediately knew that this person is one off his.

"Tsuna!?" The man asked in shock as he scanned the young brunet for any injuries.

Opening his tired eyes, one that shouldn't be present in a child his age, made the tall man wearing a blue undershirt, with a katana slung over his left shoulder, to flinch as he instinctively rolled what seemed to be blue flames, earning a small purr from the playful sky flames that readily latched itself in a playful clash of elements, somehow also checking the man and healing him, the yellow threads of sun left unnoticed by the Tsuna but made the man aware of what the child is doing.

"Tsuna... You need to stop." The man carefully worded as he felt the immediate reeling flames of his dreading sky.

This made the man with the katana to frown. He didn't know... Didn't know that his beloved sky had been far broken at such a young age, as somehow hoped that his younger counterpart could meet Tsuna faster than he had done.

What more, looking at the broken and dead gaze of the child made him all the more scared, and before he even got to reassure the frightened child, he had already vanished in a burst of sky flames.

*****

Dark... It was very dark... There wasn't any other light other than the orange glow in the middle of the darkness. The glow of the familiar orange flame was beckoning, as though asking for his acceptance.

And it floats in the darkness of the void with stillness.

Waiting...

Patiently waiting for the young brunet, who was hovering in the air without even knowing, his mind completely enveloped by the familiar warmth, to hold out his hand and cup the glowing orb at his own pace.

Watching it, Tsuna's previously dim honey eyes suddenly bursted with the colorful palette of the sunset, more often bordering bright and flaming orange.

"Pretty..." Tsuna absentmindedly said in childish curiosity as he edged closer to the glowing orb, now clearly seen as a small, almost luminescent, orange flame.

In turn, as if feeling joyous of the brunet's praise of its fiery beaut, the flame would flicker and dance around like a dancer's fluid satin sash under a rhythmic spell, even going as far as to make vivid shapes of flaming animals within its depths.

Needless to say, it is indeed a mesmerizing show of color, something that the child had thought to have faded away into a boring, dull, and gray one.

"Eh?" Tsuna tilted his head to the side in confusion when he suddey saw the emergence of possibly the most vivid image of a small lion cub, gazing at his own, now blazing, orange eyes with the same degree of curiosity and warmth, as if mirroring his own feelings.

Just what is that? Is that actually fire?

"Natsu?" He subconsciously mumbled out before the young cub purred from sudden recognition.

Recognition? He hadn't met this pretty little flame before though?

Following this, Tsuna decided to reach out to pat the flaming mane of the cub, unafraid and unaware that it could burn him. It was actually more like, he felt light and happy as the cub seemed to eagerly lick his outstretched palm and even rub its face on his soft four-year-old hand.

Somehow, Tsuna just found the situation familiar yet at the same time, he was also sure that this had not happened to him before, similar with how he met with the katana man.

Looking at the cub's longing gaze at him, he absently softened his expression and touched foreheads with the small animal who elicited a mew of helpless worry which he tried to sooth by unknowingly commanding the surrounding flame to envelop both of them within its warmth.

"I don't really know where we met or even how we met. But... I'll meet you soon... Natsu."