Facing Her Past

[1] Springtime Resolve

"Sincerely, Mutsumi Yozakura"

Chrome almost crumpled the paper she was reading, little ghost stabs throbbing through her eyepatch-covered right eye. She took a deep breath, and let it out. Repeat. Again and again until she felt herself not wanting to just throw the letter straight into the trash bin anymore. Or burn it so that there would be no evidence left.

Its not use. She needs to calm down, or she'd burn her own office whole. She put the letter aside, placing her pen holder above it so it wouldn't fly. She stood up and went to the window, opening it and breathing in the fresh grassy air that zoomed past her. She let her sight wander around the outside of her office, overlooking the beautiful garden - a part of it that was safe from the constant chaos of Mukuro and Kyoya's battles, or from Hayato's carelessly thrown bombs. It was their Boss' favorite place in the garden, hence why this part was off limits to everyone who wasn't going there to just have some peace time.

"We have numerous training rooms if you really have to let off some steam," Tsuna would always say whenever there is a chance this safe haven was destroyed. It would make him angry, no matter the extent of the damage, and nobody wanted their precious Sky mad.

Speaking of their mad boss, Tsuna was adamant that she help him with his office work instead of going on missions, thus why she took on the sorting papers and making sure their Boss is properly taken care of. It made delegating missions to each guardian as her job also, after debriefing Tsuna about it, making his job easier for him.

She let her mind think back to the letter she just finished reading. And felt another wave of prickling on her right eye, as if telling her her past came back to finally haunt her, after 11 years of putting her aside.

She clenched her hands onto fists. Perhaps it was time.

Steeling her resolve, she took one last look at the serene garden, the flowers and the leaves swaying and dancing along with the wind, and closed the large, double window of her office. She took a deep breath before picking up the letter request. Not taking another look into its contents, she put it above the rest of the request letters. She softly padded to her door and walked through the hallways until she came to the second most intricately designed door in the whole fort. (The first was the entrance door.) She knocked, and entered once Tsuna's soft voice of "come in," echoed through the door.

"We have a few mission requests coming in, Bossu," she reported as she placed the stack she brought on the coffee table that was at the center of the room. "I have arranged it according to priority, as usual. Ready to set off when you are, though there is one particular request that is a bit...," she paused, thinking of a right term that would best describe it. "Peculiar, must I dare say. It's not dangerous - not so much, per se - but it is asking for a long term contract."

"Rankng?"

"About D, B-rank at most. We have a few at A."

"Let's get into groove," he dismissed and they went about the papers with their usual fervor.

"Details," Tsuna asked when they got to the Yozakura request, which Chrome purposefully set for last.

"Request from the Yozakura family to guard their family head's life in the next 5years. In leau of them having to train for their next - and possibly biggest - family feud, the siblings will have to leave their house, leaving Mutsumi, the head, and Taiyo Asano, her husband and is still new to the dangers of their world, behind."

"What does their family feud have to do with a miles away training, leaving their most important person vulnerable?" Her boss huffed, complaining. "Seriously, a long term mission. How am I supposed to accept that?" Tsuna groaned.

"It says here that we'll only have to be there in person whenever Taiyo is away on missions."

"So we'll be needing fast transportation for that, huh," he mussed, resting his chin over his palm, with his elbow on his desk. "I haven't heard of this Yozakura family. Who are they? Surely not some kind of endangered prominent family to be bold enough to ask assistance from mafiosi, are they?"

"They are the strongest spy family, freelancers who are often seen working with the government."

Tsuna narrowed his eyes a little, getting her drift. "With, not for?"

"Yes. They don't like affiliating themselves with the government, but still need to make amends and negotiate with them in order to operate freely."

"You know a lot about them, Chrome." It was a statement, not a question. Chrome would've sweat bullets if she hadn't been doing this for years.

"Looked into them while reading their letter," she simply answered, not giving away anything, as it was SOP to check authenticity and such before telling their boss the contents of each letter that comes to the Vongola castle that also serves as their headquarters and offices. Doing so also added another description to her job: information gathering.

"Huh," he unintelligably hummed, his hyper intuition perhaps telling him something. "So someone who can just fly there at the drop of the moment. The others won't be back till a week later. Did the sender leave any contact details? Please ask them to meet us at Namimori."

She summed up the courage she needed to tackle her past once and for all, feeling her right eye pulsing along in agreement with her resolve. "Bossu, may I offer myself up for this mission?" she asked, looking straight into her Sky's caramel eyes, not backing down.

"What got you so hung up on this particular mission, Chrome?" He asked after some silence, probably gouging her reasons by just staring at her, but couldn't. Chrome had been hiding this for far too long she's mastered it to completion, and can probably do this even in her sleep.

She stood up, seeing as her work was just about done. Gathering up what's needed to be distributed, she walked towards the door. She let herself out, but not without answering his querry.

"Time to face the demons of my past."

Its time for Chrome to finally face Nagi was left unsaid.

***

Heya, heya! New story! I've had a Mission: Yozakura Family fever and can't resist making a crossover of it with my all-time favorite, KHR! Imagine my excitement when I searched for a few more info, to see this!

So, if you're getting it, Chrome has something to do with the Yozakura family. I don't wanna spoil, so that's all I'm gonna say. Don't worry, tho! All will be revealed in the next chapter. 😊 Just keep in mind that Chrome is 24, while Mutsumi is 17.
Till then😘