Warnings for this chapter:
Minor description of blood, minor major character death, descriptions of vomiting, depictions of violence.
The music pounds against her skull like a metal bat against a brick wall. The lights flash against her sight like a flickering neon light switch, lighting up her already crystalline blue eyes like they were their own source of light.
Hanagaki Takemichi stumbles her way through the packed floor, twirling her way through the dancing and drugged indecency of strangers. Her eyes catch onto the dark mass of someone walking through the crowded dancefloor before she twirls around, sight already forgotten.
Her hands swipe up her sides. Her head knocks back and a hazy smile forces itself on her face. She twirls twice more, finally out of the suffocating sea of strangers.
Her eyes glance over to the bar. She doesn't see anyone she knows. Wasn't there meant to be someone there? She can't remember, or did she come alone?
Takemichi walks on unsteady heels, suddenly feeling panicked. She blinks slowly. Why does she feel panicked? She's used to clubbing alone.
Why is she used to clubbing alone? Oh. That's right. She didn't really make any new friends after middle school, when they just seemingly disappeared from the face of the Earth.
Wait. Was she not friends with them anymore? What about her girlfriend? Wait no-she's single. She's been single since she disappeared 10 years ago.
Where was she? When was she?
Takemichi tries to quicken her pace, only to trip and fall against the exit door. Biting cold air hits her face and legs as she stumbles out. She's scared, no, terrified. That person wasn't meant to be here.
Her thoughts keep pouring out of her ears as she tries to get her bearings. Is this another one of those? No... no. Maybe she drank too much. But why did she even drink in the first-
A hand snakes into her curly hair and pulls back. Takemichi's mouth opens to cry in pain when she feels something brush against her neck.
The pain comes a few seconds later as warmth smothering her front suddenly overpowers the freezing winter air. She blinks and suddenly she's laying on bright red pavement.
That's weird. The pavement was always grey.
Her eyesight starts to tunnel in when black dress shoes step into view. Someone crouches, revealing a pinstriped suit. She doesn't realize she was blinking until she notices that she was suddenly looking up at the person's face, completely terrified. Does she know this person?
Glasses, and blood splattered gloves are all she takes definite note of. Oh. Someone slit her throat.
Shame really he was the one to kill her. If it were anyone else, her death would have been mourned by no one. She doesn't want to see Sensei cry at her funeral, if she'll even get one.
"She'll grieve of course, but then... Hinata will now only look at me. Good riddance, Hanagaki Takemichi."
Takemichi falls out of her bed and bolts off of the ground. She heaves loudly as she forces herself to run out of her bedroom. Her hand clasps over her mouth, sprinting down the stairs. She heaves again as her foot catches on something she forgot to pick up.
She falls the rest of the way, slamming against the railing in an attempt to stop herself from hitting her head. Takemichi clenches her eyes shut, leaning over the last few steps, heaving up bile.
She feels her throat burn as she heaves again, hand clenched around the railing. She groans when her stomach starts to cramp.
"That's right... I didn't eat dinner yesterday. Or lunch if I recall..." Takemichi heaves a few more times, excess bile rising into her mouth. She quickly spits it out with a grimace before leaning her forehead against her arm.
She keeps her eyes closed as she calms her heart. She's suddenly sitting in seiza, shallow waters of the ocean lapping at her legs. She stares ahead at the foreboding dark storms brewing ahead, but never reaching her. Behind her, the sun touches the horizon, bathing her and the ocean a bloody red.
Either someone helped her to her home and she imagined the whole throat slitting thing and her throwing up is a vision, or her clubbing alone for her New Year's celebration before getting killed was the vision.
Takemichi opens her eyes with a deep breath, ready to face whatever is reality. She grimaces at the bile she sees on the wooden floors of her house. At least she's not dealing with a hangover, or the aftermath of her throat getting slit and somehow surviving.
"Great..." Takemichi sighs, pressing her forehead deeper into her arm before she uses the railing to slowly stand up. She hops over the railing to avoid stepping into her vomit and trails into the kitchen.
A headache forces itself to the front of her mind when she turns on the blaring lights. She furiously rubs her eyes, trying to get the stars to go away as she walks forward. The next time Takemichi opens her eyes, she pauses at spotting her reflection in the microwave glass.
Her long black hair fell around her head and shoulders in chaotic waves, slightly frizzled from her tossing and turning. Her crystalline blue eyes seemed to glow when surrounded by the tired bags under them, making her pale skin seem even paler too. No, wait-she actually is a little bit paler than usual.
Takemichi watches herself blink before turning towards the kitchen sink and crouches down. She starts to rummage through the cabinet below, looking for the right cleaning supplies.
"I guess I can start mopping the floors... I'm not going to be going back to bed..." Takemichi mutters to herself, taking out some floor cleaner, bleach, and a bucket.
"Hmm... The tides are changing today..." Takemichi lets the thought drift on and away from her awareness, not paying attention to what she just thought.
If there were two words to describe Hanagaki Takemichi, everyone, in relative terms, would say she is below average. Of course, this was only including the people who take Takemichi as she is face value.
Distracted, quiet, overly emotional, weak, weird. Unfortunately, a good amount of people only take the 14 year old at face value.
If people who knew Takemichi, truly knew her, were to be asked to describe her in two words, they would say the same thing with different meanings. Stubborn and odd.
Courageous, stubborn to a fault, empathetic, exhausted, determined, strange, kind, selfless. Those who liked her, those who were indifferent, and those who hated her all agreed that her strange but charismatic behavior would bring anyone and everyone in as she went on none the wiser.
Though, to those who knew who the Hanagakis were to Japan and its history, pity was the first thing anyone thought of when they saw Takemichi. It's a pity that such a sweet, if a bit of a reclusive, child is stuck with a curse that has destroyed the family name to the point of extinction.
It was obvious how affected Takemichi truly was. It was only a matter of time before it took her too.
Takemichi whips around a corner, using the lamppost to keep herself from tripping up. She stumbles over her own feet before she starts to sprint again. Wait. Why was she sprinting again?
"Takuya-kun... please hold on!" Takemichi hears echoing shouts and cheers bounce off the empty park. Takemichi makes herself sprint even faster, hearing the noise get closer and closer. She trips over herself, yelping loudly.
Takuya... she overheard her friends speaking in the boy's bathroom. Damn Masaru! His lies will get someone killed one of these days.
What... oh. That's right! He tricked Akkun and the others into thinking he was a leader of a gang.
Takemichi bites back her guilt and regret as she staggers up off the ground. She should have knocked some sense into her friends sooner. She should have helped them get out of this. She shouldn't have let them convince her not to step in.
Takemichi stumbles down the first few steps, grabbing the railing in case she fell. Her face hardens the moment she sees the most fragile of her friends slowly raise his fists in front of him.
The cheers cease, the tension building up as Kiyomasa breathes out the smoke from his lungs. "Begin."
Takemichi takes a few more steps down, breathing in deeply. The cheers are deafening, but she can be louder when she needs to be.
"HOLD THE FUCK UP, YOU ASSHOLES!" Takemichi screeches at the top of her lungs. She ignores the attention it brings her as she takes a few more steps down. Her foot catches on the edge of the previous step, making her stumble forward.
"T-Takemichi-chan! What–you–" Takuya stares at the short female, watching her use the railing to straighten herself out.
"What the hell is your problem, bitch?"
"Scram, bitch! This is a men's only club!"
Takemichi glares down at the slouched third year running this entire thing. She takes a deep breath, reigning in whatever terror she felt.
"I bet it gets real fucking boring for brutes like yourselves to watch the same damn match every single time, yeah?" Takemichi states, expression carefully blank as she walks down the stairs with her hands on her hips. As she walks down, she keeps up the glaring contest with Kiyomasa.
She stops right above him, leaning forward to fully face him. A smile breaks her blank mask as she straightens her posture and walks around him.
"No wonder you're losing so much money with your matches..." She purposefully glances down past his waist as she points towards him. "...right, Shrimpy-kun?"
Takemichi hears a loud cackle off to her left and glances over to see Akkun pressing his fist against his mouth, the cackling becoming muffled. She stifles a smile as a sudden movement catches her attention.
Kiyomasa stands up, his cigarette completely destroyed, with a menacing grin on his face. Takemichi notices more than realizes how much she fucked up once again.
"Oh shit. Here we go again with my dumbassery." Takemichi closes her eyes, taking a deep breath.
Takemichi opens her eyes with face tilted towards the sky, the clouds lazily moving towards the west. Was it another vision? Or is this the vision?
"Michi-chan?" Takemichi blinks into awareness and glances at her wonderful girlfriend, staring into the worried burnt coral eyes of Tachibana Hinata.
Takemichi stares at her for a long moment before she looks up at the sky again. That's right. School just ended. And she overheard...
Takemichi cuts her thoughts off before they go any farther as she closes her eyes. The shallow waters that she sat in washed over her legs, the ocean brewing behind the storm. The wind kicks up her hair, blowing it into her face as she stares ahead at the crimson sun halfway past the horizon.
The black haired teenager opens her eyes, staring up at the fluffy clouds. This was reality. She blinks once before facing towards her left. Her friends are about to do something stupid. Incredibly stupid.
"Michi-chan, are you okay?" Hinata asks before reaching over to grab her girlfriend's hand. Takemichi releases a huge sigh, her shoulders relaxing as Hinata starts to rub her knuckles with her thumb.
"Hina-chan... which way did Akkun and the others head?" Takemichi faces her girlfriend once more, staring down at the barely shorter female.
"...towards the park. Michi-chan, what's wrong?" Hinata asks the black haired teenager, eyes wide with worry.
"I have to go before they do something stupid. Let's take a raincheck on our date for tomorrow, okay?" Takemichi leans over and kisses Hinata on the cheek before she turns around. She starts sprinting down the path towards the park.
"O-oh! B-be safe, Michi-chan!" Hinata calls out after Takemichi, placing a hand on her cheek and waving her other one.
Takemichi sprints down the path, passing by the school entrance. Takemichi whips around a corner, using the lamppost to keep herself from tripping up. She stumbles over her own feet before she starts to sprint again, angry tears starting to form in her eyes.
Pain blossoms from the center of Takemichi's nose as her head snaps back, rapidly blinking away her tears. A fight? Why is she fighting? Takuya–the fight club–Kiyomasa.
She only stumbles a few steps back before she regains her balance and rushes forward. She snarls angrily at the increasingly pissed off Kiyomasa, using her momentum to fall below his fist.
She quickly rolls before kicking out her feet. Kiyomasa coughs loudly as her feet slam into his stomach. Takemichi scrambles to stand up, stumbling as the world spins faster and faster around her.
"Fuckin' bitch. Too weak to even make me stumble," Kiyomasa attempts to taunt, recovering quicker than Takemichi would have liked. Her breaths leave her mouth in heavy pants, her sweat and blood making her hair stick to her forehead and the sides of her face.
"Fuckin' Shrimpy-kun. Too weak to knock out a bitch," She taunts back, grinning through her shaking fear.
"Why do I need to? You've lost!" Kiyomasa shouts, veins prominent in his fury. Takemichi shifts on her feet, pushing back her nausea.
"Lost? Get your fucking eyes checked, Shrimpy-kun! 'm still standing, aren't I?! If you want to win, you gotta kill me! I won't back down!" Takemichi retorts back. She slowly raises her fists in front of her and moves herself into a sloppy fighting stance. She'd kill for even a long stick right now for this fight.
"YOU REALLY WANNA DIE?! FINE. GET ME MY BAT!" Kiyomasa turns towards the crowd of third years.
Takemichi narrows her eyes. She glances around trying to find anything to protect herself. She can handle getting beaten with a bat, but she'd rather not get hospitalized.
"A bat?"
"Aren't they meant to be fist-fighting?"
"He wouldn't kill her, would he?"
"Hurry up!" Kiyomasa orders, turning towards the crowd of unnerved bystanders.
Oh. So, this was a fight she had offered. At least Takuya-kun was safe. That's right! She had to–
"Hey, Kiyomasa." The third year turns around with a glare, only to tense in shock. "You're scaring the crowd."
Takemichi blinks as she watches a tall male teenager walk forward as if he casually owned the place. His hair was blonde and shaved along the sides, a black dragon tattoo on the left side of his head.
"Calm down, dumbass." He stops in the center of the impromptu fighting ring. Takemichi takes notice of the other, much shorter, blonde male behind him. Her brain pauses at the void black eyes as they glance over at the tattooed teenager.
Odd.
"Hey, Ken-chin," The younger male starts, chewing whatever he ate the rest of.
"Wha? Don't call me by that stupid nickname here," Ken-chin, or whatever his actual name was, states with a glare.
The shorter male smiles with his eyes closed and holds up his hand. "I'm out of dorayaki."
"Who the hell is that?" Takemichi hears Akkun question quietly. She doesn't hear what Makoto says as she watches every third year cross their wrists behind their backs and bow a complete ninety degrees.
"Good day, sir!" Everyone, excluding Takemichi and her friends, shout at the same time. She watches the pale blonde walk casually towards her. Crystalline blue stares into void black.
Familiar.
"Good day, Commander, sir!" Ken-chin glances around with a scowl as the commander stops walking for a moment. Takemichi doesn't glance away, straightening up her posture. She's suddenly incredibly self-aware about her appearance. Wait... her appearance? Oh yeah... the fight...
Takemichi refrains from wiping away the blood still dripping down her face, instead attempting to casually fix her oversized jacket. Her hair was in complete disarray, her hair tie gone forever and leaving her hair a mess of chaotic waves, and her school uniform was now stained with blood and torn, but still presentable. Overall, she could appear worse.
"Good day, sir," Kiyomasa says quietly, giving a slight bow until Ken-chin suddenly kicks him in the stomach. The commander walks past without even a glance of acknowledgement.
"Kiyomasa, who died and made you king? Make sure you're that far down when bowing to our commander," Ken-chin drawls, mercilessly staring down at the bowing third year.
"Y-yes, sir..." Kiyomasa forces out through gritted teeth.
Takemichi stays completely still as the commander stops right in front of her, his face barely a few inches away from hers as he stares down into her eyes.
"Hey, what's your name?" The commander asks softly, expression completely blank.
"...Hanagaki Takemichi. And yours?" The black haired teenager questions, just as softly.
The commander tilts his head in interest. "Sano Manjirō, Takemitchy."
"Takemitchy?"
"That's what Mikey said, Takemitchy," Ken-chin states with an indifferent glare.
Takemichi blinks, not moving away when Mikey grabs the back of her head, pulling her forward. The wind blows past as Takemichi eternalizes the void eyes into her memories.
"Are you truly in reality right now?" Mikey asks quietly. Takemichi takes a sharp breath before she finally breaks away from the male's gaze. She clenches her eyes shut as she pushes back the panic.
Takemichi opens her eyes, hands tightly gripping the railing. She rapidly blinks away her panic before glancing around. Cheering–fighting–Takuya's on the ground. Takuya's–Takuya!
Takemichi blinks, feeling her stomach drop. She leapt into the air, crystalline blue turning icy in her fury. Takemichi glares down at Kiyomasa as she starts to fall.
"Takemichi-chan!" She doesn't even recognize who screams her name as her foot slams into Kiyomasa's neck. Her knee instinctively bends as she forces her weight on top of the third year. Takemichi leaps back up into the air, flipping over herself.
"Shit!" Her foot slips underneath herself as she tries to land on her feet, making her flip over once again. She changes her momentum and lands in a roll, stopping on her back.
She uses the few moments it takes for her to stand up to close her eyes, stalling her breath. The shallow waters had calmed to a frozen stillness, thunder booming behind her. Everything in sight changes to a bloody red hue as the sun barely stays a sliver above the horizon.
Takemichi opens her eyes and focuses on the shouting around her. She turns back around, hiding her shaking hands inside the oversized sleeves of her jacket.
"You're little side hustle ends now, Shrimpy-kun," Takemichi sneers, icy eyes staring at the third year struggling to stand up.
"Fuck me and my impulsive ass," Takemichi thinks as she takes the glares, insults, and attempted intimidations from the rest of the third years in stride.
"You wanna die, bitch?!"
"You have some fucking nerve attacking Toman!"
"You'll regret this!"
Kiyomasa chuckles as he rubs the back of his neck. "Can't believe a short bitch like you managed to get the drop on me, Shrimpy-chan."
"I wasn't talking about your height." She allows the smugness to show on her face as Kiyomasa turns red from anger, and probably embarrassment, Akkun cackling even louder than he did in the vision.
Takemichi chokes on her own spit when someone suddenly punches her chest. Her breaths come in wheezes and stuttering pants as she stumbles backwards. She keeps her ground, using her hands to grab the fist before it lands another punch.
"Help me teach this bitch a lesson!"
Takemichi is thrown to the side, landing on her side. She rolls with the momentum before stopping on her leg. Her hand claws across the ground to try and stop her from sliding further, catching onto something. Takemichi glances down and stares at the broken tree branch.
She snaps her head up as she hears multiple battle cries and curls her fingers around the end of the branch. Dozens of third years charge at her, either grinning or fuming, Kiyomasa standing behind them with a large grin.
"Takemichi-chan!" Her friends shout as they attempt to push their way through.
Takemichi scowls as she stands up, feet set apart and the tree branch held in front of her. She takes a deep breath and holds her ground, waiting for the third year boys to get closer.
The first punch, she dodges, falling to the ground and holding herself up. She kicks out her feet, hitting the boy's stomach. She pushes herself off the ground with her hands, forcing the boy to fall backwards.
The second punch, she leans her head back to dodge, lifting the branch to the side. She slams it against the second boy's neck, swinging him down with the momentum.
The third punch hits the side of her jaw, causing her to stumble back. She raises the branch, using it to push away the punch before slamming it down and whacking the third boy on the head. He falls forward and lands his face into Takemichi's raised knee.
Everything that happens after the fourth punch, Takemichi hardly even recalls anything. All she remembers is the pain buzzing through her head from each punch that lands, the branch she used as an impromptu sword snapping in half after knocking down five more third years, and blood mixing with the sweat that poured down her face.
Takemichi coughs up pink spit as she's forcefully kicked in the stomach. She collapses to the ground, coughing loudly and pressing a hand over her stomach. A whimper falls out of her mouth when someone pulls her up with her own hair.
She pushes past the stinging in her eyes to look up, blinking away the blood and sweat. She barely had time to notice Kiyomasa's bloodied face and his raised fist before he punched her right in the nose. Her eyes tear up as she blindly grabs the hand fisted through her hair and uses the leverage to try and swing her legs up.
"Fucking–" Takemichi feels her foot hit the taller man's dick before he falls forward in pain. She drops to the ground first and forces herself to roll out of the way as Kiyomasa falls with his hands covering his dick.
"You're–you're a real pain in the ass, bitch!" Kiyomasa speaks through gritted teeth, slowly standing up. Takemichi groans internally as she staggers to her feet.
"Thanks. I try to be when people fuck with my friends," Takemichi snarks back before sniffing loudly. She furiously rubs her eyes to get rid of the pain induced tears and the blood dripping into them.
"Fuck it all! I'm going to beat you to death!" Kiyomasa shouts angrily, slowly straightening his posture. The height difference of 11 inches was incredibly prominent with neither middle schooler backing down.
"I'd like to see you fucking try, Shrimpy-kun!" Takemichi shouts back with a ferocious grin.
Kiyomasa raises his fist, getting ready to charge forward. "Hey, Kiyomasa."
Takemichi tenses up as Kiyomasa turns around. An incredibly tall 15 year old stood with his hands shoved in his pockets and coal black eyes glaring in genuine anger towards the brown haired teenager. His long blonde hair was shaved on the sides and the rest pulled into a tight braid, revealing the black dragon tattoo on the left side of his head and a single silver hoop earring.
"Didn't take it that you'd be such a bastard that you'd hit a woman with no conscience," The barely older teenager continues as he walks forward.
"No way! That's–that's..." Yamagishi Kazushi, known to be the walking delinquent encyclopedia, trails off in his shock.
"Ken... chin..." Takemichi recalls the nickname from the vision.
"The Vice Commander of the Tokyo Manji Gang... Ryuguji Ken! AKA Draken!" Suzuki Makoto continues, making Takemichi tilt her head. Draken?
"Hey, Ken-chin." Takemichi immediately focuses on where the voice came from, eyes immediately catching onto the void black eyes as Mikey ate the rest of his dorayaki.
Definitely odd.
"Wha? Don't call me by that stupid nickname here," Draken states with a glare.
The shorter male smiles with his eyes closed and holds up his hand. "I'm out of dorayaki."
"Who the hell is that?" Takemichi hears Akkun question quietly. She doesn't hear what Makoto says as she watches every third year cross their wrists behind their backs and bow a complete ninety degrees.
"Good day, sir!" Everyone, excluding Takemichi and her friends, shout at the same time. She watches the pale blonde walk casually towards her. Crystalline blue stares into void black once more.
Definitely familiar.
"Sano Manjirō-kun..." Takemichi thinks
"Good day, Commander, sir!" Draken glances around with a scowl as Mikey stops walking for a moment. Takemichi doesn't glance away, straightening up her posture. She's sure she looks so much worse now than in the vision.
"Good day, sir," Kiyomasa says quietly, giving a slight bow until Draken suddenly kicks him in the stomach. The commander walks past without even a glance of acknowledgement.
"Kiyomasa, who died and made you king? Make sure you're that far down when bowing to our commander," Draken drawls, mercilessly staring down at the bowing third year.
"Y-yes, sir..." Kiyomasa forces out through gritted teeth.
Takemichi stays completely still as Mikey stops right in front of her, his face barely a few inches away from hers as he stares down into her eyes.
"Hanagaki... have we met before?" The commander asks himself. Takemichi silently gasps in her shock, eyes wide and skin pale.
"He can't–does he–how does he–"
"Your name... what is it?" The pale blonde snaps out of whatever stupor he was in.
Takemichi blinks before she tilts her head. "Hanagaki Takemichi. And yours?"
"Sano Manjirō." Mikey leans forward even more, a slight smile growing on his face. "Hey Takemitchy..."
"That name again?" Takemichi thinks with a slight sweatdrop.
"From today onwards, you're now my bitch! 'kay?" Mikey states cheerfully, making Takemichi blink.
"...pardon?" Takemichi asks with wide eyes. Oh no. What has she gotten herself into?
Heya! Hope you all enjoy the new story! I'll have you know, I read fanfiction before watching the show, so I got this idea before watching or knowing anything about Tokyo Revengers.
There's not much I can really think of to say to you all right now... hmm... Oh well.
Updates will be posted on Mondays!
I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter! Bye!
WhovianWhoudini