Welcome back to the sixth chapter everyone! My sincere thanks to everyone who Faved and Followed! ❤ And a special shoutout to these lovely people: Cilenia Alsacia, Yeahboyy, Einklley, Guest, Locadi, Blake1999, eeeeaud, and ice devil cat demon for blessing me with their reviews ❤

So some of you have been asking whether Reiya can leap to and fro in the past and the future just like Takemichi, and I'm proud to say that today's chapter contains the answer to that very question! =D

This chapter will also contain very brief descriptions of violence that might be especially distressing to Hanma stans (sorry Hanma stans pls don't come after me I'm very soft *sobs*).

For this chapter's tidbits:

※ Taito's name comes from the rare and complex Kanji with 84 strokes which is said to have the "appearance of a dragon in flight". His name is also written as "太 (Tai)" meaning "thick, big, great" and "翔 (To)" meaning "soar, fly". His surname, Natsukage (夏影 ), means "summer shadow".

Now without further ado, sit back and relax as Reiya gets to re-experience just how fragile and unpredictable the now could be.

〖 Chapter Six 〗

Reaffirming the Transient Present

The fact that Kisaki Tetta, the mastermind behind Hina and Naoto's deaths and the one responsible for Toman's decline into a heinous crime syndicate used to be, while also being simultaneously currently her schoolmate, made Reiya stop breathing for a moment, causing her heartbeat to reverberate uncomfortably against her chest and throat.

She wrestled with suppressing her clamoring emotions but once she found her voice, she could barely keep herself from sounding outraged. "I thought our school doesn't allow that kind of thing!" she exclaimed sotto voce.

Kuroshima gave her a speaking glance. "Yunagi-san, just because we're a private school doesn't mean we're immune to delinquents, you know. Besides, everyone usually turns a blind eye when it comes to Kisaki."

She gaped at him. "Why?"

"Because he's actually pretty respectable I guess."

Reiya drew back a little, her nose scrunching in disbelief. "I find that a bit unbelievable."

"It's definitely weird how he's a delinquent even though he has such good grades," Kuroshima conceded with a smile, "but that's the thing. Kisaki's a delinquent, but he doesn't cause unnecessary trouble and keeps the other delinquents on campus in check. In fact, if he didn't have a piercing and actually dressed right, I'd say he'd look pretty normal as the studious, no-nonsense type of guy."

Reiya settled back into her chair with a small frown on her face. 'I never knew we went to the same middle school, but Kisaki was already a delinquent around this time and he was supposed to be well-known around here as a respectable delinquent?'

The thought nearly made her scoff. Reiya didn't believe it one bit, but now it was no wonder his name sounded so familiar when she first heard it.

"I'm amazed you didn't know, Yunagi-san," Kuroshima commented. "But I guess I can't blame you since all you ever seem to think about is when you get to play the violin again."

"I really don't want to hear that from you, Kuroshima-kun," Reiya returned with a narrowed-eyed pout.

Kuroshima grinned and they both turned towards the front just as their homeroom adviser walked in. Reiya did her best to appear calm and engaging during classes, behaving just how she always had during her student days. Nothing seemed to be amiss to anyone who knew her but she was in turmoil on the inside, a woman with a self-appointed mission.

When the bell rang and it was time to go home, Reiya hurriedly packed up her things but left the classroom without bringing her bag with her, muttering "Comfort room." when she noticed Kuroshima's questioning glance. She lingered by the corridor, eyes trained on Class 2-A's door as the people inside began to pour out one by one. Reiya hadn't seen him earlier during lunch break when she took a quick peek into the room, but now she had the feeling that this was finally her chance.

Reiya blended into the throng of students passing through the hallway, slowing her steps and waiting with bated breath, her footfalls syncing with every measured exhalation. She wasn't the only one waiting for him, she saw. There were two male students waiting a little ways off by the door, their slovenly-styled uniforms and mannerisms screaming delinquent. Her eyes narrowed as they straightened into attention, and she steered her gaze back to the door, her nerves rippling in alarm when she saw a flash of gold.

Reiya stopped dead in her tracks as a tanned boy with rectangular-framed glasses and a blond buzz cut emerged from the room. He had his hands in his pockets with his shoulders pulled back in undeniable authority, his features sharp and sure, hardened by the assertion of dominance and conceit. He looked completely different from the photograph she saw, but there was no mistaking the familiar gleam of wickedness in his pale-blue eyes.

Reiya clenched her hands into tight trembling fists, hate flaring and taking hold of her entire body. Time slowed with haunting intensity as Kisaki began to turn his back to her and her blood surged with the desire to charge and do him bodily harm that very second. She wanted to hurt him and make him pay for everything he did. For what he did to Hina and Naoto, for what he did to Manjiro, for the lives he took and played with.

Her eyes stung with furious tears but Reiya forced herself to walk away, her tense, hopeless figure cutting through the continuous flow of people flooding into the corridor. It took all of her strength to calm herself down, keeping her head down as she went to the comfort room. 'I mustn't be rash. Nothing good will happen if I lose my head here. Kisaki doesn't even know about me yet and what would he think if some random girl suddenly rushes up to him?'

She dabbed at her wet eyes, clamping the handkerchief in one hand as she frowned at herself in the mirror. 'I have to be careful around him. There's nothing I can do right now, but being in close proximity with him is a good thing…So for now I'll keep an eye on Kisaki and bide my time until the time to act is right.'

Reiya took a deep, stabilizing breath, and went out feeling refreshed and assured, her eyes narrowed in fierce determination as her path became clear.

'Things will not go your way for long, Kisaki…I swear it.'

"Oi, fatty Nee-chan. Watch where you're going or you're gonna get stuck!"

Reiya immediately snapped out of her thoughts, jerking into a full stop that made it seem like she suddenly bumped into an invisible wall, making Taito burst into uncontrollable bouts of laughter.

The two of them had just left from the daycare center and Reiya decided to take the longer, considerably scenic route on the way home. She wanted to let Taito enjoy walking Panpan some more, and the view by the riverbank was a sight she missed. But she became inadvertently lost in thought the longer she stared at the horizon.

"Mou, stop calling me that," Reiya chided. "And how exactly am I gonna get stuck when there's nothing in the way?"

"That's what makes it so funny!" Taito exclaimed with a snicker before dashing forward to catch up to Panpan, who was sniffing inquisitively along a small patch of shrubs a few steps ahead of them.

Reiya sighed, but couldn't help smiling afterwards as she stared after her brother's small back. It was the first time she heard him laugh freely around her.

Panpan stopped to pee into the bushes, prompting them to stop as well. In the momentary silence, Reiya brought her gaze back to the river again, her eyes growing hazy with her dissonant thoughts. Beside her, Taito studied her from the corner of his eyes, his forehead crimping with incipient irritation.

"Don't you have violin practice or whatever today?" he suddenly asked.

Reiya blinked and turned her head to look at him, only to find him already frowning at her. "Um, yes, but not right now. I'm taking a short break until Saturday."

Taito narrowed his eyes, then quickly looked away, muttering sulkily, "You're always busy with lots of stuff, especially with the violin 'cause you like it so much…"

At a loss as to why he was suddenly upset, Reiya hesitantly began to draw close. "Taito, what—"

"I'm fine waiting for Mama," Taito declared as he squared his shoulders. "So you don't have to pick me up if you got nothing else to do."

Stunned, Reiya watched him intently. Taito did a convincing job of trying to look unbothered but she already heard the catch in his voice, an anxious note that revealed his true feelings. Her heart swelled with tenderness and she reached for him, wanting to erase the literal and figurative distance between them by making the first step.

Reiya placed her hand on Taito's head, making him flinch in surprise and swivel to face her. She caressed his hair and readily gave him a gentle smile as she bent to level their eyes. "Silly boy. I'm doing this because I want to, not because I don't have anything else to do, but I'm very sorry if I made you feel that way. I know we haven't been spending a lot of time together but I'm your Nee-chan, and from now on I'll try to be here whenever you need me, okay?"

Taito looked up at her with wonder, alarm, and a curious trace of vulnerability that touched and pulled at her heart.

But then the silver-haired boy shook himself off and huffed as he ducked away from her hand, deliberately averting his face as he pulled at Panpan's leash when the dog had finally finished with his business.

"Hmph, then stop getting your head in the clouds," he muttered gruffly.

Amused at his half-hearted display of toughness, Reiya giggled and let him led the way as the three of them resumed their leisure stroll back home.

"I'm hungry," Taito whined after a while.

Reiya smiled at him. "Then let's hurr—"

Her throat cinched around itself and she choked as a deep, stinging pain exploded in her chest. In the next second she crashed to the ground on her knees, desperately gasping for air that never seemed to reach her panicked lungs. Her entire soul seemed to throb, as if it was suddenly too big for her current body, begging to be let out and she screwed her eyes shut as she fought to think above the inexplicable agony that gripped her down to every single nerve.

'What is this…It almost feels like…like that time…like I'm about to…'

She was shaken out of the dark by Taito, whose small but sturdy hands kept her from falling to the ground, his small face contorted into full-blown panic.

"Nee-chan? W-What happened!? What's goin' on with you!? Hey!"

Reiya shook her head and pushed her hands on the ground, fighting to find traction as her world became a tangled confusion of sight and sound. Colors were blurring, painting unstable, fraying shapes of wilting chrysanthemums the color of the waning sky and the unforgettable red of her blood. There was the gentle rush of the river, Panpan's anxious barks and whimpers and Taito's frantic voice, the words barely registering above the fog in her mind. She tried to speak, wanted to reassure them that it was going to be all right, but all that came out of her mouth was a strangled croak.

Reiya felt Taito's hand on her cheek, warm and gentle, involuntarily giving her a moment's respite. She brought herself to look into his eyes, which had turned into a clear green mirror of genuine shock and fear, reflecting the state of her life fleeting before her very eyes.

And then she understood and a numbing calm washed over her, stilling her desperate attempts for a baseless survival.

'Oh, I see…So this is how it is…I've only been granted a full day to be here. This body…isn't mine, after all…I don't belong here...anymore…'

The throbbing increased in intensity and Reiya hung her head in hopeless, bitter resignation, tears sliding hotly down her chin as Manjiro and Hina's faces flashed before her waning sight.

"Sorry…" she cried miserably. "I'm so sorry. I couldn't…do anything after all..."

Taito lodged himself more firmly against her, keeping his arm around her toppling frame as he desperately called for help. There happened to be a couple passing by and they rushed to where they were while the woman called for an ambulance. Panpan licked at her arms and hands, whimpering nonstop as he repeatedly dove his head against Reiya's side. Her head pressed heavily on top of Taito's own and he frantically reached up to grab one of her cheeks, slapping it lightly.

"Nee-chan, wake up! Help is gonna—"

He broke off as Reiya began to mention a perplexing string of words that didn't make any sense to him.

"Jiro-kun…and Kisaki…must stop...the Tokyo Manji Gang…"

Taito's eyes widened. "The Tokyo Manji what!? What're you talking about? Get a grip! Hey! Please…please open your eyes…!"

Reiya forced her eyes open at the sound of Taito's tearful voice. It pained her to see how absolutely devastated he looked with his sharp big eyes brimming with tears. She harnessed all of her strength to embrace him, and they both went still.

In that moment, everything quieted in Reiya's head. Being with her brother and seeing him care for her even just a little made her feel as if she's done at least one thing right.

"I'm sorry, Taito…for everything…"

"W-what are you saying?" Taito asked shakily.

Reiya drew back a little and gently cupped his face in her hands. She had to force the words out in between pulses of pain. "…Please don't forget, that I…care for you…very much…"

"N-no…" Taito grabbed at her wrists, his eyes wide and pleading. "Stop this! You're scaring me, Reiya-nee-chan!"

Her tears fell harder when he finally called her by her name. She smiled at him with all the affection in her heart and something snapped inside of Taito the moment she did. His gaze sharpened and he went motionless, almost as if he wanted to remember every detail of her face, his tears falling in fast, heavy drops.

Reiya wiped one of his wet cheeks with a shaky swipe of her palm before lowering her head to press her lips upon his forehead.

'Good-bye...'

And then she was gone, consciousness fading into a darkness so deep that she could only fall, and fall, and fall…

Down into an abyss so cavernous and wide, that it throbbed and quivered violently when lightning shook the silence.

There was a ringing in her ears and an airy coldness on her skin.

Reiya was no longer in pain, but she felt muddled and groggy, her senses steeped in some sort of reinforced numbness. Still, she was able to perceive that she was lying on her back on a soft, cold bed, with the air lightly scented with benzyl alcohol and a trace of other chemicals she didn't know the name of.

With a bewildered groan, Reiya found she could open her eyes again, and she did. And once she realized where she was and what had happened, she sat up so fast that her world spun with scorching light.

Reiya winced as multiple stinging throbs assaulted her body but fought to regain her vision as she looked down at her hands, heart racing wildly as she honed into her splinted, injured left hand, with her right hand connected to an IV drip.

'Did I just go back to the future? Why am I in the hospital?'

There were footsteps right outside the door, effectively distracting Reiya from her stampeding thoughts. The knob turned and she held her breath as the person behind it slid partially into the room to survey its lone occupant.

It turned out to be the doctor, and the older woman stared at her with awe the moment their eyes met.

"Well I'll be…you really are awake, Yunagi-san."

Reiya gave her a questioning glance. She couldn't voice out her concerns even if she wanted to, her throat too dry to speak. The doctor crossed the threshold and closed the door behind her, telling her she was there to check her vitals.

Reiya listlessly complied and listened as the doctor went about examining her, but she couldn't stifle her shock when the older woman mentioned the surgery she had apparently undergone the day before, her eyes growing wide and her throat working scratchily just to utter a singular word.

"S-surgery?"

"Yes," came the doctor's solemn reply. "You were stabbed in the chest, Yunagi-san. It punctured your left lung and tore into your thoracic cavity. It was a near-fatal wound and we had to operate on you right away. Thankfully, you were able to pull through. It was a good thing you were brought into the hospital as quickly as possible. Any later and it would've been too late."

Too late. The words rang with ominous clarity as that was exactly what happened in her previous life.

But something didn't add up.

She was stabbed twice, in the chest and the abdomen, but she only got operated on her chest?

'No.' Reiya grew incredibly uneasy as she realized she only got stabbed once, not twice.

Something had changed. And it changed because she went back to the past.

But what exactly? How? As for how she got into the hospital…

Someone definitely got involved and helped her the day before when Hanma came to kill her, and whoever that was, knew the answers as to what happened this time around.

"Doctor…" Reiya began after wetting her parched lips. "T-the person who helped me…w-who…"

"Ah," the doctor uttered in understanding. She straightened and picked up her clipboard before giving her an amicable smile. "No doubt you'd want to see him right away. Well…I see no immediate problems with your postoperative condition, so I can send him in here, if you like. He's waiting outside actually, and he refused to leave until he gets to talk with you."

Reiya's heart began to jump in her chest in fast, hopeful thumps. 'Could it be Jiro-kun?'

The doctor released a quick sigh and reached to pinch the bridge of her nose. "Stubborn lad. He even made it a condition that I would have to let him in here if he guessed right. If you had already woken up, I mean. And he did. However, if it weren't for the fact that he's my senpai's son, I really wouldn't allow him or anyone for that matter, to come in here when it hasn't even been an hour after you woke up."

'Her senpai's son?' Reiya thought incredulously. It couldn't be Manjiro but whoever he was, she wanted to meet him regardless.

"I-It's fine," Reiya said with a small smile. "I want to see him."

The doctor gave her a nod and bade her to drink a small amount of water before going out to retrieve her mysterious savior. Reiya had just placed the empty cup on the bedside table when she heard the door open again. She settled back into the propped up pillows, self-consciously fortifying her composure only to completely lose it when her eyes landed on the tall young man – no, teenager – that just walked into the room.

He was wearing a medical mask and transparent light-green personal protective equipment, but underneath the see-through material was a trendy ensemble of a black tee, a white sleeveless high-collared zippered vest, black ripped jeans, black sneakers, and a number of braided leather bracelets on his left wrist. He was incredibly toned and attractive, the mask doing little to conceal his sharp and mature features. He was what one would call a 'cool beauty', but his looks didn't fully account for the mysterious, dangerous air around him.

He closed the door and turned to face her. Then he took off the mask, and Reiya instantly recognized him.

And looking at him frightened her.

She didn't know what could have possibly happened, but he was no longer the same person she remembered; not with the brilliant highlights of black and blue in his spiky silver hair, or the conspicuous design of a tribal dragon flying towards a tribal sun running along the length of his right forearm.

But what really frightened Reiya wasn't the fact that he looked, or perhaps already was, a gangster, oh no. What really scared her was the patch of bandage covering his left cheek and the splash of dried blood on his clothes.

Her pulse thumped unsteadily as he approached her in a careful manner, as if she were a wild animal that might bolt if he came at her too fast. His clear green eyes shone with muted emotion, and Reiya's heart clenched in concern and dismay as she uttered his name.

"Taito…"

He didn't stop until he reached the side of her bed and she caught the glitter of black diamond studs in each ear as he bent to sit on the edge. He simply stared at her, his features softening as he searched her face.

They didn't say anything for a moment, the two of them studying the other with questions floating in the empty space between them.

And then, slowly, Taito did something that caught Reiya thoroughly off guard.

He gave her an incandescent smile.

"About damn time you woke up, fatty Nee-chan."

Reiya's eyes filled with liquid warmth. "Taito," she said again, softly, shakily. "Taito…is that really you…?"

He leaned forward as she reached for him. 'I thought I'd never see you again...'

"You look…different," she said as she slid her palm to cup the shape of his uninjured cheek, struggling to reconcile the present image of her brother with the small five year old boy she had just been with a few minutes ago. Taito had never been a delinquent, even in her previous life.

He released a soft huff and gave her a sardonic smirk. "Yeah, well…Not as much as you. You feelin' alright? I got a lot of things I wanna talk about, but I can come back tomorrow if you aren't feelin' up to it."

"No, don't leave," Reiya replied immediately. "I'm a little sleepy but I can manage." She took her hand off his cheek and stared at him with mingled dread and curiosity. "Right now…I just really want to know what happened. Taito…you saved me yesterday, didn't you? But why do you look like that? And how did you…"

Taito had turned away, giving her his side profile. He raked a hand through his hair and sighed heavily through his nose, regarding her with mild suspicion from over his shoulder. "Before that…I just wanna confirm one thing."

"What is it?" Reiya asked, her voice nearly a whisper.

"The you I'm talkin' to right now…is the exact same Nee-chan who collapsed on me twelve years ago, am I right?"

Reiya was at a loss for words. Her heart raced with uncomfortable force, her nerves jumping everywhere in her body. But her reaction seemed to be answer enough to Taito, who continued before she could utter a word.

"I was just a runt back then, but I could never forget what happened that day, or the day before that when you suddenly decided to be a proper older sister out of nowhere." He let out a sudden, self-deprecating laugh. "Seriously…little me got ahead of himself and got all excited…Until you suddenly fainted in the middle of the road and told me a bunch of crazy stuff. I got so fucking scared…I thought you were gonna up and die on me right there but then you suddenly woke up and looked at me like I was a stranger to you all over again."

"Taito…" Reiya whispered guiltily.

He shook his head and glared into the space in front of him. "You went back to how you always were after that, as if the days you picked me up from daycare never happened. As if the Nee-chan I knew that time was just a fucking illusion…"

Taito gritted his teeth and twisted his torso towards her, staring heatedly into her astonished eyes as he slammed a hand on the counterpane. "But I could never forget about you. Even when you went all cold on me after that, even when you left without saying good-bye…I just knew the you of that day was real. So I held unto that hope and did everything I could to know about you. Back then, you mentioned the Tokyo Manji Gang, right? Well here's your answer as to why I'm here, fatty Nee-chan."

Taito straightened and thumped his hand flat against his chest with a devil-may-care grin. "I became a delinquent and joined Toman."

Reiya's jaw dropped open. "Y-you what!?"

"Oh relax. I didn't join 'em until I was old enough and I'm being extra careful when I roll with the gang. Even Mom and Dad quit getting on my back after I showed 'em I could still get good grades despite bein' a delinquent. Not that they know I joined Toman…" he muttered darkly, "but anyway, it's not like I'm directly involved with the shit they pull so calm down, alright?"

Reiya shook her head in disbelief, her breath coming out in agitated puffs. "Oh my god I can't believe you! Toman isn't just a biker gang anymore, they're dangerous and cruel—"

"But you got involved with 'em anyway," Taito interjected coolly.

Reiya clamped her mouth shut and dropped her gaze on her clenching hands. "Not on purpose..."

"But you did," Taito pressed, "and that's how you got into this whole mess, right?"

At her silence, Taito leaned close, his expression turning gentle and imploring. "Nee-chan…Just what the hell is going on? How exactly did you get involved with Toman? You almost died yesterday, and if I hadn't been there then you really would've—" he broke off and gritted his teeth, finding the words, or perhaps the possibility behind them, too terrible to say.

It took Taito almost a full minute before he could bring himself to speak again, his long fringe strands partially covering his downcast eyes, his gravelly voice gaining an unstable lilt. "But I get the feeling that wasn't the first time it happened, so please…I need you to tell me everything. I want to understand."

Reiya was too overwhelmed to answer him. She was both amazed and distressed at how Taito already managed to gather what happened all on his own. She knew he would believe her if she told him the truth, but if she did, she'd be dragging him down with her into the deep despairing pit centering the Tokyo Manji Gang, where there were near-impossible chances of escape.

Then again…

Hadn't she already gotten him involved?

Taito lifted his gaze to hers and began to frown. "Come on. I'm not some dumb fuck who wouldn't get it if you just explain it to me properly. Besides, I already know you can time travel. Bet nothing's crazier than that, so give me your worst," he challenged.

Reiya contemplated him with a helpless, vaguely exasperated stare, before finally heaving a sigh in resignation.

"All right, I'll tell you."

Taito's brows immediately lifted in receptiveness. He stood and dragged a chair beside the bed, sat with his elbows planted on each knee, and gave her a nod that said, "Let's have it."

Reiya couldn't help smiling at him in spite of herself. And that small, bemused smile turned soft and nostalgic as she began to tell him about the time she truly felt alive.

"It all started when I dared to play Viomaru again..."

Aside from leaving out a few intimate details, Reiya told Taito everything that happened in a span of just three days. He listened attentively, unfazed and understanding, until she revealed that the man she fell in love with turned out to be none other than Mikey of Toman himself.

Taito had looked so derailed that if he wasn't taking the matter so seriously, Reiya would've dissolved into hilarity at the look on his face.

"Fucking hell! You fell in what with the Invincible Mikey!? And he asked you out on a fucking dinner date, took you for a ride on his motorbike and you gave each other whole ass nicknames!? Holy fucking shit!"

Reiya shushed him with a red face before proceeding to tell him what happened with Hanma. Taito sobered immediately, his expression twitching with barely suppressed rage as he listened about how Hanma attacked her after deceiving her.

Taito closed his eyes tight and pressed a shaking fist against his forehead, voice low and riddled with furious remorse. "I was actually one of the guys who're supposed to work under that fucker…I knew somethin' didn't feel right when I heard he was suddenly coming to this part of the city, so I tailed him, but in the end I couldn't even stop him from hurting you..." He clenched his teeth and ground out, "I should've killed that son of a bitch!"

"Taito, please…It's all right." Reiya held his fist in both her hands and gently pulled it away from his reddening skin. "It's enough that you were there for me. They didn't get their way this time, and I'm okay now, really. I'm just glad he didn't get the chance to hurt you, too."

She beckoned him closer and Taito reluctantly complied, letting her caress and console him into calmness. When Taito was finally calm enough to speak, he filled her in with new information: about how he managed to fend Hanma off before he could stab her a second time, about how they brawled before the policemen patrolling near her apartment came to intervene, and about how Hanma unfortunately managed to escape once the police showed up.

Lastly, Taito told her about the fact that Tachibana Naoto was actually alive, and that he was the one who stationed the police there in the first place.

"Naoto-kun is alive?" Reiya asked breathlessly.

"Yeah, and he's a police officer now. I know you said he's supposed to be dead, but he's alive. It's definitely got something to do with you traveling back to the past, just like how you changed the course of my life."

Reiya retreated back into the pillows as she digested the puzzling turn of events. She frowned incredulously into her lap.

"But...but I barely did anything yet. I haven't even seen Hina-chan when I went back to the past, much less Naoto-kun…"

Taito shrugged. "Well, he's up and kicking right now and he's hot on Toman's heels. I think he wants revenge for what they did to his sister."

Reiya looked up at him in shock, the feeling giving way to understanding as she realized that it was only to be expected. For when a person loses something precious, it could only tend to drive them into doing either their absolute best, or their absolute worst.

"I'm happy to hear Naoto-kun's alive," Reiya murmured, "but…how?"

"He's the only one who can answer that," Taito answered grimly. "I can get him to meet with you here, if you want. I get the feeling he wants to talk to you anyway."

Reiya smiled. She closed her eyes and covered her mouth against an insistent yawn. "I would appreciate that," she murmured dreamily.

Taito nodded and stood up. "Right. Then I'ma head out."

"Wait."

Reiya pushed herself upright against the pillows as she contemplated her brother's blurring figure. "You didn't tell me how you knew about how I was able to leap through time yet. How I'm…not the same person I once was."

Taito did not answer right away, appearing to mull over it as he reached for the covers, pulling it high over her torso.

"Because I felt it," he answered. "When you woke up earlier…it was like something jumped inside of me and then I just knew." He gave her a wry smile. "I know this might sound like the cherry on top on all of this crazy shit, but I think we're connected now."

The speculation heralded several possibilities. 'Can the two of us go back in time, or is it just me? Are you the only one who knows, or did everyone I got in contact with in the past know as well? Do life-threatening situations give me the power to leap through time, or was it something else? Do you…think I can do it again?'

But Reiya was suddenly overcome by extreme weariness to voice her concerns. Instead, she stared warmly into her brother's face and smiled.

"Taito…Thank you for everything."

He colored and huffed through his nose as he turned away. "I'm not really doin' this for you. I'm just doin' this to satisfy my own curiosities."

Reiya chuckled. "All the same. Will you be all right going out there?" she asked, her eyebrows knitting in concern. "Hanma will probably want to get revenge on you…and Toman…"

"I'll be fine. He didn't even know who I was before I decked his ass. I doubt any of the top dogs at Toman do, since I'm currently some faceless no-name delinquent hangin' on to the lower branches." He threw her a sideways glance and grinned. "I told you, I'm very careful. Can't have any of 'em knowing I joined the gang just 'cause I was tryin' to figure out why my fat sister suddenly acted all creepy."

Reiya's knitted brows tightened indignantly. "I've never been fat."

Taito snickered and raised a hand as he went to the door. "Don't worry about me and rest up. I'll come see you again tomorrow, Nee-chan."

Reiya hummed and surrendered to the darkness that hovered over her vision. Traveling through time took its toll but she'd never felt this relieved after the first time. She didn't know having someone who knew and understood what she was going through was something she needed, and the soothing form of Taito's broad, reliable back lingered in the forefront of her mind as she drifted off into the welcoming abyss of sleep.

But on the next day, Taito did not return.

JULY 8, 2017

The past two days moved over a blur of regular check-ups, medication, and increasing worry. Reiya was supposed to be getting better, but she could only feel the opposite, her body and soul hampered by morphine and endless pain, growing desolation and endless questions.

She was antsy with recurring concerns; on Taito, Naoto, Mr. and Mrs. Tachibana, Hina's wake and funeral, whether her parents knew what happened to her, whether Hanma would come to finish her off, the past she left and the future that awaited her…

But now it seemed like her entire world had dwindled down into the restrictive, sterile confines of the hospital room.

What made it even worse was how she had no way of contacting anyone. The doctor strictly forbade her to use a phone or even the television, telling her that exposure to radiation will have adverse effects in her recovery, and even the nurses offered half-assed assurances and excuses every time she tried to appeal to them.

It didn't take long for Reiya to realize that they were deliberately withholding her access to the outside world, and if that wasn't already odd enough, the number of police officers patrolling the hospital did more than rouse her suspicions. They confirmed it.

'This must be Naoto-kun's doing,' she deduced. Taito did tell her how Naoto had the police patrol her area, and now it seemed he was doing it again for the exact same reason: surveillance.

It was something Reiya could perfectly understand, of course. As far as the police were concerned, she was not only a civilian whose life was almost taken by a Toman member, but a woman who became intimately involved with the said gang's commander.

She was no longer innocent, all because she met Manjiro. He turned her world upside down, in every single way.

And she still loved him dearly for it.

In fact, the only thing that kept her from spiraling into despair when she had no one else to talk to about her worries was Manjiro. He anchored her unlike anything else. Reiya understood he was not in a position to see her at the moment, but just thinking about how she had another chance to be with him again in this life after all infused her with joyful hope.

She stood by the open window of her room, closing her eyes as she whispered her prayers into the wind, wishing and hoping for every single word to come true. Just then someone knocked on her door.

Reiya turned to see who had entered and her eyes widened, her legs immediately pulling her towards him.

"Taito! I was worried something happened to you! Where were you?"

Her arms went around him fast and tight, and Taito allowed it for a moment before pulling back, his face tense with his eyes unable to look at her just yet.

"I know, I'm sorry, shit, Nee-chan…"

He was incredibly distraught, his body drawn taut like a bow beneath her hands, his fingers flexing restlessly against her shoulders.

"What's wrong?" Reiya asked gently.

He anxiously stared at her and asked instead, "You didn't watch the news and no one came to visit you the past two days, right?"

"No, but wh—"

"Good, 'cause it's a fucking shitfest out there right now, and it's got somethin' to do with why the cops are swarmin' the place."

Reiya's face turned skeptical. Then her expression changed as she understood.

"It has something to do with Toman, isn't it?"

Taito gave her an affirming nod and led her to the bed. He sat her down before pulling the chair by the edge, sitting in it as he took out his smartphone. He held it in his hands, keeping his head angled downwards as he stared up at her, his face grave with repressed alarm.

"There's something you need to see," Taito said. "But before I show it to you…you should know that Toman's in the middle of a civil war right now. It split into two factions after…after Hanma died."

Dumbstruck, Reiya could only stare at Taito as if he was speaking in a language she couldn't understand.

'Hanma…is dead?'

Somehow she couldn't make herself believe it. Her killer was apparently no more, and while she felt a little relieved that he wouldn't get to finish the job after all, there was no gratification or satisfaction.

There was only the hollow, cold sense of confusion. Dread.

"When?" she heard herself ask.

Taito looked away, his face turning uneasy and severe as he struggled to convey more. "He disappeared after stabbing you three days ago. I thought he took off and went into hiding…but they found his body yesterday bearing a message."

Reiya turned absolutely rigid, her muscles knotting in increasing horror until streaks of pain fired through every limb as she reached a terrible conclusion.

"What did it say?" she asked with forced calm.

Taito shifted uncomfortably as he scrolled through his phone. "I'd rather you see it for yourself. I really don't wanna show this to you," he murmured reluctantly. "But you have the right to see it." His thumb paused and he swallowed, giving her a troubled look at the same time he showed her the screen.

What she saw next made Reiya smother a palm against her mouth. The photograph was mercilessly explicit, featuring the horrifying state of a broken, battered body with a gunshot wound on the forehead, the face crushed and barely recognizable.

But it was him, it was Hanma, with the distinctive golden strip earing and his blond-streaked hair now slick and matted with clumps of blood, his complexion waxen and sickeningly gray, his skin brutalized with the aforementioned message.

The acid bite of bile gripped the base of her throat and yet Reiya couldn't make herself look away. Her mind was blank and imploding at once, cold sweat breaking all over her skin as she realized that what happened to Hanma was more than just murder.

It was a macabre dedication.

For carved into the pale expanse of his chest was the clear-cut shape of a bloodied double cherry.

Reiya wrapped her arms around herself and hung her head as the piercing pressure of tears shook her entire frame, her eyes wide and unblinking, her faint exhales coming out in trembling puffs. Flashes of Manjiro whirled before her eyes like a kaleidoscope, his sweet smiles and gentle gazes overlapping with images of him from the photographs, of his ruthless countenance and the empty, empty eyes.

"You have me…It's already too late for me…"

The words sprang unbidden in her mind, reawakening with a vengeance that suffocated her from the inside out.

"He did this for me…" Reiya whispered. "Jiro-kun…killed Hanma for me…"

Taito nodded gravely. "Everything went to shit when the higher-ups got wind of the situation. Hanma was Kisaki's right-hand man and now Toman's in serious hot water, and they won't care if innocent lives get dragged and drown with 'em."

Her head snapped up, her breaths fast and unsteady. "N-no...I didn't want this...! I don't want anyone to die because of me!"

Taito immediately cupped his hands on her shoulders, his grip warm and secure, keeping her from going off the rails.

"It's not your fault," he insisted. "There were rumors that Mikey-san and Kisaki never got along before shit hit the fan. It was bound to happen. It's just that Hanma putting his hands on you turned out to be the last straw to Mikey-san."

Reiya helplessly shook her head in disbelief before grabbing Taito by the forearms. "W-what about Jiro-kun? How is he? Did something happen to him?"

"I have no idea," Taito answered quietly. There was a different tension to him now, his eyes containing an intensity that made Reiya grow cold. "Nobody knows where he is, but he's been trying to draw Kisaki out by killing his men. All of 'em marked with the same symbol you saw on Hanma."

Her breath seized in brutal stillness. Reiya could feel her face contorting, spasming, as she saw a startling image of Manjiro in her mind as a cold-blooded killer. So impenetrable and yet so alone, walking on the path of self-destruction with his hands steeped in blood and bogged down with the never-ending darkness that he tried to protect her from.

"It's already too late for me…"

Reiya broke down in tears and Taito scrambled to find a handkerchief as she covered her face with her trembling palms.

"No, NO! I want to him to stop!" she sobbed. "H-he's only doing this because he feels responsible for what happened! I drove him into this. I want to see him, I need to tell him it's not his fault! I need to tell him to stop!"

"You can't, it's too late for that," Taito broke in, his voice gentle yet firm. He gave her his handkerchief and Reiya took it, pressing it briefly against her face and muffling her sobs as her brother carried on. "You're right that he's trying to atone for what happened to you but that's not the only reason. He's doing it to say good-bye. He wants you to stay away. Can't you see? By doing this…Mikey-san's gonna end everything."

Reiya froze with a hiccup and cried, "But he'll die! No...he's already dying!" She blew her nose into the handkerchief before looking up with fire in her eyes. "Jiro-kun never wanted for any of this to happen. Everything is Kisaki's doing…Everything! If it wasn't for him…if it wasn't for him—!"

Taito looked subdued in the face of her wrath. "Nee-chan…"

"I need to go back," she declared frantically.

"Back to the past?" Taito guessed incredulously. "We don't even know how. That could've been a one-time thing!"

"If it was then I shouldn't even be here right now," Reiya returned with a tearful frown. "There must be something that could make it happen again, a trigger…And I think it has something to do with how I almost died."

Taito's face turned pale, then it turned thunderous. "So what you wanna try that out by charging into the middle of a gang war!?"

Reiya winced but rose to match his volume with unyielding tenacity. "Of course not, but I'm hardly going to sit back and do nothing! I know it's dangerous, but I'm willing to take the risk if it means I can talk to Jiro-kun again."

But Taito did not agree. He shot out of the chair and paced back and forth in unrestrained frustration.

"I'm telling you it's impossible! Do you wanna fucking die!? Why won't you just stop!? Why can't you understand that Mikey-san himself doesn't want to get you involved anymore? Why do you even think he marked those bastards with a symbol only you can understand?"

The stubborn set in Reiya's face vanished the moment Taito fired the rhetorical question, and any words of rebuttal she might've had died away in her throat.

Seeing the incomprehension and terrified uncertainty flashing across her eyes, Taito visibly fought to get his temper under control. He sat back into the chair, sighed, and pinned her with an unwavering gaze.

"It wasn't just to warn Kisaki, it was to keep you away, too. Mikey-san would want you to stay out of his business. And in case you forgot, his business happens to be fucking illegal. I know you love the guy, but he's dangerous, Nee-chan, and nothing you do now is ever gonna change the mess he's in. Hell, it's not even something you can fix with a conversation!"

Word after word after word, Reiya felt herself shrinking away. She was startled by the unvarnished truth in her brother's words, and even more so at her own naïveté. Taito was right, young hypocritical Toman delinquent that he was. She was, by all accounts, powerless in the face of Kisaki and Toman's evil. Even Manjiro himself was adamant in cutting all ties with her. Love alone would never be enough to dispel the years and years of accumulated darkness surrounding him, and every possibility she might have had to be with him disappeared the moment Kisaki knew about the two of them.

It was clear now that there were no happy endings waiting for them in this life, filling her with dismal thoughts, insecure thoughts, hopeless thoughts, making her feel unworthy of the man who loved her enough to steer her away from a lifetime of bottomless despair, even at the cost of his own happiness.

'So what are you going to do about it?'

The thought came from somewhere deep within Reiya, provoking her, bolstering her. She may be unworthy of Manjiro but he was worth her everything. Worth her love and life.

Worth her time.

"I know that," Reiya said plaintively, quietly, sickened with grief and longing. "And you're right. There's nothing I can do to stop what's happening around Jiro-kun right now. I'm only going to get in his way. But even so…I will not abandon him. He needs help, Taito, and I want to give that to him, in whatever form it may be. That's why I need to go back to the past, where I have a better chance of changing things. I don't know if it's still possible but I'll do anything. Even if it means I'll die trying."

Taito seethed. "So you're gonna give everything up just like that? For a guy you barely know?"

"I'm not giving anything up. Only giving."

He looked about ready to tear his hair off. "Just…why!?"

At that, Reiya could not help but smile a soft, love-laden smile.

"Because he saved me."

Taito blinked, his jaw shifting with disagreements that stayed jammed in his throat. Then something in his expression loosened and he deflated into his seat, gaze dropping low.

Suddenly he looked much, much older than his age. Up until that moment Reiya had forgotten how he was only seventeen years old, but now she caught a glimpse of the child inside of him. Of a weary, lonely child...stricken by the weight of the things he endured.

"You're always like this…" Taito began quietly, "like you're ready to bolt without a moment's notice. Even in the past, you never stay in the moment. You always look like you're mentally somewhere else, stuck on some promised tomorrow, some better life no one else can see." He slid a hand through the forefront locks of his hair and kept it there as he gave her a pained smile. "You just don't care about what you leave behind, do you?"

Reiya was slow to reply, anguished and stunned in the face of her brother's heartbreak. It was not a problem that could be solved right then and there, or even in a year. It was a wound to the soul. And she could only bare her own in response. She could only be honest.

"I've overlooked a lot," Reiya admitted in a humbled tone. "I was blind to the things that I should've paid closer attention to. I took what I had for granted and chose to run away when things got hard. I sought to comfort myself instead of facing my problems properly. And when I felt like I lost everything I locked myself away and never looked back. I was selfish and arrogant…and an absolute coward…"

She risked glancing at her brother, who looked hesitant yet absorbed, and felt a surge of emotion that strengthened her.

"But I won't look away anymore," she stated firmly. "Not from my past, not from the people I care about, and not from myself. I'm done living like I'm half-alive. I want to change. I want to stop being afraid." She paused and drew a soft breath, and spoke softly still. "But I can't do that if I abandon the ones who helped me realize that."

Taito narrowed an eye in confusion and Reiya explained, "I'm not just going back for Jiro-kun, but for Hina-chan, too."

His expression cleared and he gave a slow nod, a gesture of acceptance.

"Do you really think you can change an entire history?" he asked.

Reiya smiled. "That's what trying is for."

Taito crossed his arms. "Even without a guarantee?"

Her smile dissolved into determination. "We need to try. How can we begin to win if we're already resigned to lose? That's how I've always lived my life. I tried, and then I try again." She smiled again, this one big and cheeky. "And you're really not one to talk about guarantees. You joined Toman just so you could meet me again. You were probably scared, and you probably doubted yourself countless times, but you still tried, didn't you?"

Taito wore a caught-red-handed look before looking away with a huff. "Yeah but I wasn't all smiles and heart eyes about it."

Reiya chuckled as she stood up, surprising him when she drew his head to her chest while her other arm wrapped around his shoulders. Taito hesitated at first, keeping his weight from pressing too hard against her but he gradually relaxed and she pressed her cheek against the prickly but diaphanous mass of his hair, thoroughly convinced she could weather anything that may come her way from now on, now that she wasn't alone anymore.

"I would've had a harder time figuring out what to do if you weren't here," she said earnestly. "Thank you for trying, Taito."

"Like I have a choice," he retorted quietly, voice gruff but soft around the edges.

Smiling, Reiya lifted her head and bent to kiss him on the forehead. "I'm really glad you're here," she said, just before making contact.

She was swallowed in darkness the second she did, like falling headfirst into a boundless tunnel, with lightning pulsing and fracturing the void. But there was light at the end of it and this time Reiya knew. Her soul rejoiced and her heart leaped in fiery anticipation.

She was no longer powerless.