Stepping on Fullbring Light, Tsunayoshi rapidly leapt to Masaki's side.
"Aunt Masaki, are you two alright?"
"We're fine. Thank you, little Tsuna." With death no longer hanging over her, Masaki's usual lively energy returned. "It's just that Ichigo got scared badly enough to faint."
Tsuna crouched down and poked Ichigo's soft, springy cheek.
For all Ichigo's good nature, if Tsuna ever did this while he was awake, Ichigo would definitely retaliate with a flying kick, and the two of them would end up wrestling on the spot.
Masaki looked at the enormous bow in Tsuna's hand, clearly wanting to ask something.
At close range, she could finally make out its form clearly. On the red ornamentation around the bow's guard was a strange crest, marked with a large Roman numeral I.
It was obviously a bow—
but no matter how she looked at it, it didn't resemble the bows used by Quincy at all. Quincy spirit bows more or less always carried blue Reishi ornamentation.
But this longbow…
What was with those red flames?
"Tsuna… are you a Quincy?" After hesitating for a while, Masaki finally voiced the question in her heart.
"Oh? You mean this?" Tsuna stopped fooling around and pulled the bow back to his chest. "This is my Fullbring."
What Masaki could not see was that beneath his clothes, the red gemstone on the Sky Ring flashed briefly.
"Fullbring?" Masaki had no idea what kind of power that was. "So the spiritual pressure that's been active around Karakura Town lately was yours… That's a relief."
Masaki completely relaxed and sat down on the ground with a thump.
She and Isshin had noticed long ago that a strange, unfamiliar spiritual pressure had appeared in Karakura Town over the past year. But since that Reiatsu had never done anything bad—on the contrary, it had been eliminating Hollows and protecting Karakura—they had assumed it belonged to a newly assigned Soul Reaper guarding the town.
They had never expected that spiritual pressure to belong to Tsuna.
That was fine, then.
Tsuna had visited the Kurosaki house often enough, and Masaki trusted him.
As for Tsuna's Fullbring, this bow was only one of its forms.
The weapon's name was G's Bow, the weapon of the Vongola Primo's Storm Guardian. Tsuna's Fullbring ability allowed him to recreate the weapons of the Vongola Primo and his Guardians.
Thanks to the six differently colored gemstones set into the unsealed Sky Ring, Tsuna could call out the name of a corresponding weapon and obtain the armament of the matching Guardian.
As for the Vongola crest at the center of the Sky Ring, it could transform into the equipment of the First Vongola Boss.
Fortunately, Tsuna's Fullbring granted him the corresponding experience needed to wield each weapon. Otherwise, no matter how talented he was, there was no way he could have mastered the weapons and equipment of seven different people in just over a year.
Especially the weirder ones.
Yes, he was absolutely talking about Alaudi's handcuffs.
"Aunt Masaki, let me take you and Ichigo home first," Tsuna said as he hoisted Ichigo onto his back. "The rain's getting heavier."
"Alright. Let's head back first."
Masaki struggled to rise and reached out, intending to take Ichigo from him.
But no matter what she did, she just couldn't muster any strength in her arms. Instead, she nearly dropped him.
"I've got him, Aunt Masaki. It's nothing," Tsuna said, taking Ichigo fully onto his back. With his current physical condition, carrying one person was no great difficulty.
"Thank you, little Tsuna."
Wave after wave of emptiness welled up from deep within Masaki's body.
It wasn't just that she could no longer control Reishi—she was starting to lose even her ordinary strength as well. Supported by Tsuna, she made her way step by step back toward the Kurosaki house.
With a click, the front door of the Kurosaki home opened.
Isshin, who had been anxiously waiting at home, rushed toward the entrance. What met his eyes were the three of them, dripping wet all over—Ichigo unconscious on Tsuna's back, and Masaki half leaning against him.
"Masaki?"
Isshin cried out and immediately came over to help, freeing Tsuna of his burden and getting the three of them inside to rest in the living room.
He threw himself into a flurry of activity.
First he dried Ichigo off and changed him into clean clothes. Then he took care of Masaki. And while helping his wife, Isshin's sharp instincts quickly picked up on the weakness in her condition.
Fortunately, his two young daughters were already asleep, and Ichigo was unconscious, so it didn't take him long to settle his family.
Tsuna was much simpler.
Thanks to the raincoat Nana had prepared for him, he was basically fine as soon as he took it off. At that moment, he was helping himself to a bottle of milk from the Kurosaki family fridge.
"Thank you so much, little Tsuna," Isshin said solemnly once he was done, gripping Tsuna's hand. Masaki had already told him what happened, and the thought of how close he had come to losing his wife still filled him with lingering fear.
And because Isshin had lost his Soul Reaper powers, even though he had sensed both the Hollow's Reiatsu and Masaki's, there had been nothing he could do. All he could do was trust that Masaki could easily handle the Hollow.
"It's nothing. We're friends, right?" Tsuna replied with a bright smile.
"Right. Little Tsuna will always be one of the Kurosaki family's closest friends." Isshin rubbed Tsuna's head as he said it.
"Oh, right, Uncle Isshin—could you call my mom for me? I'll be going back a little late."
"Got it."
Even after learning Tsuna was no ordinary child, Isshin didn't pry any further. He simply called Nana and assured her that Tsuna was over at their house playing and that he'd be sent home later.
Once that was done, the Kurosaki couple and Tsuna sat together in the living room, Tsuna sipping at his milk every so often.
"Masaki… why did you suddenly lose your power?" Isshin asked, concern thick in his voice. He had nearly lost her because of it.
"I don't know." Masaki shook her head. "If I'd had even a little strength left, that Hollow would never have been able to show off in front of me."
"It was Auswählen," Tsuna said, setting down his milk. "A power used by the ancestor of the Quincy. He reclaims the power of all Quincy with impure blood."
"How is that possible?" Isshin said, frowning.
"I've never heard of anything like that," Masaki added. "And I'm one of the rare pure-blood Quincy."
"Aunt Masaki, you were injured before, weren't you? Fighting the way you do." Tsuna was referring to her tactic of luring enemies in close. "To Quincy, Hollow power is deadly poison. From the moment you were wounded by a Hollow, Aunt Masaki… you stopped being pure-blood."
"Even if everything you're saying is true, little Tsuna," Isshin said, "how do you know so much?"
This was information that even Masaki, once a pure-blood Quincy herself, didn't know.
"Aren't we friends?" Tsuna pointed toward the raincoat hanging by the door. "Because of Ichigo, I've spent plenty of time wandering around in that thing."
Isshin gave Tsuna a grave look.
Could someone truly be born knowing things they shouldn't?
Still, Isshin did not dwell on that point. Instead, he asked:
"Little Tsuna, go on. Tell us the rest of what you know."
"It's said that all Quincy carry the blood of the Quincy progenitor. The ancestor of the Quincy has the power to share and take back power. He distributes fragments of his power to all Quincy, and he can also seize back the power they possess."
"To put it simply, it's like loan-sharking. He gives you a seed of power, then once that power matures, he takes it back."
"And that process of taking it back is called Auswählen. This time, the Quincy progenitor used Auswählen to reclaim his power from all mixed-blood Quincy. Aunt Masaki, you just happened to fall within that category."
"As for the mixed-blood Quincy affected by Auswählen, the outcome depends on the state of their bodies. Those with stronger constitutions will lose their powers—like you, Aunt Masaki. As for weaker Quincy… some will die outright."
After saying that, Tsuna let out a long breath, picked up his milk again, and started chugging it down.
The information he had brought was simply too shocking.
It took the Kurosakis a long while to recover from it.
"Wait—little Tsuna, did you say mixed-blood Quincy can die from Auswählen?" Masaki leaned forward, bracing both hands on the table as she asked.
"Yes. Barring surprises, after this wave of Auswählen, only pure-blood Quincy should remain."
Except for one particular monster with outrageous potential.
"Isshin, I need to go out," Masaki suddenly said.
"With the condition your body is in right now, what are you going out for?" There was no way Isshin was going to agree so easily.
"Before I met you, I lived with the Ishida family. There are many mixed-blood Quincy there. Maybe I won't be able to help… but at the very least, I want to see my friends off one last time."
Her voice dimmed. She could already imagine what kind of miserable state the Ishida household would be in after this Auswählen.
"I'll go with you—"
"No. The children are still small, and Ichigo needs you too."
Masaki crouched down in front of Tsuna.
"Little Tsuna, could I trouble you one more time? Use that Fullbring of yours and take me there."
Masaki still remembered how Tsuna had leapt all the way to her side using Fullbring Light. It was only because he had been carrying both her and Ichigo on the way home, and his current build wasn't suited to carrying two people while fighting or moving that fast, that he hadn't used it then.
"The Ishida family? There are a lot of Quincy there?" Tsuna asked, though deliberately.
"That's right. You might even get to meet a pure-blood Quincy."
"Then can I ask for one thing?" Tsuna said. "I want to become the student of a pure-blood Quincy."
He had thought it through carefully.
At present, only one of the four categories on his status panel had been unlocked: Fullbring. If he wanted to unlock the others, he needed contact with the corresponding people.
The only person in front of him connected to the Soul Reapers was Uncle Isshin. But Isshin had completely lost his Soul Reaper powers now. He could barely even see souls, let alone guide Tsuna into becoming a Soul Reaper.
By contrast, Ryūken Ishida, hailed as the last pure-blood Quincy, was a very good option. And since Masaki knew Ryūken, asking her to help open that door shouldn't be a problem.
"A Quincy? That's not something just anyone can learn, you know." Masaki smiled faintly. "Still, I can speak to Ryūken for you. Whether he agrees or not, though, isn't something I can promise."
"That's enough," Tsuna said. "Let's go."
He turned and walked toward the entrance, standing on tiptoe to grab the raincoat hanging there.
Seeing that, Isshin hurried into the storage room and took out a raincoat for Masaki as well, helping her put it on in a fluster.
Then Tsuna stepped onto Fullbring Light, carried Masaki onto his back, and under her guidance, leapt off toward the Ishida household.
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