Chapter Text
Sky Flames:
The rarest and most powerful of all the Dying Will Flames. Its users are the leaders, the unifiers of the other Elements. Storm, Lightning, Sun, Rain, Cloud and Mist – the Sky envelops them all, accepting each one within its bounds.
Flame Characteristic: Harmony
For as long as he remembered, Iruma had always been able to coax the bright orange flames out to the surface. He could feel them within his him, burning at his core, whenever he didn’t summon them. It wasn’t an ordinary flame, that much he was sure of, but he couldn’t put his finger on what made it so special. All Iruma knew that about the orange flame was that it was part of him, made of his very soul, and it chased away the cold better than any ordinary fire could.
He never showed them to anyone. Whenever Iruma got tempted to speak up and reveal to his parents, hoping that perhaps it’d make them happy enough to let him stay with them instead of sending him to work, some instinctual part of him whispered that it was a bad idea, that he must not show his flames to a single soul. Listening to that intuition of his had kept Iruma alive until this point, so he kept his mouth shut and took great care to never summon his flames in front of another person. Even in the dangerous situations that he inevitably got into because of the jobs his parents made him take, where the flames would be of use, Iruma never summoned them.
Eventually, he learned to do a trick with them that would make everything easier. Once, when his parents used him as bait so they could steal themselves some treasure and left him to be chased and beaten up by the treasure’s owners, something inside of Iruma broke and he retreated to a distant place inside of himself. Emotion gave way to cold rationality and his eyes glowed amber. It was easier to think in that state, easier to listen to that part of him that knew that staying with his parents would only lead him down a road of endless exploitation.
For now, while Iruma was still a child, no matter where he went, he would inevitably be forced back to his parents. Everything he earned would be seized by them too, so tyring to run away and live independently was pointless. The moment he turned a legal adult and they were no longer in charge of his finances however, Iruma could leave and never look back. So he bided his time, going calmly through the motions, eyes always glowing an indifferent amber.
When at fourteen his parents sold him to a demon called Sullivan, with that amber glow still in his eyes, Iruma could no longer be surprised or horrified. Instead, he assessed his situation just as calmly and rationally as he always did anything, ever since that part of him that still cared about the world had broken. Trying to get away from the demon or returning to the human world was immediately ruled out – his birthplace had nothing for him but his parents, so he might as well stay in the Netherworld. Besides, his Intuition told him that Sullivan would not harm him and it was never wrong. If all the demon wanted was a grandson, it would be better to stay here.
The ecstatic Sullivan began spoiling Iruma immediately upon receiving his agreement, seemingly not put off one bit by his indifferent, cold attitude. Sullivan’s cat-like security demon, Opera, watched him from the side, a wary look in their eyes.
It was much nicer in the Sullivan estate than any of his living spaces in the human world ever were. Iruma had a massive bedroom all to himself, a grandfather all too willing to indulge him and all the food he could ever want. He could satisfy his relentless hunger without issue and he no longer had to work. Yet still, Iruma could not break out of that indifferent shell of his, the amber glow in his eyes acting as the armour that hid him from the world he no longer cared for. All this time he had been acting on autopilot, out of an instinct-driven need to survive rather than any zest for life. Iruma didn’t care about living any more, not truly. That orange flame of his had cooled, fuelled only by the need for continued survival. A mere change in circumstances, no matter how drastic, could do little to change that.
Or so he’d thought.
Right up until the moment when he, after thoroughly disrupting the entrance ceremony to Babyls demon school with his chanting of a forbidden spell on his grandfather’s prompting, was challenged by the furious Asmodeus Alice. The moment their eyes met, his intuition screamed that this demon was important somehow, that this duel was not something he could afford to miss.
They fought, Asmodeus charging at him with a furious barrage of magical fire attacks – different in nature, Iruma could immediately tell, from the ones he could summon. This fire burned a similar orange, but it had no life, no force of dying will behind it. Seeing him wield it felt horribly wrong and Iruma found himself expecting sticks of dynamite and crimson red flame instead. He knew Asmodeus from somewhere, that much he was certain of and this situation was dreadfully familiar, but how? Iruma couldn’t have possibly met a demon in the human world before.
Enraged by his failure to land even one hit on Iruma, Asmodeus lost control of his fire, charging out of control towards an innocent bystander. Iruma, acting on instinct, ran forward and caught him in a flare of bright orange, reaching deep inside to the demon’s very soul-
-and a crimson red flame fountained outwards, in direct response.
Iruma gasped as the thin barrier separating old from new broke down and a lifetime’s worth of memories flooded in.
He remembered.
He’d once been a boy called Sawada Tsunayoshi, made the unwilling heir of the strongest mafia family, Vongola. Tsuna, known to all as useless, forced into greatness by his mafia tutor, the cursed Arcobaleno Reborn. Tsuna, the all-encompassing Sky, who saved Gokudera Hayato from his own attack gone wrong during their fight and earned himself a fiercely devoted Storm.
Iruma’s eyes met the startled ones of Asmodeus Alice.
‘I,’ the pink-haired demon breathed, ‘you’re… Tsuna-sama?’
‘Hello, Hayato.’ Iruma greeted.
‘I can’t believe… how?’ Asmodeus said.
In that moment, Iruma knew exactly what he had to do. He wanted to chase away the cold in his chest, join their flames together like they were meant to be. He never wanted to let this precious person go again.
‘You will be mine again, won’t you?’ Iruma asked.
‘Yes,’ Asmodeus promised without a second thought. ‘Always.’
Sky Flames reached out to twine with the other's Storm, locking permanently together in Harmony. Iruma felt the cold vice around his heart ease and for the first time in years, the amber glow in his eyes dimmed.
He smiled. Warm and gentle and oh-so possessively pleased, as once again the Storm knelt before his Sky.
‘Welcome home, my Storm.’