Chapter Text
The last thing Takemichi remembers are the words “Please save me… Takemitchy…” ringing in his ears and the sensation of falling before a familiar crackle of electricity sounded.
The first thing he sees when his eyes reopen is the faded poster of a rock star band hanging on his wall. The band’s lead singer had a styled blond hair that Takemichi remembered trying to replicate back when he was 14. A loud alarm was going off right next to his head, and it was ringing to the tune of one of the songs the band played.
A tune that had been practically ingrained into Takemichi’s head, after it played every single day to wake him up when he was 14. Takemichi froze in his bed. It was the alarm that he used when he was 14.
With this thought, the time traveller leapt out of bed and hurriedly stumbled over to the calendar hanging on his door. Red X’s crossed off the boxes of days passed, and they ended right before the fourth of July. In 2005.
Takemichi knew for a fact that the last time he checked the date, the year had been 2017. “What the hell! Did I time leap again?” he whispered to himself. Takemichi checked the calendar again, and yep, it was definitely 2005.
A clammy hand ran through his bleached locks as he paced around his room. “If it’s 2005... Then I must have gotten one more chance to do things right. But I shook hands with Mikey this time instead of Naoto, so maybe it's the will to change the past that’s needed?” Takemichi wondered.
He flopped onto his bed. It would be really nice if the Naoto of this time period could remember what happened, but he doubted that was a possibility. Or if Chifuyu remembered too, but right now Baji hasn’t died yet so Chifuyu didn’t suffer through that. Honestly it was better that he didn’t remember. Even so, it would have been nice to have his partner back.
Takemichi sighed and rolled onto his back. A mental timeline of all of the events that would happen began to form in his head. He raised his right hand and closed it into a fist in the air above him.
This time, he will save everyone. Hina, Akkun, Pah-Chin, Baji, Emma, Mikey, he would definitely save all of them. Nothing else mattered except for that.
Takemichi examined the thin muscles in his arms and the various scars (bullet wounds, stab wounds, all stained in red) that remained on his body. If he really wanted to make a difference this time, he should probably start off by getting better at fighting. Maybe he could enroll in the dojo that Mikey’s grandfather taught.
And learn how to treat wounds too. Thankfully he already knew some basic care techniques after Toman forced him to learn them because he started getting beat up practically every other day, but it wasn’t enough. Takemichi winced as he thought about the frankly concerning number of times his friends got severely injured and were on the brink of death (or died). Yeah. That sounded like a good idea.
A gurgling sound came from Takemichi’s stomach, breaking through his thoughts. He’lll get started on that plan as soon as he can, but maybe some breakfast first.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Atsushi stared in shock at the fight happening in front of him. Kiyomasa was beating up Takemichi, and Michi’s face was quickly sporting new shades of red with every hit. The last month of learning fighting at the Sano dojo did miracles for Takemichi’s fighting ability, but it wasn’t enough to go against Kiyomasa.
The red haired teen gritted his teeth and reached into his pocket. His hand brushed against the cool pocket knife he kept with him in case something like this happened. Atsushi gripped the knife tightly, and began moving down the concrete stairs towards Takemichi and Kiyomasa. Right then though, Takemichi stared straight at him.
Don’t do it Akkun, his eyes seemed to plead. The look halted him momentarily, before he began moving down the steps again. How could he stop? Takemichi was getting beat up for his sake, and he couldn’t not do anything about it.
Atushi had just reached the final step and was about to sprint over when an “Oi Kiyomasa '' spread throughout the entire gathering. Immediately, all of the Toman members quieted down and looked over towards the origin of the sound. As soon as they recognized the speaker, every member bowed their head down to a perfect 90 degree angle.
Sendo glanced over too, and saw a tall person who had a dragon tattoo engraved on the side of his head, with a center line of hair running down into a braided ponytail. At his side strolled a shorter individual with pale yellow hair pulled back into a half ponytail.
Kiyomasa ran up to the shorter person and tried to gain his favor. He called the other “Mikey”, and Sendo shivered as he recognized the name from hushed whispering in the back of alleyways and sobbing injured fighters.
“Mikey” ignored Kiyomasa and continued walking past him while the taller blond, named “Draken” apparently, chastised Kiyomasa for his disrespect. He strolled up to Takemichi and asked for his name. After Takemichi responded surprisingly without wavering his voice, Mikey looked interested.
“I see. Are you really a middle schooler?” Mikey mused. He looked over Takemichi’s beat up state again and smiled suddenly. “Takemitchy, starting today, you’re my friend all right?”
Sendo and his Mizo Middle friends gaped in response, alongside the other members at the fighting ring. Takemichi appeared almost reminiscent though, and only responded with a confident “okay”.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Atsushi hissed as the alcohol wipe Takemichi was wiping on his cheek left a sharp pain. “Takemichi, can’t you be a little more gentle,” he grumbled as the other teen continued pressing down on his face a little too harshly.
“Ah! Sorry, sorry Akkun! I’ll try,” Takemichi replied sheepishly. It was really kind of him to treat the injuries Atsushi received from his previous fight under Kiyomasa’s command, but Atsushi couldn’t help but feel like he should be the one treating Takemichi instead. The blond boy had bruises sported across his entire body, and his right eye was swelling up pretty badly.
At first Atsushi tried to get Takemichi to receive aid before him, but he quickly turned down the idea and forced Atsushi into a chair before running to get the first aid kit. Eventually Atushi managed to convince Takemichi to get an ice pack for his face at least, but not before Atsushi's worst cuts were all disinfected and bandaged up.
The red haired teen winced as Takemicchi brushed over another particularly painful bruise. In response to his flinch, Taemichi whispered some soft apologies and made sure to handle that area more carefully. His fingers were feather light as he continued to wipe off some blood, and so soft.
Atsushi was really glad that Takemichi started taking some wound care classes, especially now that the Mizo Middle group was more involved with a gang, but he also hated it a little as his face burned at Takemichi’s proximity and touches.
His breath stuttered when Takemichi suddenly scooted closer to see a big bruise on his collarbone. “Are you okay?” the blond teen glanced up and asked.
“Y-yeah, I’m fine! Perfectly fine,” Atsushi stammered. Takemichi gave him a strange look before returning to his previous actions. Atsushi felt his face heat up again, and looked away as he tried to hide his blushing expression.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hina felt that Takemichi was different, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on exactly what was different. The way he talked and acted seemed more mature, but he still had that bright shine of light that seemed to radiate from him whenever he smiled. Him suddenly starting to take fighting and wound care classes was also strange, but they weren’t unordinary enough to raise serious concerns.
Sometimes, Michi’s eyes would darken and he seemed far away, like he was in a place neither Hina or his friends could reach. At those moments, Hinata would be scared. Whether it was because of the uncanny feeling that she would never be able to reach him again, or simply because it seemed so out of place on his usual happy demeanor, she did not know.
Overall though, he seemed happier. Brighter. Older than his age, but grateful that he was here. Takemichi had also become more clingy to his friends, like he was afraid they would suddenly disappear, but his company was always welcomed.
Hina hoped that he knew that they would never leave him, and if not then she would drive it into him no matter what it took.
Suddenly, the strawberry haired girl felt a pair of hands grab her shoulders and steer her out of the way of an open wooden door she was just about to run into. The sudden movement shook her out of her stupor, and Hina blinked multiple times before centering back on the world again.
“Hinata! Are you okay? I tried to call your name multiple times but you weren’t responding- and then I didn’t know what to do with the door- and I’m really sorry that I just grabbed you like that!” Takemichi blubbered in front of her.
“Don’t worry about it! Honestly I should be thanking you for stopping me from running into the door,” Hinata smiled. “I should also thank you for backing me up earlier with those gangsters. I really wasn’t positive that I could fight them, even though I had slapped the shorter one. So, thank you Takemichi!”
“Ah it was nothing! No need to thank me! I’m sure Mikey and Draken-kun wouldn’t have done anything too bad either…” the blond boy rubbed the back of his head, and shuffled his feet as his ears began to turn red.
How cute, Hina thought. She began walking down the school hallway again and Takemichi quickly fell into step beside her. “Of course I should have thanked you! You were really admirable, and I hope that I can be like you,” the young girl voiced.
”Hey Michi… you know that you can rely on me too, right? I know that I might seem weak to others because I’m a girl, but I can pack a mean punch, and I’ll definitely pull you out of a tight spot whenever you need it. You’re not alone,” Hina declared softly.
Takemichi gazed at her in wonder, and his blue eyes shined. Some tears quickly began to pour down his cheeks, and he rushed to wipe them away. “Thank you HIna, I’ll make sure to remember that,” he sniffed.
Standing there by a window, with sunlight pouring in and bathing his hair into a golden halo, Hina couldn’t help but think she found someone incredible. She hummed in appreciation, and lightly grabbed onto Takemichi’s hand. Pulling him along, Hina ran back to their classroom.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No one knew when Takemichi joined the Tokyo Manji Gang. Truthfully, no one was really sure if he was an official gang member either.
All the regular members knew was that he popped up one day, and that he was here to stay. Mikey seemed to be overprotective of him for half of the time, and then hard core bullied him for the other half. The relationship between the two was strange, to say the least.
It seemed like Takemichi was forced to be with Mikey almost all of the time, but he was also the only person that Mikey would listen to who wasn’t a captain or vice captain, and could tell Mikey no. As a matter of fact, Takemichi seemed almost fond of Mikey, which was insane because it was, well, Mikey.
The cry baby was always there to patch up the Roman leader if he got injured, and didn’t complain when Mikey latched onto his arm almost all of the time. If anything, he was soft for Mikey, the fighter who could kick someone unconscious in one second.
A meeting for all of Toman was just coming to an end when Mikey ran up to Takemichi again, and a grumbling Draken followed behind.
“Takemitchy~” Sang Mikey. “You’ll buy me some taiyaki, won’t you?”
“Mikey… My wallet can’t handle your taiyaki addiction,” Takemichi grumbled.
“Pleaseee? I promise the next time I want one I’ll ask Draken for money instead,” chirped the leader. Draken was quick to protest his statement, but Mikey just turned away from him every time the tattooed blond tried to get a word in.
“Fine. I don’t really see how this is a bonus for me though, and Draken-kun’s wallet is also suffering,” sighed Takemichi. The teen started walking down the stone steps of the temple, and Mikey smiled widely as he walked next to him.
The remaining Toman members sweat dropped and edged away from the trio. They had no idea how Takemichi put up with Mikey, and truthfully, they were okay with not knowing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Heavy rain poured from the sky, and covered the ground in a flowing film of water. The clouds were dark and the falling droplets of water were so abundant that it was incredibly difficult to see anything.
Red liquid dripped down in tandem with the rain drops, and they mixed together on the hard floor of the parking lot.
Draken stared in shock at Takemichi as the time traveller cradled his nearly broken arm. Blood soaked the sleeve of his shirt, and the tattooed teen couldn’t imagine how bad his arm must look under the clothing.
In the middle of the thunder storm, Draken hadn’t been able to see the baseball bat swinging towards him early enough to dodge it, so he fully expected to be knocked out by the weapon.
What he hadn’t expected was for Takemichi to suddenly jump out of nowhere and take the hit for him.
“Oh? And what do we have here?” Kiyomasa sneered when he noticed his bat hadn’t hit its intended target.
When he recognized that it was Takemichi, he barked out a laugh and crowded over the injured blond. “It looks like a little mouse has scurried back. What are you doing here, hah? Do you honestly think you could protect Draken? All you’re going to get is another beating,” Kiyomasa snarled.
Takemichi said nothing in return, only glaring at him from under the edges of his hair.
“Takemichi! You need to get out of here! This isn’t a fight that you can win, especially with your arm like that! I can handle them by myself,” Draken yelled.
“I have to fight Draken-kun! I can’t let you get injured again,” Takemichi shouted back without turning. Before Draken could wonder about what he meant by again, a familiar lilac hair showed up in the corner of his vision.
“Hey now, having ten people fight against two isn’t really fair now, is it?” chided Mitsuya. The newcomer frowned at Peh-yan and Kiyomasa, and shook his head in disapproval. “I thought you guys were smarter than this. And Peh-yan, you need to talk to Mikey. Toman never turned against Pah-chan, and we never will.”
Mitsuya then proceeded to face Takemichi and Draken. “I already notified Mikey of the situation, so he should be here soon too, and he’ll definitely bring back up,” he said. At the news, Kiyomasa grinned.
“Well, that just seems too bad for us. I guess we’ll have to beat you up before Mikey brings in reinforcements,” the traitor smirked. Behind him, large numbers of Moebius gang members trickled in from the edges of the parking lot.
Draken cracked his knuckles as he prepared to fight. Moebius charged at him, and he got busy fighting off the members. At some point, the teen lost sight of Takemichi and Mitsuya, but he trusted them to take care of themselves.
Takemichi seemed to be trying to stick close by to Draken, and Draken couldn’t help but be a little annoyed by that. What was he trying to do, protecting him, when he was the one who was much more injured? Takemichi should be worrying about himself before anyone else, and yet there he was, always hovering nearby.
At some point, Takemichi’s friends, the Mizo Middle or something like that, showed up. They yelled at Takemichi to tell them where he was after messaging them about getting into a possibly fatal fight in the most vague way possible.
The scolded teen blubbered his apologies, and promised to be more specific next time.
“Oi, you guys should start fighting or leave if you’re only going to talk,” shouted Draken in irritation. At his words, the group quickly joined in on fighting. Their punches and kicks could use a lot of work, but Draken still appreciated their presence nonetheless. Not that he would ever admit that.
Another punch landed on a Moebius member, and an extra well placed kick took the other down. Draken hated it, but he was starting to tire. For every person he brought down, another five popped right back up to take their place. It seemed like the inflow of enemies would never end. Toman’s vice commander ground his teeth, and hoped that Mikey would show up soon.
After some time, Moebius began to succeed in pushing back Toman. Draken, Mistuya, Takemichi, and Takemichi’s friends already took down an impressive chunk of Moebius, but its large numbers were too much.
Draken was considering temporarily retreating if it meant they could stay alive, when he heard a deep rumble of a motorcycle engine arriving. Always in the nick of time huh, Draken thought.
The rumble of the engine moved towards the edge of the parking lot, and purred as its owner stopped to view the fight that was going on. Mikey shut off the engine, and got off of his bike. Dozens of other engines followed quickly behind as Toman members arrived.
Once he finished gazing over the battle, Mikey called out “Toman!” and a sea of black coats flowed into the parking lot. Tokyo Manji’s commander quickly joined the battle and fought his way to where Peh-yan was. He seemed to be shouting at Peh-yan about something, or more like beating it into him.
Draken couldn’t stop a relieved smile from forming on his face, and relaxed for a moment. Unfortunately, that one moment cost him as a fist slammed against his head. Dazed, Draken crumpled onto his knees and three Moebius members took the opportunity to run behind him to grab onto his arms, preventing him from moving.
He pulled against his restraints, but with the fighting and injuries, Draken couldn’t break Moebius’s hold on him. Kiyomasa came out of the mass of fighters and moved towards Draken. In his hand, he flicked open a knife and pointed it towards the captured fighter.
“Well isn’t this perfect! Seeing you here on your knees and powerless, I couldn’t ask for anything else!” Kiyomasa crowed.
“What the fuck Kiyomasa! Why are you doing this? Are you really that upset that we broke up your little fighting competitions?” thundered Draken.
“I couldn’t care less about that. No, I’m actually really sick and tired of the way you think you’re so much better than me. You always look down at me with that judgement in your eyes, and then embarrass me in front of everyone too. If you’re dead though… you’ll never look at me that way again,” sneered Kiyomasa.
He inched closer towards Draken and waved his knife threateningly in front of him before saying, “Now you’re the one kneeling in front of me, and I’m the one holding the power. Better say your prayers, I’ll make sure to make your death nice and painless”.
Kiyomasa lunged at Draken, and his knife grazed Draken’s skin before a force barreled into him and forced his knife out of his hand. The knife landed by Draken’s feet, and he kicked it away before Kiyomasa could get his hands on it again.
Draken felt his breath leave his body when he saw that Takemichi was the one who saved him. Takemichi shakily stood back up and he was still cradling his maimed arm close to his chest. Draken swore internally and increased the force at which he was trying to get out of the hold of the Moebius members.
Kiyomasa quickly recovered from his shock at being knocked over, and then rushed forward at Takemichi. He swung his fist back and nailed Takemichi in the stomach, which caused the hit boy to stumble back and keel inward. Kiyomasa then continued to punch Takemichi in the face, chest, arms, over and over again.
Takemichi barely had time to recover from one punch before the next one struck him. Draken cursed his own weakness. If there was anyone who didn’t deserve to be caught up in Toman’s mess, it was Takemichi. All he had done so far was put up with Mikey’s constant demands and struggle along to some meetings when they called for him.
It was incredibly unfair. Why was the one who was the least involved the one who got hurt the most? Why was he doing so much to help Toman? Why did he care?
Kiyomasa had finally taken a pause in his relentless assault against Takemichi, who seemed to be yelling something that Draken couldn’t hear over the panic ringing in his ears. The traitor lunged at Takemichi again and Draken pulled forward, before Takemichi took a step back and punched Kiyomasa with everything he had.
Kiyomasa fell backwards in a daze, and Takemichi continued onward to pummel him more. The various bruises and scratches covering Takemichi did nothing to deter him. If anything, they only made Takemichi stronger and more desperate.
The members who were holding Draken back let go to rush and help their leader. Freed from his restraints, Draken hastily grabbed them before they could reach Takemichi. He landed a few solid kicks onto each person, and ensured that they wouldn’t get back up for a while. Draken then rushed to check on Takemichi.
Huh. The dragoon tattooed teen stared in shock at the scene he was witnessing. Takemichi had stopped beating up Kiyomasa, and only stood above the traitor who was now unconscious. He couldn’t distinguish whether or not the specks of scarlet coating Takemichi was his own blood or Takemichi’s, but for some reason Draken wasn’t worried at all.
Draken took in the heavy rise and fall of Takemichi’s chest, and the light tremble in his hands. With a sharp realization, Draken realized that he has never actually seen Takemichi fight before. The timid boy usually picked words or even tears over fists, and the only time he saw him fight was against Kiyomasa during their first meeting. Back then Takemichi could barely pack a punch, but now here he was winning in a fight against Kiyomasa.
Albeit he did struggle a bit, but he still won. The training lesson’s at Mikey’s grandfather’s dojo must have been paying off.
Takemichi straightened back up, and flashed a quick smile at Draken when he noticed that he stopped fighting. At the moment he was hunched over a little and winced with every motion, but Draken thought that his back was larger than ever.
“Thank you for helping me Takemichi,” Draken expressed.
“Of course, Draken-kun. I couldn’t let you get injured. I should be protecting you too,” smiled Takemichi softly.
Draken swallowed down the sudden lump that formed in his throat, and rubbed at the back of his neck. “Yeah…” he murmured.
The surrounding battle was beginning to dwindle down, as Toman’s members defeated more of Moebius’s group.
“Come here Draken-kun! I’ll help patch you up a bit. I don’t think any of your injuries are severe, but my basic first aid classes should help with the cleaning and wrapping up of wounds,” beamed Takemichi.
Draken blinked once. Then twice. “Wait, patch me up? You’re the one who has a broken arm, Takemichi! We need to get you to a hospital!” Draken argued, dumbfounded.
“Ehehe, I guess I sort of forgot about that. Maybe the adrenaline got to me. At least everything ended much better this time!” Takemichi cheered.
“What does that even mean Takemichi,” sighed Draken. He rubbed at his temple as a headache began to form. Takemichi was always saying weird things, and one day Draken could figure out why he did, but that day was not today.
“Let’s go find Mikey and hopefully he can bring you to a medical center on his bike,” Draken suggested. Takemich hummed in agreement, and Draken felt his heart warm up at the sight of his brightness. Together, they walked through the fight.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“MIKEY! Stop splashing water everywhere!” bellowed Draken. Said Mikey blew raspberries back at Draken and then cackled as he continued to splash water everywhere in the bath.
Takemichi decided that he was not willing to deal with that, and fully relaxed into the hot bath. The warm water was doing wonders for his healing muscles, and lulled him into a light doze. Currently Takemichi was wearing a swim shirt and trunks that clashed terribly together, with an excuse that he wasn’t very comfortable with being completely naked in front of everyone.
Mikey took in his dazed expression and flushed cheeks before speaking up, “Ehhh Takemitchy, maybe you should get out of the water soon. You look light headed.” To wake him up, Mikey swam up to him and punched him in his stomach.
The punch wasn’t strong at all, by Mikey’s standards at least, but Takemichi still wheezed after as he tried to breath. “All right, all right, I’ll head on out,” grumbled Takemichi. As Takemich moved towards the stairs out though, Draken made a choking noise.
“What the fuck?! Takemichi, is that a bullet wound?” gasped Draken. Takemichi faltered in his steps, and an “oh shit” expression made it onto his face. He then continued walking faster only to be promptly tackled back into the water by Mikey.
“Ehehehe, what bullet wound? I definitely don’t see one,” Takemichi tried for. Draken only stared at him unamused, and gritted out, “The one on your foot idiot”.
Shiiiiit. Takemichi thought that the scar on his foot wouldn’t be obvious enough to notice, but he was clearly wrong. At least the shirt and trunks covered most of the more obvious and worrying marks.
“Ah, that one was just from a stupid accident I made when I was younger,” Takemichi attempted. Mikey and Draken’s faces showed that they were thoroughly unconvinced of this though.
“Do you have any more bullet wounds?” interrogated Draken. All Takemichi could manage was a feeble “no…?” in the face of his glowering attitude.
“Takemitchy…” Mikey’s voice warned.
The scarred blond boy quickly shuttered up and turned his gaze away from the intimidating duo. He fidgeted in the bath and after a minute, seemed to come to a decision on what to do.
“I can’t tell you the reason for them right now, but… I promise that I’ll share everything one day,” Takemichi finally let out.
Draken crossed his arms and Mikey frowned. The shorter blond huffed and conceded to Takemichi’s request. “As long as you promise that you’ll tell us,” he pouted.
Takemichi smiled fondly and nodded his head in assent. “I promise,” he assured.
Appeased, Draken and Mikey began walking out of the bath with Takemichi in tow. Draken glanced at the clock, and then started moving in a hurried manner. “Fuck, we need to hurry or we won’t make it to the Toman meeting in time,” he rushed.
“This is your fault Ken-chin! You were the one who was supposed to keep track of time!” called out Mikey.
Draken whipped around and pointed his finger at Mikey. “How is this my fault? You’re the commander of Toman!” he accused.
Mikey and Draken quickly began fighting again and Takemichi accepted that they wouldn’t make it to the meeting anytime soon.
“OI MIKEY! Stop throwing shampoo at me!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Our new captain for the third division is Kisaki Tetta!”
A long silence echoed after the announcement, only to be followed by the sound of a fist hitting skin and a quiet grunt.
“That was so worth it!” glowed Takemichi. He had a bright smile on his face, and his demeanor radiated happiness.
Kisaki held a hand up to his swelling face, and glared daggers at his assaulter. The other Toman members at the meeting stared in shock at the blond teen. A long black haired teen reared back to punch Takemichi before his arm was caught by Mitsuya.
“Mark my words Kisaki, you’re going to regret the day you joined the Tokyo Manji Gang!” Takemichi threatened, all while smiling.
This time, Mitsuya did not stop the black haired teen from punching Takemichi.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mikey plopped down next to a certain beat up blond and whistled. “Woww, Baji sure did a number on you,” he mulled over.
The only response he got was a grumbled sound that vaguely resembled an agreement.
“Make sure to bring Baji back from Valhalla, yeah? And try not to punch Kisaki if you see him again.”
“...I’ll bring Baji back but no promises on the second half,” mumbled Takemichi.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chifuyu swung back and forth slowly on the swing in a park near the headquarters of Valhalla. The soft glow of a light pole elongated his shadow, and crickets chirped their song as the moon shone in the sky.
A soft breeze flowed through the park and Chifuyu shivered at the chill. He pulled the sleeves of his sweater over his hands and rubbed his palms together.
After the event with Valhalla, Chifuyu ran home to patch himself up a little bit, said hello to his cat, and then left his house as soon as possible to avoid his mom seeing him. Chifuyu didn’t want to hear his mom nag about fighting again, and if he was being honest, he didn’t want to worry her more than he was already doing.
Wandering for a few hours led him to this park, and he’s been here ever since. Being outside at night helped because he could look at the stars and forget about his problems with Baji for a moment.
A crying sound broke the silence of the night. Chifuyu looked up to see who was making the noise, and he almost jumped in surprise when he recognized the bleached hair and outfit of the person sobbing.
“Hey blondie!” Chifuyu called out. Bright blue eyes met his turquoise ones, and they widened in shock. “Isn’t Baji-san just awesome? I’m the Tokyo Manji Gang 1st Division’s vice president, Matsuno Chifuyu,” he introduced.
“Ah! I’m Hanagaki Takemichi.” The other boy seemed like he wanted to add something else, but he bit back his tongue. Takemichi’s eyes softened after his greeting, and Chifuyu wondered why he looked at him in fond recognition.
“Baji-san beat me up to join Valhalla, but he has something else in mind. He wants to expose Kisaki, and that’s why he entered Valhalla. I want to help Baji-san out. What about you Takemitchy?” Chifuyu asked.
“I want to help Baji-san out too,” Takemichi revealed.
“Really? Right off the bat huh, that’s pretty surprising.” Chifuyu started swinging again and smiled at Takemichi. “You were the one who punched Kisaki though so I guess it’s not that surprising. You punching him was part of the reason I wanted to work with you actually”.
“Haha yeah, I have some things against Kisaki and I guess my emotions got the better of me at that moment,” Takemichi admitted awkwardly.
Chifuyu laughed in response and winced when his movement jostled his bruised torso. Takemichi noticed the action and became concerned.
“You’re seriously injured Chifuyu, and your wounds aren’t even properly bandaged. Who helped clean you up?” he frowned.
“I did it myself factually. I couldn’t bother my mom and we don’t exactly have the money for a hospital either. Besides, I’ll be completely fine by the end of the week anyway,” Chifuyu tried to wave off.
“Treating wounds is very important! You never know when one could get infected and worsen,” Takemichi exclaimed.
“I can’t exactly go home and get these taken care of correctly dude,” Chifuyu countered. He crossed his arms and ignored the sharp pain that shot across his chest. The time traveller took in his guarded expression and relented.
“Then come to my house tonight. I have lots of first aid supplies, and I’ve taken enough classes to know basic treatment,” offered Takemichi.
Chifuyu looked at him in surprise and asked, “Really? You’d do that for me?” As he gestured for Chifuyu to follow him, Takemichi replied with an “Of course!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Takemichi’s house was massive. Maybe not as big as the mansions Chifuyu sometimes saw in magazines that had ten bedrooms and a whole swimming pool, but it was still very big for someplace as expensive as Tokyo. The building had two whole floors and a yard and its own garage.
In short, it was awesome.
Despite the big size, Chifuyu could tell that it wasn’t very lived in. A thin layer of dust coated the tv and the papers on the glass coffee table were arranged to look aesthetically pleasing. The kitchen was also very clean, without any sauce stains or seasoning marks littering the walls.
Takemichi had him sit down on one of the couches in the living room as he went to gather the medical supplies. The room was spacious, but cold. Chifuyu was tempted to ask about his parents, but after seeing the lack of family photos and childhood memorabilia, he decided against it.
Soon Takemichi returned with a white box. Out of it came a large variety of bandaids, disinfectants, wipes, and everything in between. Takemichi ripped open one of the packets and carefully applied some antiseptic cream to a particularly bad scrape.
It was difficult to not wince at the alcohol that stung his cuts, but Chifuyu tried nonetheless. Over time, the soothing apologies Takemichi provided and gentle touches broke down Chifuyu’s walls, and he felt himself relaxing into Takemichi. Before he knew it, Chifuyu had fallen into a light doze.
A warm hand at his shoulder pulled him from his slumber, and Chifuyu jolted awake.The hand flinched back and Chifuyu could just make out a shy Takemichi pulling back through bleary eyes. Realizing what happened, Chifuyu rubbed at his eyes and blushed.
“Sorry for falling asleep on the couch,” Chifuyu apologized sheepishly.
“Don’t worry about it! This is probably my fault, I should’ve woken you up earlier. It’s really late now,” worried Takemichi. Chifuyu checked the clock and cursed mentally. It was nearing twelve’o’clock. There was no way Chifuyu could go back home now, and he has long overstayed his welcome.
Sure Chifuyu was in a gang and a great fighter, but he wasn’t stupid enough to go out alone in Tokyo at midnight without being cautios.
“Um, you could stay here for the night. I’ll get out a futon and some blankets, and you can use my bed. I couldn’t let you go back out this late,” fretted Takemichi.
Chifuyu bit his lip. There wasn’t another option, but he felt like he was taking advantage of Takemichi’s kindness. “That would be really helpful Takemitchy, thanks. I hope I’m not too much trouble,” he admitted.
“It’s no trouble at all! Should you let your parents know about where you are somehow?” Takemichi questioned, furrowing his brows.
Chifuyu shook his head and said “My mom is used to me staying out for a night because of the Toman stuff, so it’ll be fine as long as I return tomorrow and send a quick message.” He doesn’t mention that he usually spends the night with Baji.
Together Takemichi and Chifuyu worked to move the futon into Takemichi’s room, and Takemichi grabbed some blankets and a pillow while Chifuyu laid the futon down. Takemichi also grabbed some of his old clothes to work as pajamas.
The pajamas were a bit small and Chifuyu poked some fun about Takemichi being built like a twig, but they worked. Their age made them soft, which Chifuyu liked,
Eventually everything was set up and Chifuyu and Takemichi went to their futon and bed, respectively. It took some time but Chifuyu did end up convincing Takemichi that he should have the futon instead, and that Takemichi had already done so much for him.
Chifuyu brought the blanket covering him up to his chin, and snuggled in. He felt incredibly warm and comforted by the presence near him. Takemichi was nice, he decided. A little strange at times and could definitely be stronger, but Takemichi’s kindness trumped all of his weaknesses.
He gave so much of himself away that Chifuyu wondered why he was chosen to be helped. He definitely didn’t deserve it.
“Thanks for working with me on this, partner,” Chifuyu whispers into the space between them. He doesn’t know why he added on the “partner” other than it felt right, but the answering smile that laid across Takemichi’s lips told him that he’d use it over and over again.