Realizing he was stalling, Tsuna hastily typed out the most generic greeting ever.

Hello!

Almost instantly, the other person replied.

Chaos.

Tsuna's finger halted a centimeter above the keyboard. That was a certainly odd way to greet someone. Internet had its fair share of weird people.

How are you? He typed. Three blinking dots at the bottom of the chat pane indicated the other person was writing his own reply.

Very handsome, tall and dark.

Tsuna laughed aloud at the response. Haha. Yeah, right. Though I was asking about how your day was going.

Mmm… my day always goes well.

Very confident answer. I have no doubt. Tsuna wrote back.

Seen, but no reply. The silence was awkward. Since he was wondering about the name, Tsuna decided to ask,

So, Solare-san, where are you from?

Italy.

Wow. That was unexpected, seeing the man was native-level-fluent in Japanese.

Really? But you are really great in Japanese! Are you interested in language?

Mastering the 13th most popular language in the world is necessary when you work in my field. I know more than twenty, actually.

Whoa! That sounds so cool! Tsuna wrote back, excited. While a part of his mind nagged that the man was clearly bluffing, something about the way he phrased his words seemed… solid. I barely pass my English class.

Suddenly he regretted writing that. He had presented himself online as someone highly intellectual, charming and sophisticated. He wasn't that widely known, but if this person was to know he was a kid, now that'd be embarrassing.

I mean I used to. Lol. Those days were painful.

Solare took a little bit of time to respond. However he had switched to English.

Lying is worse than being a loser.

Tsuna scrunched his eyebrows and copied the sentence in Google translate. The translation was terrible as usual – saying a lie was bad to lose – which made no sense.

Not wanting to make a bigger fool of himself, he wrote, Sorry? I didn't catch that.

It just means that you still suck at English classes, kid. Tsuna's heart almost stopped. How did the other person know his age? He could lie, but one had already been caught and he had a nagging feeling Solare would catch his next one as well.

How did you know?

Know what?

Tsuna gritted his teeth in annoyance. You know what I mean.

Nope, I don't.

He was purposefully making this as difficult as possible, wasn't he? With a light blush covering his cheeks, Tsuna wrote, how did you know about my age?

Just guessed. Was it right?

Slamming his fists on the keyboard, Tsuna considered logging out there and then.

Not really. He replied. Was just playing along to see how your psychic abilities would reveal themselves.

Oh? Why was there a delay in response then?

Oh, he was a persistent prick.

Internet lag.

Ah, I see.

Tsuna could totally hear his chuckles in background.

Would you like to hear more 'psychic revelations' then? Solare asked.

Heck, no.

Yeah, sure. He replied, despite internally screaming in the negative.

If you lie, you lose. Solare warned.

Yeah, yeah. Got it.

Number One – There was a dramatic pause. – You are a kid, possibly between the ages fifteen to nineteen.

Number Two – You reside around Kanto region, in outskirts of Tokyo.

Number Three – You seem to be highly protective of your ego, which leads me to the conclusion that you have low self-confidence and –

Tsuna couldn't read the rest of Solare's 'revelations' because he had already disconnected the chat. He threw the laptop away and flopped down like a dead fish, beads of sweat pooling on his forehead. His heart was beating like he'd run a marathon. Pressing his shaking hands to his face, Tsuna took a deep breath.

But he couldn't calm the fuck down. Because fucking hell that person was so right and he had no way of knowing – that person he'd talked to for just a few minutes – and he had used carefully chosen words – he had –!

So, why?

Snarling uncharacteristically, Tsuna threw the alarm clock resting on his bed-side table to the adjacent wall. He regretted that instantly when the expensive timer shattered into bits with a loud sound.

"Fuck."

Tsuna took the battery out of the laptop, cutting the power supply off, and harshly shoved the device inside his wardrobe. He glanced at his phone and found the time to be 5 AM. Sighing, he pulled his comforter over his tired, malnourished body and closed his eyes.

When he opened his eyes, it was already eleven in the morning. His room was still dark and cold, thanks to the heavy, light-absorbing curtains that were installed. Tsuna yawned languidly, and got up.

His head spun at the sudden motion. His belly rumbled, notifying that nothing had entered it since yesterday, and his room stank of body odor. Tsuna could do nothing but sigh again. Everything reminded him about the grim occurrence with the stranger the previous night.

It was… scary yet intriguing at the same time.

Before long, Tsuna had taken a shower and eaten a 'meal' consisting of cold chicken and potato chips and he was back in his bed. Headphones in place, mouse in hand, he opened Cardinal and checked his conversation history.

There it was. Glaring back at him in all glory –

(#44930) Random Conversation: Individual – Solare. (Status: Inactive)

Time: 4:55 AM (GMT +9) Date: XX-XX-20XX

Gulping, Tsuna tapped on the username. He was redirected to that blank profile. Completely encrypted and locked away from the public eye. He closed his eyes and tapped on the first button.

He had sent that man a friend request.

Yes, he was definitely going mad.

Tsuna focused his attention elsewhere. He shuffled through his notifications, noticing them mostly to be game invitations and group chat updates from his friends. He replied to some of the messages. Here he knew people from many regions of Japan. Many were students just like him, others were from different professions.

A sudden message ping! Distracted from his thoughts.

Oh, it was his best friend. Tsuna smiled.

Baseball-freak80 has messaged you. He tapped at the pop-up, expanding it to show the chat bar.

Yo, Tuna27!

Hey! What's up?

I'm pretty cool. Just got back from baseball practice. Remember the match tomorrow?

Oh, yeah! That's right. His friend was a sucker for baseball. His team had been selected for regional tournament, and the first match was going to happen tomorrow. I'm sure your team is going to win.

Haha, we're gonna ace it. I've prepped really hard for this one. I wished you could come over and see!

Me too. Tsuna typed. He really wanted to know who Baseball-freak80 was in real life. He really wanted to hang out with him. But would he meet the latter's expectations was the biggest question. I'll still be cheering for you.

Thanks a lot, man.

No problem.

By the way, how's your day going?

It's going fine. But a really weird thing happened last night.

Really? What happened?

Well… I met this super creepy guy yesterday. Like he was sprouting out things about me, stuff he shouldn't know. I was so scared I closed the chat.

He didn't mention today's development, of course.

God, that sounds bad. Internet is filled with crazy folks nowadays, haha.

I know, right?

What did he say, though?

Tsuna winced. Ah… just random shit. Nothing important. It was just really creepy.

Oh ok. Hey, my old man's calling me for something. I'll talk to you later.

Sure. Bye! And all the best!

Thanks! Bye!

Tsuna leaned back against his pillows and exited the chat window. Oh, it was another notification. When had it come?

His heart skipped a beat when he saw it was from Solare. He had accepted his friend request, and was currently online. Tsuna clicked his profile, but found out that no information was still shown to him, despite his current status as a friend.

Chaos. Having fun looking at my profile?

Tsuna literally shrieked, almost throwing off his laptop in surprise as the message popped up in big, bold fonts, blinking and spinning around the screen like it wanted to induce a seizure and then transformed into a gaudy green chameleon who flicked his tongue at him before disappearing.

He gritted his teeth.

That – that darned troll.

It was a fucking welcome message.

But why, exactly, did he feel so exposed?

A/N: Aaaaand here comes Yamamoto!

Sherlock!Reborn and Potty-mouth!Tsuna for the win. A seventeen year old Tuna-fish can't be an innocent unicorn, right? Reborn was crazy to write. A little angst going on here, which will hopefully cure soon with a touch of espresso ;)

Thank you so much for the support. Please leave a review if you enjoyed this chapter.