Thirteen is too young to gain eight years of memories that might come to pass--especially when you don't even know what to do with yourself in the present. But when the future is that bloody and dark, do you have any choice but to try to change it? He remembers the absolute agony of the doctors trying to save him, which finally sent him into blissful unconsciousness— —except he doesn’t remember any of that. Tsuna’s last memory is of putting his head down on his desk and falling asleep to the sound of the teacher’s droning, thirteen years old and tired of not understanding a word, not of being twenty-two and beloved and dying.

“Would you believe that I’m a saber spirit?” the ghost asked. “Or maybe an ancestor?” “No,” Nie Mingjue said. He did not put down the exorcism talisman. The ghost sighed. “Well, it was worth a shot.” Before Nie Mingjue could do anything more, the ghost rushed at him – taken aback, Nie Mingjue flinched, and when he opened his eyes again the ghost was gone. He still pinned the talisman onto the swaddling wrapped around his baby brother, who was grumbling in sleepy dissatisfaction at having been nearly woken up. He wasn’t taking any chances with his brother’s health.