Chapter Text
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
“Takemichi Hanagaki …..”
“This name has quite a ring to it, don't you think?”
“…..He does everything with his fear by his side. He who can jump from one time to another is bound to suffer by your side, for time is never something you forge your name with…..”
“Takemichi….I will help you ..I started it ..and I will help you finish it likewise ..”
“Who are you…?” A broken and a hoarse voice whispered. The voice sounded like the man hadn't drank water in a long while. The rain drops mixing with his tears could be seen, as the melody of the rain tries to wash his miseries away.
Suddenly, a bright light appears in front of him and lifts him away from the pain and suffering he was feeling. He was now on a much more comfortable surface now, his hands slipping inside the fresh fabric that smells like fresh laundry as well as a nostalgia that brimmed up in his head caressing the past he once loved.
“Wait….AM I IN MY BED??” Takemichi jolts up almost in a suprise. Sweat dripping from his forehead, “The weather must be really hot” he thinks as he wipes the sweat off with the end of his sleeve. Heartbeat still pounding from the past experience ingrained in his veins.
As he relaxed in the comfortable bedding, soon the memories flashed from the earlier timeline he was in….the agonized screams itched his skin.
Takemichi was able to save both Izana and Mikey, but…it was not enough.
“It's never fucking enough….for fucks sake…” Takemichi says with a sorrow that felt drifted now--it felt like a rainstorm that never calmed down..only more aggravated than before. Now, his whole body felt cold and sweaty to the touch, his heart rate was over the top, and his breathing was a bit ragged.
Those faces, those people…..
The blood dripping from Keisuke, and the scream of Mikey asking him to save him, once again. Those innocent people living in terror of “Toman” , “Bonten”....and Lastly, Hina…His hina, getting tortured in front of him, as he gets beaten up too--his whole mind felt a different sense of nostalgia filling in his gut. His stomach twisted from the inside--
Wasn't the accident enough...Kisaki
Hina’s blood that was all over his hands just a minute ago, her scarred and bruised face was hanging from his hands like a….a de-ad C-corpse.....
“Did she really die this time too…?” Takemichi only cried. He was in no position to stand or even blame himself.
“This was too much for him….”
The moment his insides twisted again, he stood up, and dragged himself towards the bathroom--holding the toilet seat, he emptied the contents of his stomach--the feeling of blood in front of him didn't disappear, but a strange calm entered the atmosphere. It was not good--nor bad, it felt more like a neutral ground for him now--he again shifted towards the bed--resting his chin on top of the sheets--feet glued to the floor.
But how was he still here, the game ended right then and there, when he and hina were attacked by Mikey’s and Izana’s man. He was just sitting there waiting for his painful death when a voice suddenly whispered towards him. That soft melody that shifted him away from that painful symphony danced around him for a long whispering pleas like they had both known each other for a long time. This time, he wasn't going to let anyone get hurt.
“No matter what happens….and this time he wasn't really going to cry either…he would do anything to complete his mission.”
His promise to Naoto is all he will be thinking from now on. And after a few minutes, sleep occupied him, and he was unable to move his body around.
Takemichi woke up from his bed, his hair was in a mess. The yellow dye he was starting to love at that time had no meaning to him now. And besides, it would be better if he could help everyone from here on that is.
“Isn't that right Shinichiro…?”
……
After a while, the bathroom door opens, takemichi comes out in a towel, his yellow blondish hair now fully black. He was sure Akkun and his friends will be very worried for him but the emptiness behind his eyes were something he can't wash off right now. Those gruesome murders he witnessed everytime made him motivated but at the same time he was going numb, he doesn't know how to save everyone from making gangs like “bonten”.
They were supposed to protect each other, help each other and make a gang like Toman, but instead they joined forces to create “Bonten”
A vile and a disgusting gang, that does Prostitution, Drug Dealing, Rape, Gang torture, Organ Dealing, Human Trafficking, Assults, harrasments, and God knows what other “establishments” they made.
Takemichi was really opposed to this idea, at first but when they said, that Bonten will be a good company, he thought…maybe, maybe this time, “Bonten” would be the old Toman…..But alas his dreams were shattered--Sano Manjiro’s Dark impulses won, and it seems like Izana also had a dark impulse of his own. He doesn't know, he doesn't care yet he still cries.
“Tak-takemitchy!! Save me!” Mikey’s tears were falling down now, his eyes finally having some emotions painted, and his voice sounded like Mikey…and not the Bonten Mikey he despised.
“Mikey ….Oh, Mikey…” The blue eyed and black haired time leaper says with much hurt and guilt in his voice as he sits down with himself drowning in his house.
Those memories, those tears they shed together, those moments he swears he has seen, but he now has noone to share those memories with. No one to talk to, noone to call “partner” lovingly.
“Partner…”
“It's your fault Takemichi!!” Tears were coming out of Chifuyu’s eyes. His whole body shivering. Little does he know Takemichi heard those words twice, and now something was broken within him. Something that he thinks now won't be repaired no matter how much Hina hugs him.
“Hina…oh h-hina…my tachiban..a”
He shouts and shouts until his throat bleeds and his mouth works no more, because he fears if this wasn't a dream then he would kill himself. A stabbing pain cuts through his chest, and Takemichi allows himself to exert all his remaining resources in things he felt were vital for now--like screaming, crying, and trying his best to take that pen knife.
___
This wasn't a dream.
“Hey Takemichi! Are you okay? You called in sick today…and….” Akkun, Kazushi, Takuya and Makoto were all at his door. Takemichi felt a bit of an embarrassment, because he knew what they were gonna point out. His red swollen cheeks, his empty soulless blue eyes and his obvious black hair and the lack of his smooth voice.
“I must look like a person whose entire family got murdered and now is just getting a bit better…but it's not totally fake though” he thinks, as he scratches his head and answers them.
Takemichi, is something wrong?
Takemichi?
Takemichi!
“Takemichi” Akkun says, and it takes takemichi about two minutes to process. He zoned out on them.
“Sorry…guys I haven't been feeling well, i need to sleep more”
With that he assured them he would be okay, and sent them away.
.
Takemichi felt like crying again, but this time he had much more control over them. He wasn't going to fall, even if he gets killed again and again and again…
Again, and again…
Again and again…….
Again and ag–
“Oh shoot I need to do something…” His mind reverts back, as though something inside of him clicked.
He had a few things to do. Hinata Tachibana was the first one he should meet right now. There are a few things he needs to tell her but, after a certain amount of time. After all, people need time and the effort... especially girls...who truly deserve the effort. And he knows he will put in the effort.
Finally Naoto’s research and his teachings have been brought to good use, he thinks.
“Oh Naoto…” his mind reminiscing the days he would search with him in his office. The old days were like a withering flower, once it's petals crouch then, they never get up.