"Rikuo-kun~! I found a letter for you in the family mail!"

A brunet teen with some black underneath the layer of brown hair popped his head out of one of the paper door rooms; he adjusted his glasses and the folds of his yukata as he walked towards a brunette woman, who was smiling softly at him.

The boy, Nura Rikuo, blinked sleepily and curiously at the letter that was outstretched to him.

"Mail? Is it a request for an alliance with another Clan, Kaa-chan?"

The said woman, Nura Wakana, shook her head and smiled softly.

"I'm sure it would look a lot more elegant than this one--but I suppose this note looks a bit fancy..."

Rikuo took the note and inclined his head slightly, yawning softly since it was early in the morning.

His name was definitely on it, and the return address went back to the Sawadas in the small town of Namimori.

Wait....Sawada?

Rikuo widened his eyes in surprise; he looked over at Wakana.

"Kaa-chan....didn't you mention that your distant sister married a man with the last name of Sawada?"

His mother giggled brightly and nodded her head.

"You were only a baby when she visited, so I'm sure you probably don't remember her too much..."

Rikuo frowned faintly, trying to remember at least a little bit; he sighed in defeat when nothing came to him.

"I'll go see what's inside then..."

Rikuo returned to his room and started ripping the envelope open.

He pulled out a folded paper and read the contents carefully.

Greetings Rikuo-san!
I guess you don't know me, but neither do I know you!  Anyways, I'm your distant cousin, Sawada Tsunayoshi.  I heard a bit about you from my mom.  So....you must also wondering why I'm writing to you.  Well...my mom wanted to ask permission if we could come over and visit for a year...?  I'll be also transfering to your school to keep up with my learning--also with a few friends tagging along.  I don't wish to intrude on you and your family, so it's alright to tell me no.  I'm also writing this note because my mom thought it would be nice for me to communicate with you myself rather than have her talk to your mom; she thought it would a....heart-bonding experience?  Haha, even I don't know what I'm saying anymore!  All in all...I'm just asking permission if my family and a few friends can visit you.  I warn you, my friends and family are really crazy.  So please think over my offer with care.  Remember, I won't be upset if you refuse.

Hope to meet you in person,
Tsuna :)

P.S.- Here's my e-mail account so we can 'talk' to each other faster. V V

[email protected]

(O.D.D.- This isn't a real e-mail account, so guys, please don't send anything to it.  (<_<))

Rikuo read the words again for a few moments; he then felt a slight chill in the room as he finished reading it once more.

"Waka...?" (My lord...?)

Rikuo teared his eyes from the letter and looked at a ravenette girl standing a few meters away from him; the brunet blinked in slight surprise before smiling.

"Tsurara...ohaiyo."

The ravenette, with a few streaks of sky-blue in her hair, smiled back; her golden eyes sparkled with joy in seeing him.

"Ohaiyo gozaimasu, Waka!"

She then noticed the letter in the brunet's hand and inclined her head.

"...May I ask what is in your hand, Waka?"

Rikuo blinked in remembrance and glanced down at the letter, smiling brightly.

"Ah, this?  It's a note from a distant relative of mine.  He was asking if it would be alright for his family and a few of his friends to come visit our mansion for about a year or so..."

Rikuo scratched his cheek nervously.

"To be truthful....I really want to meet him.  Meeting more of my family makes me happy, ya' know?"

He laughed nervously, and Tsurara, a young Yuki Onna, smiled warmly at his actions.

"Whatever Waka thinks is right is right.  All of us will accept what you wish to do."

Rikuo looked at Tsurara before looking back at the note.

'....A whole year, huh?'

The brunet smiled brightly at the ravenette.

"I'm gonna think about it a bit mor--oh snap!  I have to get to school!"

Rikuo's chocolate-brown eyes were wide with comical horror as he hurried to get into his school uniform.

Tsurara blushed a bright red and quickly ran out of the room before the brunet could pull off his yukata top.

"S-S-See you a-after school, Waka!"

Rikuo merely waved over his shoulder as he buttoned up his black uniform.

~~

"--and would you believe it!?  A yokai presence is truly within this old shrine!  I've checked around it myself and felt the vibes from it!"

Rikuo sweatdropped as he looked over at a very exuberant ravenet--Kiyotsugu.

It was currently lunch time and Rikuo and his band of friends met up at the rooftop; Kiyotsugu was showing off pictures on his computer with pride.

A blonde, Shima Jirou, looked at the ravenet with sparkling eyes.

"Oooh!  What happened?  Did you get to find anything?"

A ginger, Maki Saori, on the side sighed exasperatedly, waving her hand in the air.

"He probably didn't see anything.  Sure, during our other escapades we saw some things, but Kiyotsugu never gets to see them himself."

The ravenet huffed in annoyance and crossed his arms before smirking.

"The yokai must be trying to make it more of a challenge for me to find them!  Yes, that's it!  They'll help me work my hardest, hahaha!"

Three other girls sat on the side, two ravenettes and a brunette.

One of the ravenettes, Torii Natsumi, curled her lips up into a cat like smile.

"Hm~Kiyotsugu is exuberant as always~"

The brunette, Ienaga Kana, sweated slightly and giggled.

"Ah...Kiyotsugu-kun is always very energetic when it comes to yokai sightings nowadays."

The other ravenette, Keikain Yura, held up at tag and mumbled softly to herself.

"I should probably check it out myself and exorcise any yokai that's there...."

Rikuo looked at his group of unique, human friends with amusement.

He then thought back to his note and the e-mail account written on it.

"--ra!  Oi, Nura!  Are you even listening?"

The brunet jumped and looked up from his bento to see Kiyotsugu looking at him accusingly.

"Nuuuuraaaa!  I thought you were on my side with yokai searching!  You shouldn't be ignoring such a great story!"

Rikuo held his hands up in surrender; one of his hands was holding his chopsticks.  The brunet laughed sheepishly.

"Ehehe, sorry, I got a bit lost in my thoughts."

Kana looked at the brunet with slight worry.

"What's wrong, Rikuo-kun?"

The brunet flushed slightly at the sudden attention he was given by his friends; Jirou scooted over to Rikuo and placed a hand on the megane-boy's forehead.

"Huh, no fever.  What's botherin' ya' man?"

Rikuo sighed as he gently pushed the blonde's hand away.

"Maa....to be truthful, I recently got a letter from a distant family member of mine, a cousin.  I never really met him, yet I want to meet him, his family and his friends.  He's asking if he can stay at my place for about a year or so and go to school with me with a few of his friends.  But on the other hand, he's a complete stranger to me, so I'm kinda unsure about meeting him and all...."

The brunet sighed again before Saori piped up.

"Just give it a try, Nura!  If it doesn't work out, you can just kick him out of your home."

Rikuo gaped slightly at the blunt ginger.

"Maki-chan!  How can you say that!?"

Natsumi grinned.

"Saori-chan's right, Nura-kun!  You should just try and see what he'll be like.  And if you don't like him, you don't like him!  It's as simple as that!"

Rikuo bit his lip before looking at the rest of his friends.

Kiyotsugu was nodding his head along to Natsumi's words before grinning at the next Clan Head of the Nura Clan, which was something the group of people before the brunet didn't know about.

"Indeed, Nura!  Invite your mysterious family member over!  Perhaps he'll have a few ties to unknown yokai!"

Rikuo looked over at Kana, Yura and Jirou.

Jirou shrugged.

"Your choice, man."

Yura inclined her head.

"Perhaps I should perform a protective charm on your cousin--to keep any demons of the dark from touching him."

Kana smiled softly at Rikuo.

"It's really your choice, Rikuo-kun."

The brunet looked at all of his friends before smiling and nodding his head.

"Thanks, guys..." 'I've made my choice...'

~~

Rikuo was on his laptop, laying on his stomach as he typed a message to his mysterious, distant cousin.

Hey, Tsunayoshi-san!
It's me, Rikuo.  I'm writing, or typing, back to say that I accept your offer!  Please just tell me when you're coming so my family and I can prepare the place.  Oh!  And please tell me how many people you're bringing please!

Hope to meet you too!
Rikuo :)

Rikuo then scooted away from his computer, waiting for a response as he pulled some of his homework out of his bag, which was right next to him.

Surprisingly, his computer pinged a few mere seconds after the message was sent; Rikuo opened the response nervously.

Hiya, Rikuo!
Oh gosh!  This is so awesome!  Well, I guess there will be....nine people--ten people if you count me.  I'm sorry if that's a lot of people...

Rikuo hummed thoughtfully.

'The guest room is huge.  I'm sure we can fit everyone!'

Good news!  Our guest room is big enough to fit you guys!  And a little precautionary warning, Tsunayoshi-san.  My family is really, really big and they like to see who the newcomers are...so they might get a little nosy in your privacy.

Rikuo started to drum his fingers on the straw mat underneath him, looking at the screen nervously.

'Oh gosh!  He'll see the little yokai all over the place and freak out!  He'll be scarred for life and never come back!'

Ping!

Sounds good to me!  My friends can be...rowdy...so I hope we won't make you irritated or anything.  We'll come by in about a week I guess.  And call me Tsuna without the honorifics!  I'm family, not some sort of person you need to respect!

Rikuo smiled before typing yet another response.

I would say the same to you too, Tsuna-kun.

Ping!

Haha, I guess so.....welp, until then!  I'm really excited to meet you.  I'll try to keep in touch.  Goodbye for now, Rikuo-kun!

"Are you e-mailing your girlfriend or something?"

Rikuo jumped and looked over his shoulder to see his grandfather, the first Nurarihyon, there, grinning widely at the brunet.

"Ojii-chan!"

Nurariyhon barked with laughter before ruffling the brunet's hair.

"Good boy, Rikuo-kun!  I hope the girl's pretty!"

Rikuo flushed with slight anger and embarrassment.

"Ojii-chan!  It's my cousin!"

"Haha, oh~!  Well, I'll be waiting for the day you start going out with someone to tease you more.  Hahahaha!"

Rikuo threw his pillow at the short, old man; Nurarihyon the First chuckled as he dodged and ran out of the room.

"Ojii-chan!"

<<(In A House In Namimori)>>

A brunet teen with gravity-defying hair sighed softly.

He glanced at his computer before flopping onto his bed.

The brunet was wearing a plain, orange t-shirt and blue jeans.

After a few more moments of silence, he rubbed his brown eyes in discomfort.

"Ugh...maybe I should go and take my contacts out for now."

The brunet walked to the household's bathroom and rummaged through the cabinets to get the things to take out his afore mentioned contacts.

Once he got them out, he looked at the mirror with glowing, orange eyes.

His contacts were never meant to help him see better, but to hide the color of his eyes.

"Shamal-san said it wouldn't be permanent..." He mumbled. "But my Hyper Intuition is telling me otherwise...and it's been a few months since he said that...!"

"You'll just have to deal with it, Dame-Tsuna."

The brunet, Sawada Tsunayoshi, blinked in surprise before looking through the mirror to see a ravenet teenager there.

"....I see you've grown again, Reborn.  This is your second growth spurt this month.   When will you stop again?"

The ravenet, Reborn, leaned against the door frame of the bathroom; the teen tugged at the cuffs of his white, button-up dress-shirt.  Black slacks complimented the contrasting, white top.

"Meh, until I'm 22.  That's when I was cursed."

Tsuna nodded and sighed once more.

"Well, I'll have you know that we'll be visiting some distant relatives.  Kaa-san must've told you about it by now."

"Ah.  And you're bringing your Guardians with you, correct?"

Tsuna laughed sheepishly.

"Someone's gotta keep an eye on them--and not you because you're going to kill them with your sadistic ways."

Reborn merely shrugged at that, tugging a curly sideburn before tipping his black fedora out of his eyes.

"When are we leaving?"

"In one week."

"Plenty of time for me to cram some training before we all go."

".........Reborn.....why....?"

"Because you are my student that I enjoy tor--tutoring."

"....Of course...."

Tsuna was rubbing the bridge of his nose while Reborn smirked with sadistic glee.

'This will be one interesting year...'