It had been easy to agree to find Kisaki or Sano when Naoto told him the plan because he felt foolishly hopeful. Naoto believed in him so much, he was so certain that Takemichi was the one that could save Hinata that it felt like he didn't have any other choice. Now that he'd met Mikey by pure accident it was starting to feel less tenable. Mikey was a monster. A terrifying eccentric monster. The kind of person who never did anything he didn't want to do. What if he wanted to be friends with Kisaki the way he said he wanted to be friends with Takemichi? After all, now he was being dragged out of class by Draken and Mikey himself.
"You're free today, right?" Mikey grinned, hands in his pockets.
Draken's arm was over Takemichi's shoulders and he was bearing way more weight on Takemichi than he needed to, causing his bruises to ache. The whispering of his classmates only made it worse.
"Well...I was...kind of in school…" he mumbled, awkwardly glancing between the two.
"Ah?" Draken said, raising an eyebrow.
Mikey laughed, a gentle giggly sort of laugh, "Who cares? We're friends now, right? I have someone I want you to meet and I wanna get to know you better so-"
"Hold it right there!"
He broke into a cold sweat. It was Hina, marching toward them with her hands balled into fists at her sides.
"Huh? Who are you?" Draken said, his voice loud enough to make Takemichi's ear ring.
He swallowed hard, "Ah...haha...Hina it's uh...today's not such a great day for me after all, so-"
She slapped Mikey. Hard. So hard Mikey's head turned. Takemichi felt his jaw drop. She was insane. For a moment everything was still but then Hina marched at him, grabbed his arm, and dragged him away, "Come on, Takemichi. Let's go. You can't just let these guys make you do whatever they want. I'm gonna protect you." She didn't look back, but her hand was shaking.
"Hina…"
"Hey," Draken called, grabbing her wrist. She stopped but she didn't look back at him, "The fuck you think you're doing? Just gonna hit someone and try to give them a 'see ya'? Act like nothing happened? Don't make me laugh."
"I'm not joking," Hina glared forward, "Coming into a school you don't attend and dragging someone from class? What sort of friend would even do that," Hina turned, looking up at Draken, "Lately Takemichi has been coming home with all sorts of cuts and bruises. If you two are responsible...I won't forgive you!"
She was amazing. Really seriously amazing. Takemichi reached out, putting a hand on Draken's shoulder and pushing back hard but Draken didn't move him, "Let her go."
"Huh?" Draken leaned down to Takemichi's ear, "Can't hear you, speak up."
"I said let her go, you dumbass!"
Draken's grin was wild, terrifying looking, "Who the fuck do you think you're talking to?"
"I don't give a shit! I'm not giving her up a second time!"
It seemed to stun Draken, he straightened up, eyebrows furrowing down at Takemichi, "huh? Second…?"
Suddenly, Mikey sighed, "And here I thought we were going to be friends...that's too bad," his voice was almost cutesy, a sort of sing-song voice, "Well then, how ya wanna die?" He switched so quickly, his voice dropping to a flat tone, eyes coldly narrowed in on Takemichi making him jump. "Haha! What's with that face? You look like you see a wheelchair in your future."
Takemichi swallowed hard, "Just promise you won't lay a hand on her."
"Huh?" Mikey said, tilting his head to the side, "I don't give a shit about her," he drew back and Takemichi winced, eyes shutting tight as he tried to prepare for the blow to land. But nothing came, instead when Takemichi opened his eyes Mikey was nose to nose with him, grinning broadly, "Gotcha!"
"Wh-wh-what?" He managed to stutter out.
"You're such a dummy, Takemitchy," he grinned, "I wouldn't lay a hand on a girl, I mean come on. Now, get your ass out here so I can introduce you like I said," he glanced at Hina, "you can come too, if you want, but no hitting," Mikey quickly kicked off the school's slippers and slid his feet back into a pair of old school sandals as he talked to Draken, "We joked around too much. She's probably mad now."
"Dumbass, she's already mad at you for getting her out of school," Draken grumbled, changing his shoes and going out the door.
Mikey pouted, puffy cheeked like a child, "Well I wanted to see her, what else was I supposed to do?" And then he went out the door without looking back.
Takemichi blinked, glancing at Hina, "Uh...do you...wanna come out?"
"I," she paused, glancing at her shoes, "Yeah...I think. I should apologize, shouldn't I? I misunderstood...I'm really sorry, Takemichi."
He laughed, "Don't be. To be honest, I was pretty scared there for a minute, they're weird guys, aren't they? But I'm glad...I guess everything worked out."
"Yeah, so...these guys...they are your friends?" Hina smiled weakly, slipping into her regular shoes.
"I guess so," he smiled at her softly. He could tell she felt embarrassed but, honestly, he was still amazed. She was so kind and brave to jump in like that on his behalf.
When they walked out Mikey and Draken were in the courtyard, a young girl frowning between them. She was short, so much so that she had to look up at Mikey though not by much. She was in a school uniform too, a grey skirt and white shirt like Hina's but with a light blue cardigan that was many sizes too big for her and high white socks. The bow she was supposed to wear around her shirt collar was loose and messy, barely even tied. Her brown hair sat in two low pigtails that hung over the front of her shoulders with bangs that were cut straight across, longer pieces on either side that curved in toward her small chin accentuating the shape of her face. She looked familiar but Takemichi couldn't figure out how. He hadn't known Mikey before, so he probably didn't know this girl in the past either. Especially since she must go to a different school. Hina must have noticed his staring because she cleared her throat beside him, frowning in a way that made him terribly nervous.
It must have caught the girl's attention because she looked at Hina and then back at Mikey who gave her a cheeky grin that dropped when she spoke, "So you're the one that slapped him?"
"I-" Hina stalled. She looked embarrassed, her cheeks turning a bright pink and she cast her eyes to the ground sheepishly.
The girl looked back at Mikey, giggling, "Do you need ice, Manjiro?"
He pouted again, a hand reaching out to tug gently on one of her pigtails, "I went to all this trouble to try and show you off and you're just gonna make fun of me?"
She laughed again, harder this time, her mouth and nose crinkling up in a strangely cute way. The smile passed through his head like a flash, the same one he'd seen teasing Naoto at the kitchen table.
Draken groaned, "Quit flirting, you two."
Mikey smiled at Draken briefly before looking back to Takemichi, "Since you're my new friend I wanted to introduce you both right away, this is my girlfriend; Kaeji-tan."
She flustered, knocking his hand away, "Don't introduce me with that embarrassing nickname."
Draken dropped down, looping an arm around her shoulder and pressing his head against hers completely dwarfing her, "You can call her Bunny."
"Bunny?" Hina echoed, her head tilting to the side.
"Yeah!" Mikey laughed, "because her nose goes all cute and twitchy when she laughs."
Draken shook the girl's pigtails making her blush, "And she's got these big floppy bunny ears too."
"Stop it!" She elbowed him surprisingly hard in the stomach but beyond a small grunt and flinch Draken didn't react much, even smirking at her slightly making the girl pout at him as Mikey laughed.
There was no way. The longer he looked the more similarities he noticed, in fact, other than the girlish hairstyle she barely looked any different from Kaede. But what were the chances that Naoto was dating the ex-girlfriend of one of the very guys he sent Takemichi into the past for? He hadn't mentioned it but it was hard to believe he hadn't known. He was a detective, after all, with pages and pages of research on Mikey. So how could he miss such a mind-boggling coincidence? Suddenly he remembered what Kaede had said; 'Not something I should ask about, right?' Is this why? Because she knew Mikey before?
"Hey, Takemitchy!" Manjiro called out, "You have a girlfriend already! Can you stop staring at mine? You're going to make me and Hina jealous!"
He raised his hands in defense, "So sorry. I didn't mean to stare, I'm just...I'm surprised! I guess." He didn't think he could survive both Mikey and Hina's wrath but Mikey seemed satisfied with his answer, grinning as he took hold of the girl's hand pulling her along with him.
"Takemitchy is the one I was telling you about, who took a beating at the stupid fight club we had to shut down," Mikey explained.
"Oh right. The last time you left me in the middle of a date," Mikey's face dropped back into a pout, looking at Draken for help.
The girl turned to Takemichi, "So what's your real name?"
"Oh it's uh-"
"Oh come on!" Mikey whined, wrapping his arms around her and putting his chin on her shoulder. It made Takemichi blush. Mikey was so casual with her, so comfortable expressing affection, and judging by how nonplussed the girl was he must do it a lot. He couldn't imagine holding Hina like that in public. Or maybe he could but he knew he shouldn't.
She frowned at Mikey slightly but she still reached up, taking hold of his arms lazily and letting him stay there pressing his cheek to her shoulder as she spoke, "My real name is-"
"Bunny," Mikey and Draken said at the same time, making the girl sigh and shut her eyes as the two of them snickered. Mikey squeezed her playfully, swaying them side to side. When she opened her eyes again she gave Takemichi a pleading expression.
"It's Takemichi...Hanagaki," it was a weird deja vu. She really did look like Kaede, there was no doubt about that but she was so serious. The Kaede that had brought them breakfast was teasing and joking the whole time. She was chatty and she smiled easily. She acted, well, she acted like Mikey. The thought made a weight settle in Takemichi's stomach.
The girl glanced at Hinata, finally shrugging Mikey off and reaching out a hand, "What's your name?"
Hinata shook the girl's hand, bowing as she spoke, "It's Hinata Tachibana, and again I'm...so..so sorry for hitting him."
"Oh," the girl blinked, then smiled softly and pulled Hinata up, "just promise next time you'll hit him twice. He's really tough, after all," she glanced back at Mikey who was holding his cheek, "he probably didn't even feel it."
"Ha! I felt it. It was really one hell of a slap," Mikey smiled, "but you gotta be careful! Do what you can for the person you like but make sure you don't hit someone that'll fight back, ya know?"
"Right," Hinata blushed again, smiling sheepishly at the girl.
The girl smiled back gently, looking even more like Kaede in a way that made Takemichi squirm, "I promise he's not mad. He's probably impressed. He likes stuff like that."
Mikey pouted again, "Kaeji-tan you're making me sound like a weirdo."
Draken sighed, "She's not wrong though so...I guess you are the weird one, huh?"
The girl rolled her eyes back to Hinata, the ghost of a smile still on her face, "Are you going to come and hang out with us?"
"Ah…" Hinata glanced at him, then back at the girl, "No...I'm sorry I don't want to miss school."
"Oh sure...I understand," she smiled, but she looked a little sad.
"I'll be going then," Hinata smiled, turning back to the school, "maybe we can all hang out another time, it was really nice meeting you...uhm...Bunny."
"Wait!" Takemichi called after her, "What about our date?"
"We can just postpone it!" She smiled broadly, "Since your friends came all the way to see you, after all."
"Bye-bye," Mikey called after her, "Don't slap me next time!"
Hinata forced an awkward laugh, bowing at him politely as she walked away.
"Have a good day! Oh! And my name's Kaede!" Bunny called, waving after her, "Kaede Ejiri!"
So there was no doubt. She was the young version of the Kaede he met in the future. The weight in his stomach worsened.
Mikey turned to Takemichi, smiling softly, his voice lower, "It's rare to find a girl like her, you know? Let's both do our best then, hmm? Since we got so lucky we gotta make sure we take care of them."
It stunned him to silence. Mikey genuinely seemed to be a good guy, a little eccentric and strange perhaps, but kind and honest. So what happens in the next twelve years to drive them apart? Was it because of the path Toman went down? It seemed impossible that this Mikey that teased and doted on his girlfriend and thought betting rings were lame and sang little songs when he finished his dorayaki could lead an organization like the Toman of the future.
What worried him more was Naoto. He had to know. Takemichi was sure of that much, Naoto was too smart, too focused not to have found that out. Especially considering how they'd talked, how Naoto had told her not to come over. There was no way Naoto would go that far, right? Dating a girl just to get information? But if that wasn't it, if it really was just an innocent, crazy coincidence...why hadn't Naoto said anything?
"Takemitchy," Mikey sang, throwing an arm around his shoulders, "you're staring at my girlfriend again."
"I'm so sorry!" Takemichi dropped his head, staring at his feet with his hands in fists clasping onto his shirt.
Mikey laughed, squeezing him around the neck quickly, "I understand, she's beautiful. But it's rude! Ya better stop! I'll tell Hinata on you, then you can get slapped."
"Manjiro…" the girl sighed, trying her best to sound exasperated but she was smiling. A soft loving sort of look that made Takemichi blush again.
Mikey let him go and walked to Kaede, taking her hand and weaving his fingers through hers. He pulled her forward, kissing her quickly, not seeming to care who could see or that they were at a school, "Let's get some snacks and chat for a bit and then, I promise, right back to school for you and we'll keep having fun."
She smiled, "Fine, but I want crepes."
Mikey grinned, weaving his fingers through Kaede's and holding her close to his side as he looked back, "Well come on Takemitchy; you're buying!"
He couldn't even bring himself to argue even though he definitely couldn't afford it. His mind was racing with too many unanswered questions that he didn't know who or how to ask. He got on the back of Draken's bike and watched Kaede holding on loosely to Mikey's jacket as he peddled; nose wrinkled up as she laughed into the wind.
She pulled her bag out from the back of the closet. It was now or never. Manjiro rarely left their home anymore and cowardly as it was she couldn't bring herself to tell him she was leaving. She had to go now when she wouldn't have to look at his pained expression. When other members of the gang wouldn't be around to hold her back, or worse. She didn't do enough in the beginning, when Toman first began to change, and every other time she'd wanted to leave she felt too guilty. Like it was too late and right wasn't an option anymore. Not any longer. Twelve years of mistakes, little ones that had snowballed worse and worse. Deciding each new crime was admissible, that everything Toman did was a means to a noble end. She'd been fooling herself for wanting to stay with him as she'd promised so long ago. But the Manjiro she made that promise to was gone, and the only way left for her to take responsibility for her hand in all the destruction was to leave.
She searched the bag again; her identification cards, some money, and clothes, toiletries. She had wanted to ask the police for help before, she was afraid to leave without protection but getting to them was impossible with Kisaki around. Left up to him she probably would have been shot in an alley years ago. He'd wormed his greasy fingers into their lives and ran off everyone else that loved and protected Manjiro years ago. Every dark turn Toman had taken he'd been the one holding the wheel but Manjiro refused to see it, or maybe he didn't want to. Kisaki provided him an excuse to heed the darkest parts of himself. Kisaki was the opposite of his brother, or Draken, even Emma and herself. And left all on her own she wasn't able to help Majiro balance she couldn't keep him on the off-beat but noble path he'd wanted when they were kids. She failed to catch him and now she was letting go of his hand as he dangled off the edge of the cliff.
She zipped the bag back up. Looking around their apartment it was like she was leaving a friend's house. They'd lived there together for years but everything was so foreign to her; their furniture, dishes, the art on the walls. It didn't belong to her. It wasn't even Manjiro's. It was Toman's. It wasn't the home she'd dreamed of having with him and now she saw it with startling clarity. She realized how much of their lives belonged to Toman. How their couches were for drug deals instead of afternoon naps, their kitchen table was for planning hits, not family dinner.
She slung the bag over her shoulder, pausing only to take a photo from the wall. It was the four of them altogether, her and Manjiro, Emma and Draken. Grinning at the camera from an old couch in the Sano family home. Manjiro had told her long ago, in a private whisper, it was their first family photo. He'd told her they'd have to recreate it once Draken and Emma finally talked out their feelings. Then he gloated to her how lucky he was that they hadn't struggled. They'd met when they were just kids and they'd liked each other and been together ever since without question. As she slid the photo in her bag she knew they'd never be together again. That this would be a blow he couldn't forgive, even if he protected her from the rest of Toman's wrath. She wondered suddenly when his protection became an if. Before it had been a constant, a truth many people had learned in the hardest and most violent ways. But that was when she chose him, now that she was leaving, maybe his protection would run out. Maybe it would twist into something horrible and dangerous. Even if he never forgave her, if Toman hunted her down like a rat, she had to do what was right, finally after all these years of just letting her life happen to her. Maybe even if she couldn't save him in this life she could in the next.
She slipped out of the door glancing in the halls. On the rare occasions that Mikey left for business instead of bringing it to their home he always left someone to watch her. A day hadn't passed without her being guard since she'd been targeted years ago, right when Toman changed from a biker gang to a full-on criminal organization that upset the balance of the Shibuya underworld. She didn't see anyone, and that made her nervous. She glanced back up the hall and then ducked into the stairway, rushing down the steps.
Maybe they stepped away. Very few of the current members of Toman cared for her. Not like before, when they'd been a family. A legion of brothers that had teased and protected her. She got to the fourth floor, her ears ringing from the vibration of the metal stairs ringing up her body. She darted back into the hallway and got to the second to last door on the right. The lock was easy enough to pick, an old trick she and Baji had learned together as kids after seeing it in a movie.
The apartment was freezing cold. The renovation team had hung thick plastic where the windows were meant to be, but they'd tacked it down poorly and the wind and rain were blowing in making the floor slick. She squinted at the far wall, the power had been cut while the apartment was being gutted and between the dark night outside and the plastic diffusing the light from the street, it was hard to see. She stumbled forward, hands bumbling over the kitchen island and then the wall, guiding herself toward the window. She worked her fingers into the plastic and yanked it, tugging a few times before it finally came free, revealing the fire escape.
She crawled out and glanced up above, all the way to the penthouse she and Manjiro lived in. It was silent. Anticlimactic even. For a while, she'd entertained the thought of being caught, of being dragged back into the building. Manjiro interrogating her privately about why she'd left. A fantasy formed by her desire to continue letting others rule her fate. Instead, she climbed down the last two flights on the slippery fire escape down into the alley. She pulled the hood of her coat up and weaved her arms through the handles of her duffle bag, hefting it onto her back. She walked up the street, not daring to look back at the building's entrance. For the night she'd stay in a love hotel up the street, the best hope she had of privacy and discretion. She'd figure out how to contact the authorities and start the next phase in the morning. For now, she was finally taking a step forward again, a small one that scared her badly, but one she made with her own strength and will and it made her proud enough that in the garish pink glow of the heart on the hotel sign she felt herself smile.