Chapter Text
All Emma could see was red. Scarlet painted the concrete sidewalk, and crimson splattered across her white cardigan. Vermillion coated the front and back of her hands, while every time she blinked, ruby flashed behind her eyelids.
She could barely make out any sounds from the haze of her own mind. All she could see was the flashing of red and blue lights, lighting up the sidewalk she was kneeling on. Her reflection looked back at her in the red side of the ambulance.
Why was there so much red?
Emma looked at the inside of the ambulance, and saw a tuft of blond hair on the gurney. Oh . That’s right. The blond girl tried to breathe in, but couldn’t. She kept on trying to draw breath into her lungs, and found that she can’t, and she can’t breath- oh God Takemitchy-
“Emma!” The girl startled out of her downward spiral and looked up. It was Mikey. Her brother knelt down beside her and rubbed his hands against her back in a circular motion. “Breathe in with me okay? One, two, three, four, and then back out, two, three, four”. They repeated that a few more times until Emma felt like she was a little more solid.
“Are you hurt anywhere? How do you feel?” Mikey asked. Emma tried to answer, but choked on her words as she thought about what happened. Two shaky arms reached around her and pulled her close before Emma realized that Mikey was hugging her. Soon, Emma felt hot tears flow down her cheeks and soak Mikey’s jacket.
“He was fine one moment and then- he just- the bat-” Emma sobbed out. Mikey didn’t say anything in response, but she felt him clutch harder onto the fabric of her cardigan. For a while, they just stayed like that huddled together. Eventually though, Emma pulled herself away from the embrace.
The ambulance Takemitchy was in was beginning to leave, and she saw the glances her brother sent at it. “You should go,” Emma told Mikey. “But what about you?” He asked her worriedly.
“I’ll be okay, I have Koko and Inui here with me. We’ll head to the hospital soon too”. Mikey looked like he was going to protest, but he was silenced when Emma lightly pushed him towards his bike. “Okay,” he relented, “But you have to stay with Koko and Inui at all times. I don’t want you to be alone”.
“I promise,” Emma vowed. With that, Mikey walked towards his bike. He turned on the engine, kicked up the stand, and sped off after the ambulance.
Once he was too far away for her to see him, Emma collapsed back onto her knees. She felt tears well up in her eyes again, and her lips could taste their saltiness as they fell down her cheeks.
Please, Takemitchy. Please pull through.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Mikey reached the hospital, he ran towards the front desk. He almost knocked someone over in his haste, but didn’t bother to offer an apology. The nurse that manned the front desk glared at him at first, but her expression softened when she saw his state.
“Which room is Hanagaki Takemichi in? He came here in an ambulance a minute ago,” Mikey pressed. The nurse scrolled through her computer then looked back at him.
“He’s in Operating Room 7, on the left side of the hall here-” Mikey cut her off by running towards the direction she directed to. He kept on running until he saw the “Operating Room 7” words printed on the sign next to a door, which had a red light illuminating the “In Operation” sign above it.
Somehow, standing there in a cold hospital with the red light flipped on and the worry for Takemitchy, Mikey felt a sense of deja vu. Right. This happened when he was stabbed for Baji, and even earlier when he helped Draken.
“Damn it Takemitchy, why do you keep on doing this,” Mikey murmured to himself. In the empty hallway, he leaned back against the cool wall and slid down until he was sitting on the linoleum floor.
What was he doing, sacrificing himself for others over and over again? Mikey clenched his teeth to stop the sob that was crawling up his throat from coming out. Why couldn’t he choose himself over others for once…
The blond leaned forward until his hair hid his eyes as a curtain. He didn’t understand why Takemitchy cared so much for them, and he doesn’t think he will ever understand. Doesn’t he know that Toman rose up for him, and also that Toman will fall apart for him if he dies?
Mikey let out a low, dry laugh. Takemitchy probably didn’t know that. It was true though. The cry baby hero had managed to touch everyone’s heart, and Mikey knows that no one would hesitate to hurt themselves for him. Kenchin, Baji, Chifuyu, Kazutora, Hakkai, Mitsuya, and… himself.
He would give up everything for Takemitchy to be okay.
The commander turned and gazed at the tan double doors that led into the operating room. Takemitchy had to pull through. He doesn’t know what he would do if he didn’t.
In the silent hallway, Mikey continued to lean against the wall. He refused to let the tears that gathered in his eyes fall, not when Takemitchy was still alive and undoubtedly fighting for his life.
Too soon and yet not soon enough, the quiet was broken through by the squeaking of shoes against hard linoleum. Mikey looked up to see Kenchin running down the hall. When Kenchin noticed him on the ground though, he skid to a stop, and halted in the middle of the hallway.
The other was panting hard and stared at Mikey with wide eyes. Eventually, he broke off the eye contact and started walking forward.
“I came here as fast as I could. Inui told me what happened,” Kenchin explained. He looked at Mikey’s position again, and then turned his head to the side.
“That’s good,” Mikey replied. The commander stood up and brushed off the dirt from his clothes. “Inui has almost all of Toman’s contact information, so most of Toma will probably be here soon”.
He tried for a wry smile, but the light didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Looks like Takemitchy is being operated on again”.
Kenchin grimaced but nodded his head in solemn resignation. “It seems like he’s always the one getting hurt to protect others,” he murmured.
“Yeah,” Mikey agreed. The conversation lapsed back into silence, and neither Mikey or Kenchin tried to fill the empty air with words.
About ten minutes after Draken arrived, Emma, Koko, and Inui entered the hallway, with Chifuyu close behind them.
“How is he? Have there been any updates?” Chifuyu demanded. Mikey shook his head no, and Chifuyu turned towards the wall and punched his fist at it. “Damn it…” the aquamarine-eyed vice captain gritted out. Some blood began flowing from Chifuyu’s knuckles because of their impact against the wall, but Chifuyu seemed completely unfazed by it. For his sake, no one commented on it.
Emma’s face crumpled and she began softly crying. “I’m sorry Mikey,” she weeped. “This is my fault, he got hurt trying to protect me and-”
“This isn’t your fault Emma. They were trying to hurt you and then he protected you, this isn’t either of your faults,” Mikey consoled.
However, Emma adamantly denied his words and blubbered on, “But it is my fault, he wasn’t supposed to get hurt. They were specifically aiming at me, and maybe he would still be okay if they hit me instead”.
“Emma, listen . It’s not your fault. If they hit you, who knows how badly you might be hurt? Takemitchy sacrificed himself to protect you, and I’m sure he wouldn’t want you to feel guilt about it. He would want us to respect his decision”. At this point, Mikey didn’t know if his words were meant to comfort Emma or himself.
“Mikey’s right, Takemitchy wouldn’t want you to beat yourself up like this for him,” Kenchin added softly.
Through teary eyes, Emma gazed up at them. She sat down in one of the plastic chairs lining the hall, and clenched her hands on her thighs. “I think a part of me knows that, but it’s worse, knowing how he’s so willing to give up so much,” she admitted.
Mikey sucked in a breath. She was right, wasn’t she? It was worse knowing how much he was willing to give up for them.
As time went on, the rest of Toman’s captains and vice captains slowly filtered into the hallway. Hinata came too, apparently having been informed by Emma. Kenchin took up the role of explaining to everyone what happened. Some people sent concerned glances at Mikey, but he ignored them in favor of burning his gaze into the leg of a chair. Unfortunately, there were still no updates on Takemitchy.
“While we were at the grave, Izana issued the time for the battle against Tenjiku,” Inui shared once everyone was caught up. Immediately, the temperature in the hall dropped. “He said that the fight will be at 8 pm, at Yokohama Bay,” the Black Dragon member continued. “Do we still want to participate?”
“We should fight,” declared Baji. “How dare they, going so far as to attack Mikey’s sibling and hurting Takemitchy,” he snarled.
“We shouldn’t,” countered Mitsuya. “A large amount of Toman left because of all of Tenjiku’s recent attacks, so we’re down in fighting numbers. With Takemitchy injured too…” The moral and will would be extremely low, went unsaid.
For a while, the argument went back and forth like this until Mikey’s voice broke through the growing disagreement.
“We’re going to fight”. The commander’s voice left no room for other arguments, and his cold glare shut down anyone who tried to speak against him.
Smiley nodded in agreement. “We should have someone stay here though, to inform us if anything happens”.
“I can stay here with Emma,” offered Hinata. Mikey looked at her with surprise, though he supposed he shouldn’t have. Hinata has shown that she has a tough spine, ever since their first meeting. “Emma shouldn’t go to the battle, and she shouldn’t go home alone either. Neither of us would be much help on the battlefield”.
Mikey mulled over the idea in his head for a second before assenting. He knew that he could trust Hinata with Emma and Takemitchy, and if anyone did try something, Hinata was strong enough to take care of herself.
“Okay,” he said. The commander looked around at all of the Toman members there, and set his face into a grim smile. “Let’s go show them exactly why they shouldn’t fucking mess with Toman”.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As he was waking up, the first thing he registered was a muted, aching pain that covered the expanse of his upper back. A second later the pain wasn’t muted though, and instead became very sharp and persistent.
“Fuck that hurts,” Takemichi wheezed. From his left side, Takemichi heard a frantic rustling sound and then a voice piping up, “Are you awake?”
Takemichi tilted his head to find the source of the voice, and looked directly into the honey brown eyes of one Hinata Tachibana. “Hinata?” Takemichi gasped,
Hinata smiled when he spoke, but then quickly frowned again. “I’m here,” she replied. “I’m glad you’re awake, you really had us scared”.
“What happened?” Takemitchy asked.
“After you got hit, you were moved to this hospital. The surgeon who worked on you said that two of your ribs broke off, and two more were fractured badly. She also said that you had many major arteries ruptured, which put the blood flow in your body at risk. It was a miracle that you didn’t have any organs pierced by your ribs, or fail, apparently,” Hinata shared. “Of course it’s just like you to beat the odds though”.
Takemitchy winced at the information. Honestly, he was also surprised that that was the extent of his injuries. “Is there anyone else here with you?”
“Emma is also here, she stepped out to use the restroom though,” Hinata informed him.
“What about Mikey, or Koko and Inui? They were there with me earlier”.
Hinata flinched at his question, which caused dread to fill Takemitchy’s veins. “Hinata…?” he inquired, worriedly.
“Everyone else is in the battle against Tenjiku right now,” she finally answered. Hinata averted her eyes to the side, and bit her lip.
“What?!” Takemichi choked out. “When did they leave? How long has it been?” To her surprise, he immediately began trying to climb out of his hospital bed.
“Takemichi, what are you doing? You need to lay back down! Your injuries aren’t as bad as they could have been, but they’re still severe!” Hinata exclaimed.
When Takemitchy continued to try climbing out, Hinata lightly pushed him back down by the shoulder. She kept him in place by securely keeping his arms locked under her hands.
“Please let me go, Hinata. I know that I sound insane right now, but I promise that I have a good reason for this. I promise that I will come back, and that I’ll explain everything to you”, Takemitchy protested. His ocean eyes gazed at her desperately, and Hinata felt her resolve waver.
The red haired girl chewed on her lip, and pondered over his request. She definitely should not let him go, he was extremely injured and would probably collapse within five seconds of standing up. On the other hand, Takemitchy looked incredibly desperate, and maybe if he had someone by him at all times it’s feasible…
Hinata spared another glance at the blond before making her decision.
“Do you promise to stay safe?”
“I promise”.
“Do you promise to not get more hurt for others?”
“I promise”.
“...And do you promise that you really will explain all of this later?”
“Yes, I promise, Hinata”.
After the last answer, Hinata steeled herself. “Okay. Okay, I’ll help you get out, even if I think you’re insane sometimes Takemitchy”.
“Thank you”. With the softest eyes, Takemitchy portrayed his genuine gratitude. Hinata mentally sighed to herself. She could never say no to him like that.
“Do you know how to take out the IV?” the red haired girl asked Takemichi.
He carefully inspected the region where the needle entered his arm with his fingers, and nodded his head. “I think I can take it out. Could you bring me the tape and gauze that’s on the counter over there?”
Hinata looked at where Takemichi pointed his finger, and saw the blue medical tape and cotton he mentioned. She grabbed the supplies and then brought it over to him. Takemichi took a deep breath, and put the gauze over the insertion site of the IV. “Can you keep the gauze here, Hina? I’m going to pull the IV out”.
To get a better hold of the gauze on his arm, Hinata shifted closer. Once she was holding on securely, Takemichi forcibly relaxed his arm and pulled out the IV. “Oh my god, I’m so glad that came out smoothly,” the blond panted out.
“Are you saying that you weren’t sure if that would work before trying it?!” Hinata admonished.
“Ehh, sorry Hina,” Takemichi blushed shyly. “The classes I took went over how to take IV’s out briefly before, but I never got to practice. I did know what I should do though!”
Huffing, Hinata shook her head. “Hand me the tape, I’ll tie it around your arm,” she ended up saying. She lightly poked Takemichi in the leg though while stating, “Never do that again, unless you’re 100% positive in what you’re doing”.
“I won’t,” Takemichi vowed. He sheepishly rubbed at the back of his neck, and ignored the pain that flared in his back at the movement.
As Hinata worked on knotting the end of the tape, the door to the hospital room slid open. Emma walked inside, saw Hinata with the tape around Takemichi’s arm, processed Takemichi sitting up on the edge of the bed, and promptly began yelling in a hushed voice.
“What are you two doing?!” Emma demanded. “ You should be laying down in bed,” she said while pointing at Takemichi, and then moved her finger to point at Hinata. “And you should definitely not be helping him do whatever it is that you’re planning on doing!”
Takemichi tried to protest but the only thing coming out of his mouth was incoherent noises, so Hinata decided to intervene. “I’m helping him leave the hospital”.
Emma squinted at her, and then crossed her arms. She stood there as if waiting for further explanation. “I need to get to Yokohama Bay,” Takemichi clarified. “Toman’s fighting against Tenjiku there now, and I need to be there to do something.
“Give me one good reason for why I should let you go,” Emma replied.
“Mikey’s going to get hurt”.
At his words, Emma froze. “Mikey wouldn’t get hurt, Takemitchy. There’s a reason why he’s called the “Invincible Mikey”. Despite her words, Takemichi could see the doubt on her face.
“He won’t be hurt physically, but someone very important to him will be, and that’ll break him,” disclosed Takemichi. “I can’t share much more, but I promise that I need to be there. Please let me go, Emma”.
The blond girl stared at him, then sighed. “Fine. I’ll let you go, but I’m coming with you”.
Takemichi looked like he wanted to protest, but Emma quickly silenced him with a look. “This isn’t your decision”, she asserted.
Sneaking out of the hospital wasn’t too difficult, thankfully, because of how late it was already. The trio made it outside without anyone spotting them, and Emma led them over to a motorcycle.
When Takemichi seemed shocked, Emma lightly snorted. “I’m siblings with Mikey and friends with Draken. Do you think they would really let me not know how to ride a bike?”
Emma climbed onto the front of the bike, and then Takemichi clambered on with Hinata’s help, who sat behind him. The Sano gently revved the engine of the bike, and pressed on the gas. While the bike flowed through dark roads, Takemichi sent a quick wish to the sky.
Please, don’t let me be too late .
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The first snowflake landed on the smoking barrel of a gun.
The second landed in a drop of blood, and the third landed gently on a jagged scar.
Silence completely filled the pier Tenjiku and Toman were gathered on, suffocating the air after the gunshot rang clear. Kakucho collapsed onto his knees, and brought a hand up to his shoulder. He pulled the hand back and stared uncomprehendingly at the blood that covered it, dripping down his palm.
The scarred teen slowly turned around to stare at the person who shot him. Somehow, he wasn’t surprised to see that it was Kisaki.
“Again and again, someone always manages to ruin my plans. Usually it’s Hanagaki, but today it’s you . I hope you die,” Kisaki growled. When Kakucho ran towards him, the tanned blond raised the gun again and aimed to shoot at him. His finger pulled the trigger, and the bullet found blood.
However, the bullet didn’t land in Izana this time. Instead, it grazed the arm of another blond with blue eyes instead. “Damn it,” the blond gasped out. “I promised that I wouldn’t get hurt this time too”.
“Takemichi?” Kakucho exclaimed. “What are you doing here?” The Tenjiku member tried to sit up, but Takemichi was still laying on top of him from when he pushed him out of the way of the bullet.
“Stop moving around so much! I need to see if you’re injured”. Takemichi looked over the bullet wound in his shoulder, and saw the amount of blood that was pooling from it. His face quickly crumbled, and crystal tears filled his azure eyes.
“Please, please, please Kaku-chan, please hold on,” Takemichi sobbed. He hastily ripped off a piece of the bottom edge of his shirt, and secured it around Kakucho’s shoulder as a makeshift bandage. Tears dripped down his face and onto the black haired teen’s Tenjiku uniform, but Kakucho didn’t do anything to stop it.
“What are you doing?” Shouted Izana, as he ran over to Kakucho’s side. Tenjiku’s leader tried to push Takemichi out of the way by hitting his back. Takemichi cried out in pain, but held his ground. Before Izana could do any major damage, Mikey came and forced him off of Takemichi.
Mikey leaned forward to pummel Izana, but a warm hand wrapped around his wrist, effectively stopping him. “You need to call an ambulance. Please Mikey ,” Takemichi begged from his place on the ground. The commander of Toman glared down at him at first, but his abyssal eyes gradually softened.
Mikey looked around the circle of onlookers from Toman and Tenjiku, and finally spotted Draken. “Kenchin, call for an ambulance”, he ordered. Draken startled slightly, but nodded his head and raised up his phone to begin the call.
In the meantime, Takemichi shakily stood up from Kakucho’s side. “Why are you doing this, Izana?” Takemichi denounced. “Didn’t you want to create a new era of gangs? Weren’t you going to make the top gang in Japan ? Can you honestly say that this is what you wanted Tenjiiku to become? How could you let it become a place that will willingly hurt Kakucho?”
Izana found himself staring into Takemichi’s accusatory eyes. Eventually he forced himself to look away, and back at Kakucho who gazed at him with a questioning, desperate look.
“I don’t know,” Izana responded truthfully. The white haired teenager knelt down beside Kakucho and gently grabbed onto his worn hands. “I don’t know when or how, but at some point revenge became more important than anything else.”
His face contorted into a grief-filled expression, and Izana gripped tightly onto his vice commander. “I’m sorry Kakucho. I’m so sorry. Please don’t die, you promised me that we would make a great empire together, didn’t you? You’re the only one I have, please don’t leave me. Please forgive me,” Tenjiku’s commander begged.
Kakucho reached up to wipe away the tears that formed in Izana’s snow lashes, and smiled softly. “I never blamed you,” he consoled.
At the gesture, Takemichi mentally breathed out a sigh of relief. Things between Tenjiku and Toman will probably go a lot smoother after this. He hopes so at least. In the distance, he could barely make out the distinct sounds of an ambulance and police cars, so Takemichi had faith that Kakucho would be okay.
Of course, nothing ever goes how Takemichi wants it to though.
A motorcycle sped by Takemichi and left the faint smell of exhaust in the air. The blond almost stumbled over from the closeness and speed of the bike, and let out a loud yelp as his ribs were jostled again.
Takemichi whipped around to see Hanma pull Kisaki onto his bike and speed away. Fuck . He had been so close, again , only for Hanma to pull this again. Takemichi began to hyperventilate. If he doesn’t stop Kisaki from leaving, then he would undoubtedly cause problems again , and more people would die and he wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop it because he didn’t know - and Draken is talking on the phone without a bike- and he can’t travel back anymore if something does happen-
“Partner!” The word broke through the fog like an arrow and Takemichi looked around to see Chifuyu pulling up on a bike. Chifuyu drove directly next to him, and patted the empty seat behind him.
“We need to go!” Chifuyu called out. Without any hesitation, Takemichi climbed on and wrapped his arms tight around his partner. “I don’t know why you were so focused on Kisaki, but he must be important if you’re looking like that.” With that, the green eyed blond sent a toothy smile back and pulled hard on the gas.
Takemichi held on closer as the bike weaved through the crowd on the pier, and onto the streets after Hanma and Kisaki. He smiled softly. “Thank you, Chifuyu”.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The newest captain in Toman chased after a bespectacled blond through snowy streets. Behind them, somewhere close and also far away, Chifuyu and Hanma were fighting each other. Kisaki knew that Hanma would win though. There was no question about that.
The blond eventually finally stopped at a crosswalk, and panted heavily as his breath left white clouds in the air. He hadn’t turned around to face his pursuer yet, instead choosing to stand with his back facing him.
“Haven’t you done enough already?” Kisaki gritted out. “You’ve managed to ruin every one of my plans, and somehow, you’re still alive and kicking despite everything.”
No replies met him except for heavy breathing. “I mean, aren’t you tired? Why are you still fighting so hard for Toman? Why does Toman matter so much to you anyway? What is so special about you for Toman?” Kisaki angrily demanded.
Again, no response met his questions. The blond chuckled lightly. “I guess that doesn’t matter anyway. Leaving Chifuyu behind was your biggest mistake, my hero . He won’t be here to save you this time”. Kisaki twisted around while pulling a gun out of his pocket, donning a wicked grin on his face.
The grin quickly slid off of his face though when he came face to face with the black barrel of a gun. Kisaki’s heart dropped. Is this what the edge of death feels like? The tanned blond rushed to hold his gun up to Takemichi’s chest, but it was quickly brushed to the side.
“Have you ever killed someone, Kisaki?” Takemichi asked. There was no mercy in his dark eyes. Only a hardened look that sharply focused onto him. Kisaki swallowed. At this moment, he had no doubts that Takemichi would kill him. His gaze held an immovable resolution in it.
Takemichi shoved his own gun into Kisaki’s chest, hard enough for him to stumble back. “Of course you haven’t. You just had everyone else do the killing for you, so that you would never have to get your hands dirty. Kazutora, Peh Yan, Pah Chin, Taiju Shiba, even Hanma, they were all tools for you to use”.
Using his right hand to hold the gun, Takemichi punched Kisaki with his left. “This is for Draken.” He lifted his hand up to land another hit, and aimed hard. “This is for Kazutora”. He punched again. “This is for Baji”. Again. “This is for Izana”. Again. “This is for Emma”. Again. “This is for Chifuyu.” Again. “This is for Naoto”. And again. “This is for Hina”.
Kisaki cowered backward. He tried to stop the beating at some points, but the gun that pressed against his chest was a potent threat that stopped him from fighting back. By this point, his glasses were cracked and hung listlessly on his face.
Tears flowed freely down Takemichi’s face, who’s voice finally cracked. “How could you take away all of their futures? All for Hina? Who you wouldn’t even allow to not love you? How could you be so- so cruel and heartless ? How do you sleep at night?”
Kisaki barked out a laugh. All of that, and he still asked these questions? “I sleep very well, thank you. Because all of this will win me Hinata’s heart”.
Takemichi stared at him in disbelief and anger. “Hearing you say that a second time still didn’t make me understand you”. The blue eyed blond shook his head, and ground his teeth. He aimed a shot with the gun, and Kisaki flinched, expecting a bullet to hit him. However, he was surprised to see that the bullet instead buried itself into the sidewalk directly to the right of his foot.
The gun that Takemichi used to threaten Kisaki clattered onto the ground as Takemichi let go of it. Kisaki glared at the other blond. Takemichi surged forward, and Kisaki clambered back to avoid his swinging foot.
Instead of landing his feet on the hard ground, Kisaki began to fall backwards. His foot found empty air, and that’s when he realized he was right on the curb of the sidewalk before the crosswalk.
Takemichi watched him fall down into the road, and yelled out, “This is for every single future that you ruined!” As he clenched his fists and stepped back onto the sidewalk, Takemichi glared at Kisaki with clear, steely eyes. Kisaki looked at him in shock before noticing the truck that was barrelling towards him.
The truck swerved, but it wasn’t early enough to avoid Kisaki.
Takemichi turned around, and ran down the snowy sidewalk. The cold air that filled his lungs numbed him a bit on the inside and outside. It didn’t do much to stop the grief that filled Takemichi, but Takemichi couldn’t stop out of the fear that his emotions would return.
He kept on running, ignoring the jabs of hot pain that shot up his back. He ran, ignoring the cold water stinging his toes and cheeks. He ran, ignoring the blood and bruises that donned his fists.
He ran until a sturdy chest and arms pulled him to the side, keeping him in a tight hug to stop him. “Partner? What happened?” Chifuyu’s sea green eyes looked down at him in concern, and Takemichi couldn’t stop the sob that broke free from his throat.
“There was- Kisaki- Truck-” Takemichi knew that his words were barely comprehensible, but Chifuyu seemed to still understand him. “What about you ? Are you okay? I heard a gunshot, and if you got injured again Takemichi-”
“What was this about Kisaki?” Hanma interrupted. The tall teenager looked manic, and Takemichi thought that he matched with Kisaki oddly well. Takemichi blubbered out a street name and its block before Hanma sprinted down the street.
After Hanma was far away, Takemichi collapsed onto the ground. He cried. Hard. The blond was sure that Chifuyu was confused about why he was crying, and Takemichi himself didn’t really know either.
Was the pain from his injuries getting to him? Was he mourning the past timelines? Or was he crying tears of joy, from the fact that he finally saved everyone? Was he mourning every life taken, or relieved that the one that needed to go most did ?
Either way, Takemichi didn’t know. All he knew was that despite the heavy tears and weeping, he could breathe a little easier.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I can not believe that you left the hospital!” The nurse addressing Takemichi’s new wounds admonished harshly.
The blond being addressed shifted guiltily on the hospital bed he was sitting on, and tried to avoid the accusatory glares the nurse sent towards him. The nurse sharply finished applying wraps around his scrapes, and then put her hands on her hips.
“Do not, under any circumstances, leave the hospital again until you’re fully healed. You’re lucky that your ribs only suffered some minor damage from your movements, and that we won’t have to operate on you again to ffix all of it,” the nurse berated. She forcibly slowly exhaled, ran a hand through her hair, and then turned towards the crowd of people gathered in the hospital room.
“And all of you . You better not help him escape again. His body can not take any more strenuous activity”.
The rest of Toman sheepishly murmured an agreement in response, and parted like the Red Sea when the nurse walked to leave the room.
“Has anyone heard about Kakucho yet?” Takemichi asked.
Koko replied from his spot in the corner of the room. “He’s fine, he was transported to a different hospital and is recovering right now. I think you should worry about yourself first though”.
Takemichi opened his mouth, then closed it. He would not dignify Koko with a response.
“Eh, Takemitchy, I can’t believe you really snuck out of the hospital,” Mikey said as he spread out onto the bottom half of the hospital bed. Takemichi poked at him a little bit with his foot but Mikey wouldn’t budge, and he didn’t have the heart to tell him to get off.
“I can’t really believe that I did that either honestly,” Takemichi revealed.
“And then you nearly got shot and hunted down Kisaki. You’re a monster Takemitchy,” Draken added on.
“I wouldn’t say that. I just wanted to tie off some open ends with him before he got away,” Takemichi replied. The blond pulled his knees up to his chest, and leaned his chin against them.
“Kisaki’s dead now. What happened exactly? The news said that it was a car accident, but there were guns found nearby. Did you…?” Mitsuya asked, while raising an eyebrow.
“No! No, not that. I don’t think I could,” Takemichi stuttered. He couldn’t let the others know how badly he wanted to do that though.
Chifuyu got up from his seat in a chair along the room’s wall, and moved to sit next to Takemichi on the bed. Takemichi leaned his head against Chifuyu’s shoulder, and felt a pressure on his head as Chifuyu leaned his head on top.
“Either way though,” his partner hummed, “we’re glad you’re okay and here. Or, semi-okay at least. Kisaki was an ass. Whatever happened to him was well deserved”
“Honestly! But don’t ever put yourself in harm’s way again Takemichi, you need to take care of yourself first,” cut in Emma.
“I don’t think we could ever stop Takemichi’s self-sacrificial tendencies,” Draken chuckled. “For real though. We’re glad you’re here”.
“Thank you,” Takemichi genuinely thanked. “I’m glad I’m here with all of you too”.
A soft lull formed after his words, before Chifuyu broke the silence.
“So… We’re all gathered here right now, and I doubt any of us will be leaving anytime soon,” Chifuyu began. Takemichi fidgeted. He had a feeling that he knew what he was going to ask.
“Do you want to explain what you’ve been doing?” Chifuyu ended up asking. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but we have all been wondering. With your meeting with Tenjiku, and somehow knowing about certain events before they happen… Well, I guess you could say we have a few questions”.
“Yeah. Maybe you could explain all of your injuries too,” Mikey included. The commander might have looked unconcerned to other people, but from the slight downward tilt of his lips and wrinkle on his brow, Toman could see his concern. “Normal 14 years old don’t usually have bullet wounds and that many scars”.
Takemichi chewed on his lip while he mulled over the idea. Now that Kisaki is gone and no one is dead, he should be able to tell the others, right? He remembered how Chifuyu reacted the last time he told him, so he knew that he could trust him.
With all of the insane events that happened, Takemichi thought that the rest of Toman might believe him too.
“Okay,” Takemichi decided. He wrung his hands a little, but ended up looking determinedly at the people in the room. “I’ll tell you. I think that it would be best if I started from the very beginning though, so this’ll take a while. Everything started when I got pushed in front of a train-”
A loud snort sounded from Baji, thoroughly cutting off what Takemichi was saying. The black haired teen grinned toothily and voiced his thoughts. “That’s just like you, Takemichi”.
The blond flushed bright red, and waved his hands around. “What do you mean that’s just like me!”
Fondly, Draken insisted, “It is just like you. Somehow always getting involved in the craziest things”.
Takemichi huffed. He couldn’t exactly deny it, no matter how much he wanted to. He was in the middle of every event, most of the time.
“Hush, let him continue,” Hina scolded. “I’ve been waiting to hear what happened for a really long time! I’m not letting you guys stop him from telling his story”.
The group quieted down again. Takemichi smiled softly. He really did it this time, didn’t he? Finally, he accomplished his promise to save everyone.
Takemichi looked around the room. Baji, Emma, and Izana were alive. Kakucho was safe in the hospital. Mikey didn’t give into his dark tendencies, Kazutora wasn’t in jail, and everything was okay . Warm tears formed in cerulean blue eyes, and flowed down Takemichi’s cheeks. Happy tears, for sure this time.
“I’m okay,” Takemichi sniffed as he batted away Chifuyu’s concern. “Just really happy”.
Toman’s sixth division captain took a deep breath and started again. “As I was saying, it began when I was pushed onto a set of train tracks…”