Chapter 45 – Reunion
Novel Title: 跨越千万星辰 (Across Thousands of Stars)
Author：御小凡 (Yu Xiaofan)
Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)
Protagonists: 泽田纲吉 (Sawada Tsunayoshi -MC), 六道骸 (Rokudo Mukuro -ML)
*Please read at Novels Space.space, the original site of translation. TQ*
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Tsuna felt as if his entire body had stiffened to the point where the slightest movement might result in a ‘crack’ of breaking. He suspected he must be experiencing some kind of illusion. How else could he explain the current situation?
How could he explain that just a second ago, this person was missing from his life for years. And now, he was casually sitting next to him, using Tsuna’s own fork to poke at the cake and eat it?!
But the equally startled Haru Miura sitting across from him proved that this unexpected person wasn’t a figment of Tsuna’s imagination. She stared at the man before her, who possessed a striking appearance that rivalled that of an idol. His subtly different facial features, not entirely like those of an Asian person, seemed sculpted. His deep-set features were complemented by indigo-coloured hair cascading down his shoulders, leaving an unforgettable impression.
For some reason, Haru Miura suddenly felt uncomfortable.
“Oh? It seems I’ve caused you some trouble,” the man spoke in a peculiar way. His tone was casual but controlled to avoid coming across as annoying. It was hard to tell whether the gentleness in his words was genuine.
“Uh… not at all…” Haru Miura’s gaze shifted uncomfortably between Tsuna’s stiff expression and the man. Finally, she looked at Tsuna with a glance that seemed like a plea for help, “Excuse me, but who is this…?”
Mukuro remained silent but smiled, directing his gaze at Tsuna as well.
“He’s…” Tsuna turned his head to look at Mukuro. His eyes betrayed his current state of confusion. His mouth opened and closed as if he couldn’t control his thoughts, “He’s…”
Mukuro burst into laughter. He chuckled as he rested his cheek on his hand, using the other hand to pick up a small piece of cake and extended it toward Tsuna’s mouth, “Ah—”
His already handsome face became even more captivating with that gentle smile. Tsuna found himself dumbfounded, as if trying to decipher a riddle. He absentmindedly responded, “Ah?”
And then a piece of cake was smoothly placed into his mouth.
Haru Miura’s large eyes widened even further, “You two?”
She instinctively covered her mouth, “So that’s why you said you don’t have a girlfriend?”
Tsuna’s thoughts were still reeling from the shock of Mukuro’s sudden appearance. Haru Miura’s words only added to his confusion. How on earth does the fact that we are both here together have anything to do with me not having a girlfriend?
His face flushed a deep red in an instant. Haru Miura clenched her lips and lowered her head. With a sudden movement, she stood up while apologising, “I’m sorry. I’m feeling a bit unwell. I should go.”
“What…what’s the matter?” Tsuna stared at Haru Miura in astonishment as she quickly bowed and grabbed her small handbag, rushing out of the cake shop like a whirlwind. With a face full of question marks, he stood up, feeling bewildered. He stared at the glass door that opened and closed due to her exit. “What’s going on?”
“Um, who knows? I don’t know her,” Mukuro said nonchalantly. As if he couldn’t stand the height of the table any longer, he elegantly crossed his legs and stretched them out.
This action should’ve come across as rude. But when he did it, he seemed like a Persian cat. Despite his manners being somewhat improper, there was an innate elegance and languor about him that was incredibly attractive.
Tsuna had his eyebrows furrowed with worry. He pulled out his phone and dialled Haru Miura’s number. After several unanswered calls, the line was abruptly disconnected. Worried about Haru Miura’s well-being after their earlier encounter, he kept calling while Mukuro by his side had already consumed two pieces of chocolate cake.
Finally, Haru Miura answered after another attempt. Tsuna immediately inquired, “Hello? Haru, where are you?”
“Um, I’m okay… Sorry, I was a bit rude earlier,” her voice sounded a bit soft and nasal. It was a quality that wasn’t usually noticeable.
“Haru?” Tsuna hesitated for a moment, “Are you crying?”
There was silence on the other end of the line. Tsuna didn’t know how to comfort her. Then he heard a deep inhale before she spoke again. Her voice returned to its usual cheerful tone, “No, I’m not. I’m really happy, Tsunayoshi-san. When I met you, I couldn’t believe there could be someone so gentle. I couldn’t help but like you just like that. Actually, it’s a bit thrilling that such an amazing person doesn’t have a partner yet. But, I knew it. There’s no way you wouldn’t.”
“Haru…-“
Haru Miura interrupted him, “-Well, maybe Tsunayoshi-san will have a hard time. But the other person seems quite outstanding. So there shouldn’t be a problem.”
Huh?
As he struggled to find comforting words, Tsuna’s confusion turned into a perplexed smile. Something about this topic seemed off. He involuntarily glanced at Mukuro, who was enjoying the cake, “Um, Haru, did you misunderstand something?”
“Tsunayoshi-san will surely find happiness! Next time, let’s go to the cake shop together!”
“That—”
Beep beep beep beep—
Staring at the disconnected call in shock, Tsuna felt a bit flustered. Mukuro seemed to snap out of his reverie. His hand still supported his chin as he looked up at Tsuna, pointing at the cake with a smile, “Can we get it packed to go?”
***
“I really didn’t expect you to choose this kind of car,” Mukuro said, still smiling as he looked ahead from the passenger seat. Tsuna didn’t respond. At the moment, he had no energy to focus on anything other than driving.
Every time he grips the steering wheel, he feels a suffocating sense of anxiety. The BMW X3 isn’t his own choice. It was picked by Reborn, with the reason being ‘it looks like it can handle collisions well’.
Is he choosing a bumper car or what?!
The saleswoman even said that this car has a higher safety rating. So despite Tsuna’s lack of knowledge about cars, he ended up buying this model – a city SUV – which doesn’t quite match his personality and demeanour. From the outside, SUVs give off a rough and tough vibe, as if saying, ‘I’ll crush you’. But a notable feature of large cars is that they’re not easy to control…
So, when he arrived at the underground parking lot of the apartment complex, Tsuna faced the challenge of fitting his car between two other vehicles. He felt somewhat clueless about how to manoeuvre it. After going back and forth, left and right, for seven or eight attempts, he still couldn’t manage to fit the car into the parking spot.
‘Thunk’
The crisp sound of metal colliding was followed by the unlocking of the passenger door. Mukuro released his seatbelt, got out of the car, and casually picked up the cake box he had left on his lap. He walked around to the other side of the car and lightly tapped on the window with his fingers.
“What’s wrong?” Tsuna rolled down the window, looking puzzled.
Mukuro tilted his head, “Get out.”
Knowing that it might take a long time for him to skillfully park the car, Tsuna refrained from asking ‘Are you capable?’… Instead, he obediently got out of the car. Clutching the cake box that Mukuro handed over, he took a few steps back as if on his own accord. He then witnessed how Mukuro effortlessly parked the car in one smooth motion – clean and neat, without any unnecessary movements.
I’m envious, truly from the heart.
Tsuna, standing there dumbfounded, waited as Mukuro turned off the engine and closed the door. Mukuro then locked the car and handed the key back to him. Tsuna asked, “Do you… know how to drive?”
“I learned in college.”
In the quiet underground parking lot, Mukuro’s voice sounded exceptionally clear and bright. Tsuna held the key in one hand and the cake box in the other, staring blankly for a moment. Then, as if finally waking up from a long dream, he fixed his gaze on Mukuro’s face and asked through gritted teeth, “You need to tell me right now! Where did you go after your junior year?”
“Can we sit down and enjoy the cake while we talk?” Mukuro smiled innocently, spreading his hands. Now taller than Tsuna by quite a bit, his gaze naturally lowered when looking at Tsuna. Just this small gesture softened his expression, imbuing it with an inexplicable tenderness. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
Tsuna found himself unable to speak. In every possible way, he had once again lost control. Even in his current state where he could confidently hold his head high in high-level meetings, facing Mukuro left him feeling powerless.
Although the cake box wasn’t heavy at all, it had been taken away from his hands. Walking behind Mukuro, Tsuna couldn’t help but assess him. He had to admit that this person had an extremely attractive physique.
Broad shoulders, a slender waist, long legs – his entire form was gracefully elongated. Just standing there turned everything around him into a backdrop for this piece of art.
In the car earlier, he hadn’t noticed this. But now Tsuna remembered a faint woody fragrance emanating from him.
—- Somehow, it seemed like he had completely become an adult. He is almost unrecognisable.
As they sat at the table, Tsuna thought rather gloomily that, after all, five years had passed. Mukuro shouldn’t be the awkward teenager who would show a deliberately ‘troubled’ expression whenever he genuinely smiled.
Mukuro adeptly cut slices of cake onto plates and poured juice for both of them. He had the appearance of enjoying a leisurely afternoon tea. “You know, your home decor hasn’t changed much over all these years.”
This casual remark didn’t resonate with Tsuna. He asked rather somberly, “First, let’s talk about how you coincidentally showed up at the cake shop.”
“Ah, that.” Mukuro pointed at Tsuna’s pocket from across the table. “Your phone. It emits radio waves or something like that. Well, I don’t really understand. But by using that along with detailed maps of this area, I can pinpoint your location.”
Sounds quite high-tech. Tsuna’s expression conveyed disbelief. “You didn’t study wireless communication or computer science in college, did you?”
“I asked Chikusa to set it up. Once I arrived in Tokyo, I came over here. But you used to never go out on Sundays. Yet you weren’t home today. So, I got Chikusa to help.”
“You could’ve just called me,” Tsuna sighed.
“Thought I’d give you a surprise.”
With this oddly amusing response, Tsunayoshi lightly tapped the table. “A surprise? Seems like it had more of a shock factor. Alright, let’s talk about what happened after you went abroad for your studies.”
Mukuro didn’t hastily answer Tsuna’s question. He leisurely took a few bites of cake, followed by a sip of juice, before finally speaking in a deliberate manner. “During my junior year, due to mining issues in Brazil, I personally went there. I was too preoccupied with that and didn’t bother with my studies. So I decided to take a leave of absence… I didn’t want to tell you. I just didn’t want to let you know when I wasn’t certain. That would’ve been too lame.”
This person is… Setting aside school matters, disappearing without a word and taking a leave of absence, what’s the difference between that and fooling around?
Tsuna furrowed his eyebrows. “Do you have any sense of propriety? Running off to a place like that without explaining. Do you realise how worried that makes people?”
“I’m really sorry,” Mukuro looked into Tsuna’s eyes. He slowly said, “Really, I’m sorry for making you worry.”
Tsuna wasn’t quite used to the sudden seriousness in his expression. He shifted his gaze slightly to the side. “Alright… What about the company?”
Mukuro leaned back against the chair’s backrest, squinting his eyes as if recalling something. “In the beginning, I would go to the futures market whenever I had free time. Later on, I made some friends there. One of them was being threatened by loan sharks, so I just helped out.”
“Futures market? Loan sharks? You helped him?” In just a few sentences, there was a lot of information. Tsuna decided to unpack each term separately. “How did you end up in the futures market?”
“I’ve been involved in this since high school, you know. High school students need money for various things.” Mukuro didn’t seem to think it was a big deal. He gestured with his fork towards the watch on Tsuna’s left wrist and then explained, “It has a high return and can be done from home, just by using the internet. I thought it was much better than going out to work or something.”
Was it really that simple?… How many people go bankrupt because of futures trading? You, just a high school student, were involved in this?
Not wanting to get entangled in this matter for now while also realising that it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, Tsuna furrowed his eyebrows even more and asked, “What about the loan sharks? Don’t you know how dangerous that is?”
“Well, I think people who act for money are relatively straightforward. At least, they’re loyal to money.”
Hearing him say that, Tsuna, who was also in the business world, couldn’t refute it. Loyalty to money is surprisingly high when it comes to interests.
“However, because of this, I got to know Lancia and his group. So I took over Estraneo.” Mukuro held his forehead with his hand, chuckling while wrinkling his eyebrows. “You have no idea. They were really a headache at the beginning.”
“Wait a minute!” Tsuna stood up. “What’s with Estraneo?! What’s your relationship with Estraneo?”
Why is it this name again?!
Mukuro tilted his head to look at him. “Well, I’m the chairman of its board.”
Mukuro, you’re just a high school graduate.
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*Author’s Note: So, everyone should know where Mukuro’s high school allowance went, right? It’s said that it’s not from protection fees. Hahaha XD. -YXF
☝🏻Fanart of MukuroXTsuna
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